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White house criticizes newsweek report causing afghan incident { May 16 2005 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/16/AR2005051600443.htmlhttp://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/16/AR2005051600443.html
White House Criticizes Newsweek
Spokesman Challenges Magazine to Retract Report on Koran
By Howard Kurtz
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, May 16, 2005; 2:06 PM
The White House today appeared to challenge Newsweek to retract the admittedly flawed report that sparked deadly riots in Afghanistan and other countries, while Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the story has "done a lot of harm" to U.S. efforts to reach out to the Muslim world.
The comments, following even blunter criticism by Pentagon officials, came after Newsweek Editor Mark Whitaker apologized for the May 1 report that said U.S. military investigators had confirmed that an American interrogator at the Guantanamo Bay detention facility had flushed a copy of the Koran down a toilet. At least 16 people were killed last week when riots in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Malaysia and other countries turned violent.
"It's puzzling that while Newsweek now acknowledges that they got the facts wrong, they refused to retract the story," White House spokesman Scott McClellan told reporters. "I think there's a certain journalistic standard that should be met and in this instance it was not."
"The report has had serious consequences," he said. "People have lost their lives. The image of the United States abroad has been damaged."
Rice, speaking to journalists on the way back from her surprise visit to Iraq, said that "it's appalling that this story got out there." She said that "the sad thing was that there was a lot of anger that got stirred by a story that was not very well founded."
Rice said she hopes "that everybody will step back and take a look at how they handled this -- everybody."
Newsweek said Sunday that the report was based on an unnamed senior U.S. official, who said the alleged Koran incident would be cited in a forthcoming investigative report by the Miami-based U.S. Southern Command. That official now says he "could no longer be sure" of the information provided to reporter Michael Isikoff, the magazine said.
McClellan seized on the sourcing issue, telling reporters that the brief story was "based on a single anonymous source who could not personally substantiate the allegation that was made." Isikoff said Sunday that "there was absolutely no lapse in journalistic standards," noting that the Pentagon declined an opportunity to challenge the story before it was published.
© 2005 The Washington Post Company
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