Bob Somerby (and others) on the Newsweek/Qur'ān story

The thing that makes Bob Somerby (the Daily Howler) often annoying in the short run but valuable in the long run is that he has developed a consistent critique over time of the dysfunction of the mainstream media, particularly on stories like Whitewater and the Iraq War.  He has been railing now for several weeks about the unwillingness of liberal commentators to analyze with he calls the War Against Gore conducted by the mainstream press in 1999-2000.

On Friday, he took up the grim story that I linked previously, about the Army report on torture in the Afghan branch of the gulag.  He connects that story with the Newsweek/Qu'ran controversy in a sensible way:

The recent food-fight over Newsweek’s reporting exists in the context of such reports. The larger story of detainee abuse has been clear for a good while now. There was no need for Newsweek to rush into print with an uncertain extra detail, and there’s no reason why sensible critics should want to insist that Newsweek’s story is “probably true” ... . Indeed, when uncertain claims are rushed into print— when critics want such claims to be true— the Scott McClellans of the world use them to cast doubt on the wider story, a story which is widely documented. Needless to say, Golden’s report is a detailed must-read. It recalls the context for the largely pointless dispute about Newsweek’s latest bungle.

His reference to "sensible critics" had specifically to do with a Nation editor who apparently tried to defend the particular Newsweek account of the Qur'ān pages flushed down the toilet on Hardball.

In a previous post on that media flap, I said that the underlying story - Qur'ān desecration - was probably true.  Somerby's main criticism of the Nation editor was that she seemed to be emotionally committed to defending Newsweek's particular story.  His argument was that the larger context of prisoner abuse was more relevant to understanding events in Pakistan and Afghanistan in connection with recent demonstrations and riots, not defending Newsweek.

His point is that it shouldn't surprise us when major news outlets like Newsweek mess up on something that seems like pretty basic fact-checking.  Because in the Whitewater scandals and in the Howler's favorite hobby-horse, the War on Gore, Newsweek and other media outlets did some dratatically bad reporting.

Eric Alterman returned to the Newsweek/Qur'ān story on Thursday:  Newsweek, Neverending 05/19/05.  Discussing how he has  revised his initial impression, he writes:

I am also second-guessing my assumption that the editors could have predicted the reaction to the piece, particularly given the fact that it had appeared many times previously, albeit not officially confirmed, and added to the lack of a Pentagon objection to its publication.  Furthermore, it’s far from clear that the piece itself was the reason the riots occurred.  Really, who knows?  Mistakes are mistakes, but let’s keep our eye on the ball.  Stop the torture; not the reporting.

Alterman links to Sid Blumenthal's Salon article on the subject: Wrong and Right 05/19/05.

After riots [in Afghanistan] in which 17 people died, the Bush administration pointed the finger of blame at Newsweek. The White House began a series of demands on the magazine, as though it were a rogue state. First, Newsweek had to accept responsibility for its error. Newsweek's single source had suddenly decided he was not a profile in courage and informed the reporter that he was no longer certain of his previous assertion. Second, Newsweek had to apologize profusely and retract the article. Third, it had to explain to the world that it alone was responsible for the anger of the Muslim world and that official U.S. policy dictated respect for the Quran.

In short, Newsweek must do everything that the Bush administration has refused to do about its torture policy. It is Newsweek that is at fault for the utter absence of U.S. prestige and credibility; it is Newsweek's editors that must engage in rituals of accountability at the behest of an administration that disdains accountability for itself; it is Newsweek that must demonstrate transparency about its internal procedures; it is Newsweek that must use its resources to explain to a wary world that the Bush administration has clean hands.

The White House and Pentagon press secretaries have competed in their excoriations of Newsweek, topped with flourishes of double talk and self-contradiction. At the White House, Scott McClellan insisted that Newsweek could rectify itself only "by talking about the way they got this wrong and pointing out what the policies and practices of the United States military are when it comes to the handling of the holy Quran." Asked if he was giving orders to the magazine, the deadpan McClellan replied: "It's not my position to get into telling people what they can and cannot report."