Newsweek and Bad Reporting . . .

Originally posted by GigaShadow
Headline:  Koran Flushed Down Toilet!

Yeah, I can see the $$$$ rolling in from that story.  :rolleyes:

USA Today non biased?  HAHAHAHAHAHAHA oh Core you are indeed a funny man.

The "$$$$" doesn\'t roll in.  Their circulation increases when they break a big story that captures a lot of attention.  Is that so hard to understand?

USA Today is only liberal biased in your bizzaro world of paranoid bullshit.  I guess conservatives always have to feel like someone\'s out to get them in order to maintain their perpetual "us vs. them" psychosis.

Originally posted by Ghettomath
As I previously posted, Associated Press standards use "a"dministration. Some papers do use Bush Adminstration though. So we are both correct. Sorry for nitpicking.

Whatever though, because you still haven\'t responded to Cored and I\'s posts relating to where your assumption of news media being "liberal" originated from.

What news publications do you consider liberal?

What news publications do you get your news from?

I have responded countless times in these very forums.  Oh and nice grammar... "I\'s"...

What new publications do I consider liberal?  LA Times, NY Times, Washington Post, Reuters, The Atlanta Journal Constitution, The Guardian, USA Today etc.

These all have liberal editorial staff and reporters who either choose to publish irrelevant stories in order to push their ideological agenda or have reporters who report stories from their political slant.

Just read any given article and it is so easy to pick out the bias in certain word they use.  It is easy to see and is all a matter of perspective according to your political ideology.  Conservatives look at a glass of water and see it as being half full, while liberals look at the same glass and see it half empty.  This analogy could be applied to how the news is reported and instead of reporting positive or good news, the liberal media focuses on reporting the negative, without ever mentioning the positive.

What news publications do I read?  Too many to list - including the ones I listed above.

Originally posted by Coredweller

USA Today is only liberal biased in your bizzaro world of paranoid bullshit.  I guess conservatives always have to feel like someone\'s out to get them in order to maintain their perpetual "us vs. them" psychosis.

Just like liberals claim Bush invaded Iraq for cheap oil, he stole both elections, etc, etc.  

USA Today not liberal?  One example, during the Democratic Convention USA today sign two individuals to write daily columns about the convention.  Both were controversial - Ann Coulter and Michael Moore - each representing the right and the left respectively.

Ann gets the boot after submitting her column because it was deemed "too controversial", yet the fat ass of liberal propaganda has his published.  Moore has what credentials other than making films based on lies?  Coulter at least has a degree to back up her opinions.  Oh the hypocracy!  It is ok to have one extreme, but not the other?

In related news . . .

Muslims\' desecration of holy book received little notice
Posted: May 18, 2005


While Muslims have responded with deadly outrage to the now-retracted report by Newsweek of alleged Quran desecration by U.S. interrogators, there was little outcry three years ago when Islamic terrorists holed up in Bethlehem\'s Church of the Nativity reportedly used the Bible as toilet paper.

Catholic priests in the church marking the spot where Jesus was believed to have been born said that during the five-week siege, Palestinians tore up some Bibles for toilet paper and removed many valuable sacramental objects, according to a May 15, 2002, report by the Washington Times.

Newsweek is under fire for a report in its May 9 edition that sparked protests and rioting across the Muslim world resulting in 17 dead, scores injured, relief buildings burned down and a setback to years of coalition-building against terrorists.

Newsweek\'s Periscope column written by Michael Isikoff and John Barry included a brief item alleging U.S. military investigators at the Guantanamo Bay prison found evidence that interrogators placed copies of the Quran down the toilet in an effort to get prisoners to talk.

Despite Newsweek\'s retraction, the outrage in the Muslim world continues.

In Saudi Arabia yesterday, the country\'s top religious authority, Grand Mufti Adul-Aziz al-Sheik, condemned the alleged desecration and called for an investigation "to alleviate the sorrow that befell Muslims."

"We condemn and denounce this criminal act against Muslims\' most sacred item," al-Sheik said.

Afghanistan\'s government said Newsweek should be held responsible for damages caused by the demonstrations, and Pakistan said the magazine\'s apology and retraction were "not enough."

