Delftsman

Newsweek: 15 fatalities Abu Gharib: 0 fatalities

Austin Bay Blog has an excellant post up on the Newsweek fiasco.

Comparing the results of this "reporting" to the incidents at Abu Gharib is, IMO, a pretty fair assesment. Abu Gharib was never anything more than a felony mistreatment of prisoners until the MSM blew it out of proportion in it's anti-American zeal. The people responsible are being justly punished for their parts in that sordid Fraternity hazing affair.

Now the shoe is on the other foot, and a heretofor respected member of the MSM went off without properly investigating the facts, and as a result, people DIED, and incalcuable damage has occurred in Western/Islamic relations.

With that one story, Newsweek has destroyed any of the good that the actions of our troops engaged in trying to help war torn nations rebuild their infrastructure, and has given the insurgeants Islamofacists in Iraq a whole new lease on life.

The MSM has derided the blogging community as not having the "checks and balances" that the Journalistic Community has. Not having an editor to review what we disseminate over the net, obviously, they say, there is "just too much chance that the average blogger will get it wrong", to the detriment of the community at large.

Well, Newsweek has those editors, so what went wrong? No blogger I know of has ever caused such a worldwide amount of damage to international relations.

"Newsweek Lied--People Died" is not just a catchy slogan, it's a truism.
They did not hold to the basic journalistic standards, and as a result, at least 15 people have DIED, hundreds more have been injured, and international relations have been set back at least a year. Will there be an outcry to impeach the Editor in Chief of Newsweek? Will those reporters be tried and punished appropriatly for their parts in this fiasco?

I won't be holding my breath.

Posted by Delftsman3 at May 16, 2005 12:59 PM