False report on Koran.
Newsweek is sorry. It falsely reported that US troops desecrated a Koran by putting it in a toilet. In Islam, that is one of the worst things anyone could ever do. After Newsweek published its report, based on an anonymous source, rioting shortly ensued in Pakistan and Afghanistan and beyond. (*)
Who knows what this will do to our Middle East relations?
The moral blame for the rioting must sit with the rioters themselves. Newsweek deserves blame, but for false reporting that has resulted in a major diplomatic problem based on the perception of Muslisms.
With this, Newsweek has unwittingly fired another torpedo at the leaking luxury liner that is the US mainstream media.
Michelle Malkin has more on the situation. (†)
In the wake of the CBS News fiasco and the many other examples of their lies and blase attitude toward their own journalistic negligence, I would like to see the mainstream media call a nationwide conference, and send their top people. A big name institution would have to take the lead. There they would meet with bloggers and members of the general public. The conference would be a success if it impresses on the media of the need for accuracy first.
On the other hand, perhaps the media are just too consolidated and too centralized to remove the cancer of untruthfulness growing in their midst. Breaking up the industry may be the only solution.
Their ratings are down. The MSM has hit crisis mode. The American media is discrediting itself. We need a firm push toward fixing what is broken before our media “breaks a story” that turns out to be untrue and unnecessarily touches off a regional conflict or otherwise has grave real world consequences.