On Newsweek

I have a subscription to Newsweek. I don't read each issue cover-to-cover, but I like the fact that there is a weekly news magazine that goes deep into stories. Newsweek may be an old media stalwart, but they fill a niche with a quality and depth of coverage that's absent from newspapers, television, or the Web. Newsweek excels at expository coverage; breaking news is more problematic.

Regardless of whether Newsweek's now-retracted report on desecration of the Quran at Guantanamo is true, blogs, the White House, and the echo chamber constantly attacking the media obfuscates the real story. The White House is using Newsweek's misstep as a scapegoat for the incendiary environment in the middle east. Scott McClellan said:

The report had real consequences. People have lost their lives. Our image abroad has been damaged.

He's right about consequences and lives lost, but rather than being a direct cause, the report is merely an excuse to vent rage that's been building for years.

Newsweek is guilty of slipshod reporting, and relying too much on anonymous sources. I expect better from them. But Newsweek bears no responsibility for anyone's death in this sad event.