In contrast, during the 2002 church siege, the muted complaints of Christians under the Muslim-dominated Palestinian Authority gained little traction.

The Palestinian gunmen, members of Yasser Arafat\'s Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, seized church stockpiles of food and "ate like greedy monsters" until the food ran out, while more than 150 civilians went hungry, the Washington Times report said.

The indulgence lasted about two weeks into the 39-day siege, when the food and drink ran out, according to an account by four Greek Orthodox priests trapped inside. A church helper told the Times the quantity of food consumed by the gunmen in the first 15 days should have lasted six months.

Angry Orthodox priests showed reporters empty bottles of whiskey, champagne, vodka, cognac and French wine on the floor along with hundreds of cigarette butts.

Unlimited Internet Access

"They should be ashamed of themselves. They acted like animals, like greedy monsters. Come, I will show you more," said one priest, who declined to give his name.

Computers were taken apart and a television set dismantled for use as a hiding place for weapons.

"You can see what repayment we got for \'hosting\' these so-called guests," said Archbishop Ironius, according to the Times report.

While I don\'t agree with everything Coulter says, this is an interesting read...

\'NEWSWEEK DISSEMBLED, MUSLIMS DISMEMBERED!\' By Ann Coulter
Wed May 18, 7:01 PM ET
 


When ace reporter Michael Isikoff had the scoop of the decade, a thoroughly sourced story about the president of the United States having an affair with an intern and then pressuring her to lie about it under oath, Newsweek decided not to run the story. Matt Drudge scooped Newsweek, followed by The Washington Post.

 
When Isikoff had a detailed account of Kathleen Willey\'s nasty sexual encounter with the president in the Oval Office, backed up with eyewitness and documentary evidence, Newsweek decided not to run it. Again, Matt Drudge got the story.

When Isikoff was the first with detailed reporting on Paula Jones\' accusations against a sitting president, Isikoff\'s then-employer The Washington Post -- which owns Newsweek -- decided not to run it. The American Spectator got the story, followed by the Los Angeles Times.

So apparently it\'s possible for Michael Isikoff to have a story that actually is true, but for his editors not to run it.

Why no pause for reflection when Isikoff had a story about American interrogators at Guantanamo flushing the Quran down the toilet? Why not sit on this story for, say, even half as long as NBC News sat on Lisa Meyers\' highly credible account of     Bill Clinton raping Juanita Broaddrick?

Newsweek seems to have very different responses to the same reporter\'s scoops. Who\'s deciding which of Isikoff\'s stories to run and which to hold? I note that the ones that Matt Drudge runs have turned out to be more accurate -- and interesting! -- than the ones Newsweek runs. Maybe Newsweek should start running everything past Matt Drudge.

Somehow Newsweek missed the story a few weeks ago about Saudi Arabia arresting 40 Christians for "trying to spread their poisonous religious beliefs." But give the American media a story about American interrogators defacing the Quran, and journalists are so appalled there\'s no time for fact-checking -- before they dash off to see the latest exhibition of "Piss Christ."

Assistant Managing Editor Evan Thomas justified Newsweek\'s decision to run the incendiary anti-U.S. story about the Quran, saying that "similar reports from released detainees" had already run in the foreign press -- "and in the Arab news agency al-Jazeera."

Is there an adult on the editorial board of Newsweek? Al-Jazeera also broadcast a TV miniseries last year based on the "Protocols of the Elders Of Zion." (I didn\'t see it, but I hear James Brolin was great!) Al-Jazeera has run programs on the intriguing question, "Is Zionism worse than Nazism?" (Take a wild guess where the consensus was on this one.) It runs viewer comments about Jews being descended from pigs and apes. How about that for a Newsweek cover story, Evan? You\'re covered -- al-Jazeera has already run similar reports!

Ironically, among the reasons Newsweek gave for killing Isikoff\'s Lewinsky bombshell was that Evan Thomas was worried someone might get hurt. It seems that Lewinsky could be heard on tape saying that if the story came out, "I\'ll (expletive) kill myself."

But Newsweek couldn\'t wait a moment to run a story that predictably ginned up Islamic savages into murderous riots in     Afghanistan, leaving hundreds injured and 16 dead. Who could have seen that coming? These are people who stone rape victims to death because the family "honor" has been violated and who fly planes into American skyscrapers because -- wait, why did they do that again?

