More on Newsweek (quickly)

Now that I've read up on the story, it seems that this flushing of the Koran by the American military is nothing new. Newsweek was not "breaking" a story in any sense. The "new" part of it was that their anonymous source said that one such occurrence was going to appear in a government document. They are retracting that, saying that their source cannot confirm that it will appear in a report.

Stories such as this one in Harper's, originally published before the Newsweek piece, report other occurrences. Newsweek was not saying that the story was inaccurate, but that their anon source couldn't verify that the occurrence would appear in a report.

Now, Scott McClellan, White House press secretary, has decided to play Newsweek editor and has recommended that the magazine write a story on how respectful the military actually is to Islamic beliefs and scripture. He says that due to the considerable damage and harm caused by the report, they should take responsibility for it.

Umm. It's kind of funny that he would say that. I call for the White House to apologize (retraction is impossible at this point) for actions taken on the information provided by an anonymous source that turned out to be wrong that has resulted in the death and injury of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis and Americans.