Newsweek Is Heating Up The Blogosphere
If it is controversy that Newsweek enjoys, then I believe they have found it. I posted earlier today regarding their story regarding the flushing of Korans down the toilet by our troops at Gitmo. The problem with this is the story was screwed up from the beginning. (Hat-tip to Captain's Quarters. Capt. Ed also has the blogroll up of the other bloggers that picked this up. My previous post has a partial list.)
http://www.captainsquartersblog.com/mt/
Two weeks ago, in our issue dated May 9, Michael Isikoff and John Barry reported in a brief item in our periscope section that U.S. military investigators had found evidence that American guards at the detention center in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, had committed infractions in trying to get terror suspects to talk, including in one case flushing a Qur'an down a toilet. Their information came from a knowledgeable U.S. government source, and before deciding whether to publish it we approached two separate Defense Department officials for comment. One declined to give us a response; the other challenged another aspect of the story but did not dispute the Qur'an charge.
Although other major news organizations had aired charges of Qur'an desecration based only on the testimony of detainees, we believed our story was newsworthy because a U.S. official said government investigators turned up this evidence. So we published the item. After several days, newspapers in Pakistan and Afghan-istan began running accounts of our story. At that point, as Evan Thomas, Ron Moreau and Sami Yousafzai report this week, the riots started and spread across the country, fanned by extremists and unhappiness over the economy.
Last Friday, a top Pentagon spokesman told us that a review of the probe cited in our story showed that it was never meant to look into charges of Qur'an desecration. The spokesman also said the Pentagon had investigated other desecration charges by detainees and found them "not credible." Our original source later said he couldn't be certain about reading of the alleged Qur'an incident in the report we cited, and said it might have been in other investigative documents or drafts. Top administration officials have promised to continue looking into the charges, and so will we. But we regret that we got any part of our story wrong, and extend our sympathies to victims of the violence and to the U.S. soldiers caught in its midst.
So, what we have received from Newsweek is "Gosh, we are so sorry we screwed the pooch." Problem with that line of thinking is that they are not sorry. I contend that Isikoff and Barry knew that when the story went out—full of it’s erroneous reporting on the word of one unsubstantiated, unconfirmed source—it was going to create a firestorm in the Muslim world. And I contend further that they knew the story was wrong from the start.
This is precisely what is wrong with the MSM. We bloggers have to be right on the money, and we also work to correct our mistakes as quickly as possible. The MSM just says "oh well" and moves on. And they refuse to recognize this recurring problem in reporting news. Gone are the days where they can simply blow off the public. Far too many people pay close attention to what they have to say now on the heels of scandals like Rathergate, Eason-gate, and the fall of Howell Raines.
But the true journalistic felony committed by Newsweek is literally creating a story, out of nothing, and then driving it forward. They created a story to report on it. This incident is so Hearst-like that it makes me sick. This is not what the media is about. And this practice of not applying the proper checks involved in putting a story together is biting the MSM hard. Subscriptions are down around the nation for some of the big guns like the New York Times, the LA Times, the Boston Globe, and the Washington Post.
The cable channels are feeling the pinch, too. CNN and MSNBC viewership is down from where it used to be, and FOX’s continues to rise. The regular network news casts still have people that watch them, but they are no longer the trusted sources of news they once were.
It is time for a change, and if it involves firing some of these so-called journalists, then it must be done. The people can no longer be deceived nor lied to. This is why the majority of America is embracing the alternative media and the blogosphere. We do our jobs, we do it effectively, and as accurately as possible. There are many stories that Thomas and I have held off on until we get some key information showing that we are on the right track. It is that type of behavior that keeps us on the lower rungs of the blogosphere, but it also ensures that we will not be wrong when we post.
Unlike the MSM, a blogger’s reputation is built upon their ability to be accurate. If we put up one erroneous story, and fail to apologize for it or correct it, we are sunk.
