We see our fair share of media mistakes — probably more than anyone else in the world, actually — but we are hard pressed to think of any recent instances where a media error caused deadly riots and the threat of Holy War. That dubious distinction goes to Newsweek magazine for a story that claimed US interrogators at Guantanamo Bay had desecrated the Qur’an during interrogations. This week’s issue of the magazine has an Editor’s Note that says the magazine is unable to totally verify this information and that it regrets it "…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."
UPDATE: This Note does not, however, retract the story. UPDATE: Newsweek has now retracted the story with this one sentence statement from editor Mark Whitaker: "Based on what we know now, we are retracting our original story that
an internal military investigation had uncovered Koran abuse at
Guantanamo Bay," Read more here.
Whitaker previously said this in an interview: "We’re not retracting anything. We don’t know what the ultimate facts are." Which led us to respond:
Just so we’re clear: you don’t know what the truth is with this story, so you’re just going to leave it out there without a retraction? This is awful and embarrassing. Whitaker should strongly consider stepping down. The information may have come from an administration official, but Whitaker and his staff decided to run with it, and now they admit to having no idea what the facts are. That’s unforgivable.
Whitaker likely caved, at least in part, because the White House called for a retraction. Here’s what the White House’s Scott McClellan told Reuters (as reported by The New York Times):
"It’s puzzling that while Newsweek now acknowledges that they got the
facts wrong, they refused to retract the story," Mr. McClellan, the
White House spokesman, said, according to Reuters. "I think there’s a
certain journalistic standard that should be met and in this instance
it was not."Mr. McClellan complained that the Newsweek report
was "based on a single anonymous source who could not personally
substantiate the allegation that was made.""The report has had
serious consequences," he said, according to Reuters. "People have lost
their lives. The image of the United States abroad has been damaged."
Whitaker begins his Editor’s Note with this question: "Did a report in NEWSWEEK set off a wave of deadly anti-American riots in Afghanistan?"
He follows it up with: "That’s what numerous news accounts suggested last week as angry Afghans
took to the streets to protest reports, linked to us, that U.S.
interrogators had desecrated the Qur’an while interrogating Muslim
terror suspects. We were as alarmed as anyone to hear of the violence,
which left at least 15 Afghans dead and scores injured. But I think
it’s important for the public to know exactly what we reported, why,
and how subsequent events unfolded."
Whitaker never gets around to answering his own question, so we’ll supply the response: Yes, a report in Newsweek set off a wave of deadly anti-American riots in Afghanistan. And it looks like the report wasn’t true.
The text of the Editor’s Note is below and here’s a link to a Newsweek story that delves into the mistake and its consequences. Also, check out this AP story and one from Reuters (replete with a correction).
Did a report in NEWSWEEK set off a wave of
deadly anti-American riots in Afghanistan? That’s what numerous news
accounts suggested last week as angry Afghans took to the streets to
protest reports, linked to us, that U.S. interrogators had desecrated
the Qur’an while interrogating Muslim terror suspects. We were as
alarmed as anyone to hear of the violence, which left at least 15
Afghans dead and scores injured. But I think it’s important for the
public to know exactly what we reported, why, and how subsequent events
unfolded.
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 Afghanistan 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.—Mark Whitaker
