New York Times Falls Back in Line
Only one day after CJR Daily applauded the reporting of Katherine Q. Seelye by writing this:
But since the press has largely ceded control of the story to the White House, administration spinners have been able to twist it. Consider another central issue: whether Newsweek’s premature report actually spurred the riots. Thanks to the White House spin, and the media’s lazy reporting, the conventional wisdom is now that it did. But the reality is that it probably did not, at least in any significant sense. According to a statement last Thursday by General Richard Myers, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, after hearing from commanders on the scene in Afghanistan, the “rioting was related more to the ongoing political reconciliation process in Afghanistan than anything else.” As we’ve noted, that makes sense, based on the Taliban’s past patterns and the fact that previous reports about Koran desecration at Guantanamo spurred no such riots. But the press has repeatedly failed to make that clear. (One conspicuous exception to this mass sin of omission has been New York Times reporter Katharine Q. Seelye, who for two days in a row now has taken pains to point out Myers’ observation that his senior commander in Afghanistan “thought [the rioting] was not at all tied to the article in the magazine.”)
Elisabeth Bumiller runs to the rescue and writes this in an all-around helping hand to Team BushCo:
Newsweek’s retraction dealt only with its mistaken assertion that the report on a months-long Pentagon investigation was expected to confirm the toilet accusation. But around the world, discussion continued on the larger issue of whether such abuse ever occurred at Guantánamo, as released prisoners have asserted over the years.
Their accounts have never been authenticated and did not stir such anger as the Newsweek article, which has been blamed for inciting riots and 17 deaths in the Muslim world, where desecration of the Koran is an inflammatory act.
I guess this is some of that good journalism going forward that we’ve been promised.
May 18th, 2005 at 8:36 am
Right now, as a wry comment on the state of current affairs, Marty Moss-Coane of NPR/WHYY’s “Radio Times” is interviewing a gentlemen on Franz Kafka. And awhile back, while browsing at Borders, I picked up and carried around a book of Kafka stories, thinking in all sincerity that I was actually going check it out for train-ride reading. Self-protective instincts kicked in at the last minute, but I can feel it calling to me from the shelves even now, its siren song of absurdity, despair and sublimated rage as seductive as the smell of high-cholesterol popcorn in a 60’s theater lobby.
And everytime I read the news, I feel my resolve weaken even further. Goddamnit, Robin, you had to go and bring up yet another one of these examples of clueless anti-informational screeds! I will hold you responsible if I end up with trapped inside “Metamorphosis” on my commute.
May 18th, 2005 at 8:39 am
Journalism is a pretty strong word for it , but if you say so.
Is it me or has anyone highlighted the fact that most, if not all, of the deaths attributed to Koran abuse protest violence were at the hands of the authorities? Purely in self-defense I’m sure.
May 18th, 2005 at 9:10 am
Yeah, this is pretty insane. What kills me is the way journalists (usually those at the NYT or the WaPo) claim that they are impotent when it comes to having any impact on the world. This is clearly one time when it is true. This is what sends Muslims into a riotous rage?! (Granted, they have been primed by Abu Ghraib.) But now Bumiller says that Newsweek is to blame?!
May 18th, 2005 at 9:15 am
Riggs: In the spirit of Newsweak, I would like to say that I regret that any part of my story upset you, and extend my sympathies to you based on the unavoidable result of the coming Kafka exposure and to any family members or friends caught in its midst.
Five minutes from now I plan to retract my post completely because, as you point out, it’s a downer.
May 18th, 2005 at 4:39 pm
Clever, eRobin; you’ve given me an idea.
Riggsveda: A few Kafka suggestions (you may’ve read them) for post-9/11 America: the novel The Trial and the stories Before the Law, In the Penal Colony and The Knock at the Manor Gate. For the Diminionist in You: The Judgment.
May 18th, 2005 at 5:50 pm
Rob, I almost hate to admit it ’cause it makes me sound like such a weiner, but I read The Trial in 8th grade. When I tried to check out The Castle next, the other school librarian wouldn’t let me have it. claiming I wasn’t mature enough to read it. I was incensed at the time,but now I realize what a kindness it was. Alas, it’s too late. We all live in The Castle.