A "Neutrality" Most Foul

Looks like Newsweek may be inching toward a retraction of their retraction of their "Holy Flush" smear.

Just days after Newsweek "retracted" its Quran-flushing story, a top editor with the magazine seemingly backed away from its flat-out retraction, telling the U.S.-hostile al-Jazeera network that Newsweek was "neutral" on whether Americans had desecrated the Quran.

In a May 19 interview with the Arab TV network...Newsweek’s Washington bureau chief Daniel Klaidman admitted the magazine made a "mistake" in publishing the story, and promised: "In the future, we won’t make these kinds of mistakes."

Notice that subtle difference? Not, "we published a mistaken story," but "we made a mistake in publishing the story." The difference became less subtle as the interview unfolded.

The Memri transcript shows that Newsweek was cleverly telling millions of Arab viewers there story may still be true – they just did not have the evidence to support their original allegations. The al-Jazeera reporter asked Newsweek’s Klaidman, "But there is no proof that it [the Quran desecration] did not happen either."

Ah, nothing like the old "prove a negative" canard to bring back old message board memories....

Klaidman replied:

"We are neutral on whether any form of Quran desecration took place. There are allegations out there, but the allegations have not been subjected to the kind of scrutiny or legal processes that normally ... you need before you can establish whether they are true, and we certainly know that the military has not confirmed any of these allegations.

"As to whether these things happened or not, we are, like the rest of the people out there and news organizations – we don’t know. We have heard the allegations, we continue to report, and the U.S. military and other entities are investigating, and as I said, we are neutral on whether any of this ever happened."

In other words, "No, we can't prove that no Korans were flushed, but we have faith that they were, and we'll keep 'reporting' that they were until our 'investigations' come up with some proof, even if we have to borrow CBS's document-fabricators to do it." Why else would Newsweek stubbornly refuse to reveal the identity of their "source"? Especially since other Extreme Media outlets have taken to spreading the same strain of anti-military slander.

Along those same lines, Powerline noticed an interesting development the other day:

The Pentagon reports that the Guantanamo detainee who claimed in August 2002 that a guard flushed a Koran down a toilet (do they have really big toilets there, or what?) was recently re-interviewed, and recanted the allegation:

"We've gone back to the detainee who allegedly made the allegation and he has said it didn't happen. So the underlying allegation, the detainee himself, within the last two weeks, said that didn't happen," chief Pentagon spokesman Lawrence Di Rita told a briefing.

But don't worry - I'm sure Newsweek will be "reporting" soon on how this recantation was the product of "torture" at the "gulag" of Guantanamo. Just one more "story" that will be just too good to let unsubstantiation get in the way.