Come to think of it, I\'m not sure it\'s entirely fair to hold Newsweek responsible for inciting violence among people who view ancient Buddhist statues as outrageous provocation -- though I was really looking forward to finally agreeing with Islamic loonies about something. (Bumper sticker idea for liberals: News magazines don\'t kill people, Muslims do.) But then I wouldn\'t have sat on the story of the decade because of the empty threats of a drama queen gas-bagging with her friend on the telephone between spoonfuls of Haagen-Dazs.

No matter how I look at it, I can\'t grasp the editorial judgment that kills Isikoff\'s stories about a sitting president molesting the help and obstructing justice, while running Isikoff\'s not particularly newsworthy (or well-sourced) story about Americans desecrating a Quran at Guantanamo.

Even if it were true, why not sit on it? There are a lot of reasons the media withhold even true facts from readers. These include:


A drama queen nitwit exclaimed she\'d kill herself. (Evan Thomas\' reason for holding the Lewinsky story.)


The need for "more independent reporting." (Newsweek President Richard Smith explaining why Newsweek sat on the Lewinsky story even though the magazine had Lewinsky on tape describing the affair.)


"We were in Havana." (ABC president David Westin explaining why "Nightline" held the Lewinsky story.)


Unavailable for comment. (Michael Oreskes, New York Times Washington bureau chief, in response to why, the day The Washington Post ran the Lewinsky story, the Times ran a staged photo of Clinton meeting with the Israeli president on its front page.)

Protecting the privacy of an alleged rape victim even when the accusation turns out to be false.

Protecting an accused rapist even when the accusation turns out to be true if the perp is a Democratic president most journalists voted for.

Protecting a reporter\'s source.
How about the media adding to the list of reasons not to run a news item: "Protecting the national interest"? If journalists don\'t like the ring of that, how about this one: "Protecting ourselves before the American people rise up and lynch us for our relentless anti-American stories."

http://story.news.yahoo.com/s/ucac/20050518/cm_ucac/newsweekdissembledmuslimsdismembered/nc:742

Haha politics make people act like such kids.

Answer to Ann Coulter:  Maybe one reason why the article SHOULD be run if it\'s true is because we as a nation shouldn\'t be torturing prisoners or desecrating the Koran.  The only way to hold anyone accountable and stop the practice is to make it public.

BTW, it turns out the story probably IS true.  Since we\'re all having fun posting articles someone else wrote, I\'ll play along:

========================================

Newsweek Was Right
The Daily Outrage, by Ari Berman
Posted 05/18/2005 @ 09:19am
http://www.thenation.com/blogs/outrage?pid=2550

The Bush Administration\'s aggressive response to a Newsweek Story  alleging that US interrogators at Guantanamo Bay flushed the Koran down the toilet in front of Islamic detainees displays the height of hypocrisy. After Newsweek clumsily issued an apology, followed by a retraction, White House spokesman Scott McClellan called on the magazine to "help repair the damage that has been done, particularly in the region," by explaining "what happened and why they got it wrong." Maybe the Bush Administration should do the same, by opening up its secret facilities for inspection to the Red Cross and other third-party observers. We are printing below a letter from reader Calgacus--a pseudonym for a researcher in the national security field for the past twenty years--that shows how the desecration of the Koran became standard US interrogation practice.

"Contrary to White House spin, the allegations of religious desecration at Guantanamo such as those described by Newsweek on 9 May 2005 are common among ex-prisoners and have been widely reported outside the United States. Several former detainees at the Guantanamo and Bagram airbase prisons have reported instances of their handlers sitting or standing on the Koran, throwing or kicking it in toilets, and urinating on it.

One such incident (during which the Koran was thrown into a pile and stepped on) prompted a hunger strike among Guantanamo detainees in March 2002. Regarding this, the New York Times in a 1 May 2005, article interviewed a former detainee, Nasser Nijer Naser al-Mutairi, who said the protest ended with a senior officer delivering an apology to the entire camp. And the Times reports: "A former interrogator at Guantanamo, in an interview with the Times, confirmed the accounts of the hunger strikes, including the public expression of regret over the treatment of the Korans." (Neil A. Lewis and Eric Schmitt, "Inquiry Finds Abuses at Guantanamo Bay," New York Times, May 1, 2005, p. 35.)

