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May 16, 2005

Newsweek's Bogus Koran Story

Newsweek reported, as many of you know, that interrogators destroyed a Koran as an interrogation method, eventually flushing it. As a result, riots have been taking place across the muslim world. At least 17 are dead and many more wounded. Now, Newsweek has come out and said that they can't verify that the story was correct.

This morning, Jonothan Alter was on Imus in the Morning. Asked about the sources for the story, Alter stated that a single unnamed source was used for the story. The story was then read to a Pentagon source who did not "wave us off" publication.

Want to know the state of the major media? Journalistic standards have now been reduced to single-sourcing with anonymity. As a second source, the story may be presented to a second person, and as long as they are not personally privvy to information that contradicts the story, it can run.

If, for instance, I was told by a person I do not wish to name that Al Gore was a flaming homosexual who frequented gay bars and had unprotected sex in bath houses, I could write a story for Newsweek about it. Newsweek could then take the story to a minor functionary of the Democratic Party. If that person then said, "I've never seen him at the bath house, but I can't prove it isn't true," then Newsweek could run the story under the same standards they followed for their Koran story.

That doesn't mean the Al Gore story would be true.

This is why journalism students are taught, or at least once were taught, that dual-sourcing is the standard for their profession. Once upon a time, an unnamed source would have to be named to the editor, and possibly another named source be added to the requirements before the story could run.

This is, simply, worse ethics than those followed by certain black-and-white supermarket tabloids. The entire Newsweek organization should be shamed.

Posted by Lockjaw at May 16, 2005 7:07 AM

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