The Koran that was never flushed
Newsweek apologized on Sunday for the article, but while acknowledging possible errors, the magazine stopped short of retracting it.
The report that a Koran had been flushed down a toilet set off the most virulent, widespread anti-American protests in Afghanistan since the fall of the Taliban government more than three years ago.
“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,” Mark Whitaker, Newsweek’s editor, wrote in the issue of the magazine that went on sale at newsstands today.
In an accompanying article, the magazine wrote that its reporters had relied on an unidentified American government official who had incomplete knowledge of the situation.
But Mr. Whitaker said in an interview later: “We’re not retracting anything. We don’t know what the ultimate facts are.”
The only “facts” that matter at this point is Newsweek got the story wrong and it caused a LOT of harm. If they are willing to apologize for getting it wrong, they should very publicly retract the story and fire the authors of the story as a sign to the world that they don’t believe the story was accurate.
The only thing worse than the story itself is the response to it by Newsweek.
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Tags: afghanistan, flush, koran, mark whitaker, newsweek, retract