The hunger strike and apology story is also confirmed by another former detainee, Shafiq Rasul, interviewed by the UK Guardian in 2003 (James Meek, "The People the Law Forgot," The Guardian, December 3, 2003, p. 1.) It was also confirmed by former prisoner Jamal al-Harith in an interview with the Daily Mirror (Rosa Prince and Gary Jones, "My Hell in Camp X-ray World Exclusive," Daily Mirror, March 12, 2004.)

The toilet incident was reported in the Washington Post in a 2003 interview with a former detainee from Afghanistan:

"Ehsannullah, 29, said American soldiers who initially questioned him in Kandahar before shipping him to Guantanamo hit him and taunted him by dumping the Koran in a toilet. It was a very bad situation for us, said Ehsannullah, who comes from the home region of the Taliban leader, Mohammad Omar. We cried so much and shouted, Please do not do that to the Holy Koran. (Marc Kaufman and April Witt, "Out of Legal Limbo, Some Tell of Mistreatment," Washington Post, March 26, 2003.)
 
Also citing the toilet incident is testimony by Asif Iqbal, a former Guantanamo detainee who was released to British custody in March 2004 and subsequently freed without charge:

"The behaviour of the guards towards our religious practices as well as the Koran was also, in my view, designed to cause us as much distress as possible. They would kick the Koran, throw it into the toilet and generally disrespect it." (Center for Constitution Rights, Detention in Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay, August 4, 2004.)

The claim that US troops at Bagram airbase prison in Afghanistan urinated on the Koran was made by former detainee Mohamed Mazouz, a Moroccan, as reported in the Moroccan newspaper, La Gazette du Maroc. (Abdelhak Najib, "Les Americains pissaient sur le Coran et abusaient de nous sexuellement", April 11, 2005). An English translation is available on the Cage Prisoners web site.
 
Tarek Derghoul, another of the British detainees, similarly cites instances of Koran desecration in an interview with Cageprisoners.com.
 
Desecration of the Koran was also mentioned by former Guantanamo detainee Abdul Rahim Muslim Dost and reported by the BBC in early May 2005. (Haroon Rashid, "Ex-inmates Share Guantanamo Ordeal," May 2, 2005.)

Originally posted by Coredweller
Answer to Ann Coulter:  Maybe one reason why the article SHOULD be run if it\'s true is because we as a nation shouldn\'t be torturing prisoners or desecrating the Koran.  The only way to hold anyone accountable and stop the practice is to make it public.

BTW, it turns out the story probably IS true.  Since we\'re all having fun posting articles someone else wrote, I\'ll play along:

========================================

Newsweek Was Right
The Daily Outrage, by Ari Berman
Posted 05/18/2005 @ 09:19am
http://www.thenation.com/blogs/outrage?pid=2550

The Bush Administration\'s aggressive response to a Newsweek Story  alleging that US interrogators at Guantanamo Bay flushed the Koran down the toilet in front of Islamic detainees displays the height of hypocrisy. After Newsweek clumsily issued an apology, followed by a retraction, White House spokesman Scott McClellan called on the magazine to "help repair the damage that has been done, particularly in the region," by explaining "what happened and why they got it wrong." Maybe the Bush Administration should do the same, by opening up its secret facilities for inspection to the Red Cross and other third-party observers. We are printing below a letter from reader Calgacus--a pseudonym for a researcher in the national security field for the past twenty years--that shows how the desecration of the Koran became standard US interrogation practice.

"Contrary to White House spin, the allegations of religious desecration at Guantanamo such as those described by Newsweek on 9 May 2005 are common among ex-prisoners and have been widely reported outside the United States. Several former detainees at the Guantanamo and Bagram airbase prisons have reported instances of their handlers sitting or standing on the Koran, throwing or kicking it in toilets, and urinating on it.