The Bunny ;)
If it is controversy that Newsweek enjoys, then I believe they have found it. I posted earlier today regarding their story regarding the flushing of Korans down the toilet by our troops at Gitmo. The problem with this is the story was screwed up from the beginning. (Hat-tip to Captain's Quarters. Capt. Ed also has the blogroll up of the other bloggers that picked this up. My previous post has a partial list.)
http://www.captainsquartersblog.com/mt/
Two weeks ago, in our issue dated May 9, Michael Isikoff and John Barry reported in a brief item in our periscope section that U.S. military investigators had found evidence that American guards at the detention center in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, had committed infractions in trying to get terror suspects to talk, including in one case flushing a Qur'an down a toilet. Their information came from a knowledgeable U.S. government source, and before deciding whether to publish it we approached two separate Defense Department officials for comment. One declined to give us a response; the other challenged another aspect of the story but did not dispute the Qur'an charge.
Although other major news organizations had aired charges of Qur'an desecration based only on the testimony of detainees, we believed our story was newsworthy because a U.S. official said government investigators turned up this evidence. So we published the item. After several days, newspapers in Pakistan and Afghan-istan began running accounts of our story. At that point, as Evan Thomas, Ron Moreau and Sami Yousafzai report this week, the riots started and spread across the country, fanned by extremists and unhappiness over the economy.
Last Friday, a top Pentagon spokesman told us that a review of the probe cited in our story showed that it was never meant to look into charges of Qur'an desecration. The spokesman also said the Pentagon had investigated other desecration charges by detainees and found them "not credible." Our original source later said he couldn't be certain about reading of the alleged Qur'an incident in the report we cited, and said it might have been in other investigative documents or drafts. Top administration officials have promised to continue looking into the charges, and so will we. But we regret that we got any part of our story wrong, and extend our sympathies to victims of the violence and to the U.S. soldiers caught in its midst.
So, what we have received from Newsweek is "Gosh, we are so sorry we screwed the pooch." Problem with that line of thinking is that they are not sorry. I contend that Isikoff and Barry knew that when the story went out—full of it’s erroneous reporting on the word of one unsubstantiated, unconfirmed source—it was going to create a firestorm in the Muslim world. And I contend further that they knew the story was wrong from the start.
This is precisely what is wrong with the MSM. We bloggers have to be right on the money, and we also work to correct our mistakes as quickly as possible. The MSM just says "oh well" and moves on. And they refuse to recognize this recurring problem in reporting news. Gone are the days where they can simply blow off the public. Far too many people pay close attention to what they have to say now on the heels of scandals like Rathergate, Eason-gate, and the fall of Howell Raines.
But the true journalistic felony committed by Newsweek is literally creating a story, out of nothing, and then driving it forward. They created a story to report on it. This incident is so Hearst-like that it makes me sick. This is not what the media is about. And this practice of not applying the proper checks involved in putting a story together is biting the MSM hard. Subscriptions are down around the nation for some of the big guns like the New York Times, the LA Times, the Boston Globe, and the Washington Post.
The cable channels are feeling the pinch, too. CNN and MSNBC viewership is down from where it used to be, and FOX’s continues to rise. The regular network news casts still have people that watch them, but they are no longer the trusted sources of news they once were.
It is time for a change, and if it involves firing some of these so-called journalists, then it must be done. The people can no longer be deceived nor lied to. This is why the majority of America is embracing the alternative media and the blogosphere. We do our jobs, we do it effectively, and as accurately as possible. There are many stories that Thomas and I have held off on until we get some key information showing that we are on the right track. It is that type of behavior that keeps us on the lower rungs of the blogosphere, but it also ensures that we will not be wrong when we post.
Unlike the MSM, a blogger’s reputation is built upon their ability to be accurate. If we put up one erroneous story, and fail to apologize for it or correct it, we are sunk.
The Bunny ;)
posted by Syd And Vaughn | 4:36 PM
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