Newsweek joins the ranks of the fact-checked Main Stream Media.
Earlier this month, they published accounts of life at Guantanamo Bay which included an uncredited report of a Koran being flushed down a toilet.
This sparked riots in Afghanistan in which 16 people died.
Today, Newsweek published a retraction:
Newsweek Retracts Report About Koran Desecration
Newsweek magazine today retracted a report it published earlier this month that sparked riots in Afghanistan and elsewhere, leaving at least 16 people dead.
"Based on what we know now, we are retracting our original story that an internal military investigation had uncovered Koran abuse at Guantanamo Bay," Newsweek editor Mark Whitaker said in an e-mailed statement.
The retraction followed denunciations of the Newsweek report by Bush administration officials. White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan called Whitaker's statement "a good first step."
"We encourage Newsweek to now work diligently to undue the damage that can be undone," McClellan said.
In its May 9 issue, the magazine cited an unnamed U.S. government official as saying investigators found evidence that U.S. guards at the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, detention center desecrated the Koran, including an incident in which the Muslim holy book was flushed down a toilet, in order to provoke detainees into talking.
Local Muslim leaders in Pakistan and Afghanistan seized on the article and called for anti-U.S. demonstrations. Over a four- day period last week at least 16 people died, a United Nations compound in Afghanistan was attacked and crowds burned American flags and effigies of U.S. president George W. Bush.
Charles at LGF reminds us that the Palestinians did just that and nobody took to the streets. The event is the Palestinian take-over of Bethlehem's Church of Nativity in April of 2002
Even in the Roman Catholic areas of the complex there was evidence of disregard for religious norms. Catholic priests said that some Bibles were torn up for toilet paper, and many valuable sacramental objects were removed. "Palestinians took candelabra, icons and anything that looked like gold," said a Franciscan, the Rev. Nicholas Marquez from Mexico.
And finally, Cox and Forkum nail the issue with this cartoon:
Click for full-size Image