One such incident (during which the Koran was thrown into a pile and stepped on) prompted a hunger strike among Guantanamo detainees in March 2002. Regarding this, the New York Times in a 1 May 2005, article interviewed a former detainee, Nasser Nijer Naser al-Mutairi, who said the protest ended with a senior officer delivering an apology to the entire camp. And the Times reports: "A former interrogator at Guantanamo, in an interview with the Times, confirmed the accounts of the hunger strikes, including the public expression of regret over the treatment of the Korans." (Neil A. Lewis and Eric Schmitt, "Inquiry Finds Abuses at Guantanamo Bay," New York Times, May 1, 2005, p. 35.)

The hunger strike and apology story is also confirmed by another former detainee, Shafiq Rasul, interviewed by the UK Guardian in 2003 (James Meek, "The People the Law Forgot," The Guardian, December 3, 2003, p. 1.) It was also confirmed by former prisoner Jamal al-Harith in an interview with the Daily Mirror (Rosa Prince and Gary Jones, "My Hell in Camp X-ray World Exclusive," Daily Mirror, March 12, 2004.)

The toilet incident was reported in the Washington Post in a 2003 interview with a former detainee from Afghanistan:

"Ehsannullah, 29, said American soldiers who initially questioned him in Kandahar before shipping him to Guantanamo hit him and taunted him by dumping the Koran in a toilet. It was a very bad situation for us, said Ehsannullah, who comes from the home region of the Taliban leader, Mohammad Omar. We cried so much and shouted, Please do not do that to the Holy Koran. (Marc Kaufman and April Witt, "Out of Legal Limbo, Some Tell of Mistreatment," Washington Post, March 26, 2003.)
 
Also citing the toilet incident is testimony by Asif Iqbal, a former Guantanamo detainee who was released to British custody in March 2004 and subsequently freed without charge:

"The behaviour of the guards towards our religious practices as well as the Koran was also, in my view, designed to cause us as much distress as possible. They would kick the Koran, throw it into the toilet and generally disrespect it." (Center for Constitution Rights, Detention in Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay, August 4, 2004.)

The claim that US troops at Bagram airbase prison in Afghanistan urinated on the Koran was made by former detainee Mohamed Mazouz, a Moroccan, as reported in the Moroccan newspaper, La Gazette du Maroc. (Abdelhak Najib, "Les Americains pissaient sur le Coran et abusaient de nous sexuellement", April 11, 2005). An English translation is available on the Cage Prisoners web site.
 
Tarek Derghoul, another of the British detainees, similarly cites instances of Koran desecration in an interview with Cageprisoners.com.
 
Desecration of the Koran was also mentioned by former Guantanamo detainee Abdul Rahim Muslim Dost and reported by the BBC in early May 2005. (Haroon Rashid, "Ex-inmates Share Guantanamo Ordeal," May 2, 2005.)

OMG The Daily Outrage says its true so it must be! :rolleyes:

Don\'t try and spin this crap Core.  Newsweek had no viable sources and the article you link is the same crap.  Amazing - even when Newsweek retracts the story you are still clinging to the belief that it is true.  This is more liberal garbage about how the government should share every secret with the public - ie. "by opening up its secret facilities for inspection...".  They don\'t label them "secret" or "high security" so any hippy activist can walk in at their leisure.  

As for the claim of torture... personally I don\'t think ripping a book up, flushing it down a toilet or whiping your ass with it could be considered in any way torture.  I wouldn\'t care if it was true and why should the public even want to know if it is.  Don\'t answer that the Constitution protects these scumbags or "our country is not about this" tripe because it doesn\'t.  These people are enemies of the United States and would kill you, me and your mother without hesitation.  These people are terrorists and would attack the US or US troops again if they were released.  Screw them and you Core for trying to carebear them and their so called "rights".  They have no rights as far as me and many Americans are concerned.

This is the same type of crap that comes from the ACLU and its clones regarding criminal "rights".  The left has lost its ability to distinguish enemies from friends and criminals from victims.  I thank God that the security of this country is not in the hands of people like you and journalists (like the ones at Newsweek) who would rather create more problems than be content and know the certain bad people in this world are exactly where they should be getting the treatment they deserve.

EDIT:  Let me say another thing about Daily Outrage.  Under that ugly pimply bastards face (the author) is this little synopsis about the column:

The Daily Outrage aims to shine a spotlight on the forces that corrupt our democracy. The outrages come from all over these days: lobbyists stifling reformers in both parties, defense contractors profiting off pre-emptive war, the mainstream media echoing government deceptions, and a rightwing attack machine defending neo-imperialists and distorting progressive values. These stories rarely make the front-page, penetrate talk-radio, or appear on the evening news.

Besides the anti capitalist rantings I like this especially - "These stories rarely make the front page..." ?????!!!!  These people are lunatics.  What was the Newsweek story if not the same exact thing this article is?

[Evi]

Originally posted by THX
cripes bet they weren\'t expecting to cause such a stir.

15 people dead over one article!?

This was ridiculous and unnecessary.

[clips]

Originally posted by EviscerationX
This was ridiculous and unnecessary.

i gotta admit..even tho these muslims got their panties twisted over this..let\'s be honest here...it seemed that they were lookin for just about anything to cause a ruckus or riot...being that they already hate the u.s. it\'s almost as if they were waiting for the smallest, action or inaction just to act like fools...

gimme a break you\'re gonna act like that cause somebody did that to the quran? when everyday those cats are burning american flags and such...yet if we bombed those assholes on the spot, the u.s. will catch heat...

don\'t get me wrong, i\'m not a patriot or anything like that and the u.s. is far from perfect, but i gotta call this for what it is..and it\'s pure bulls**t from the muslim side...yea i understand that some are critical to the religion, but to act that way over a book? whether the story\'s true or not, there was no reason for them to act like that.......

It\'s funny how you claim this article is worthless, yet it\'s built on a foundation of articles and research from numerous other sources such as the New York Times, Washington Post, Daily Mirror, BBC, etc etc.  I guess they ALL got it wrong... Oh wait, those guys are all are all part of the "liberal media conspiracy" too, right?  :rolleyes:

You feel fine about torturing people, fucking with their minds, and shitting on their religion with no real limitations because you make the same myopic assumption common to all conservatives.  "If they\'re in jail, they must be guilty of something."  There\'s no possibility that some of them might be innocent, eh?  And if so, who cares... ?  Right?  Why not just go ahead and promote a policy of nuking the middle east to eliminate all the "ragheads?"  We have no way of knowing which of our prisoners are guilty and which are innocent because they have no right to due process, and there is no legitimate court to hear their defense.  There is a limit to bullshit.  They\'re either human beings, or they aren\'t.  They either have some human rights, or they don\'t.  

Fortunately we have laws in the US that prevent us from taking action on these vile instincts.  I am not a strongly religious person, but I do believe in God, and I think some officials in our government are going to have a lot to answer for in the next world when it comes to the subject of prisoner torture and unlawful imprisonment.  BTW, I don\'t think God will take kindly to so-and-so putting his book in the toilet.

[clips]

core..i gotta admit the majority of the time i\'m with on just about every argument from the conservative side..and we don\'t know whether this story is true or not...maybe it is and the u.s, is trying to do damage control..and if it\'s not true then that\'s just sloppy journalism...but c\'mon bro you actually believe that the u.s. or any other country for that matter doesn\'t torture or play mind games with prisoners?..i know you\'re not that naive...all countries do it...it\'s just a matter of not gettin caught or lettin the media get wind of it...

i have respect for all religions but to me, these people didn\'t have to cause all this ruckus and death because somebody allegedly tossed the book in the toilet...trust i didn\'t agree with the war oin iraq etc etc,..but these prisoners are from when we were fighting in afganastan (spel) correct? in which i fully support the u.s. goin in and tryin to find osama...all that senseless death was uncalled for...

Of course many countries practice torture.  I\'m saying it\'s wrong.  

What are you saying?  It\'s only wrong if you get caught?

[clips]

Originally posted by Coredweller

What are you saying?  It\'s only wrong if you get caught? [/B]

yep...we\'re all supposed to follow some code of law when it comes to pow\'s, and we abide by it to some degree....but if ANY country wants or needs info from an individual...they will do anything to get that info...all i\'m sayin is that everybody does it..is it wrong? of course it is..but everybody is gulity of it...

[clips]

see core this is what i don\'t agree with....


http://www.yahoo.com/_ylh=X3oDMTB2MXQ5MTU3BF9TAzI3MTYxNDkEdGVzdAMwBHRtcGwDaW5kZXgtaWU-/s/240749