EDITOR’S NOTE: This piece appears in the June 6, 2005, issue of National Review.
“In a recent article entitled ‘Our Troops in Afghanistan: Out of Control?’ Newsweek described several events that purportedly occurred in prison facilities maintained and administered by American forces in Afghanistan. These events–the ritual desecration of the Muslim holy book, the Koran–were corroborated by at least two sources: a person who was present during the story’s invention, and a person who was an eyewitness to the actual telling of the story to the Newsweek reporter. Nevertheless, the story and its inventors have come under increased scrutiny in the past week, and it is Newsweek’s longstanding policy to retract any portion of any story that may or may not be possible to confirm. Therefore, although we vigorously stand by the story, and its sources, we regret any misunderstanding or miscommunication with readers who may have acted on the information in the belief that it was so.”
”In yesterday’s edition of All Things Considered, in a story about the controversial Bush-administration judicial nominees and the fight to end the Senate’s filibuster tradition, we made a passing and incomplete reference to ‘a former Ku Klux Klan member’ and the Bush nominee to the federal appeals court, Priscilla Owen. Due to a technical error, it was implied that Ms. Owen was a former member of the racist organization. She is not. The story should have made clear that the former member of the Ku Klux Klan in question is Senate majority leader Bill Frist. All Things Considered regrets the error.”
“Due to a computer layout error, in Tuesday’s local edition of the New York Times, in an article headlined ‘Signs of Hope and Gratitude in Iraq,’ several Iraqi residents were quoted as ‘thanking’ America and praising President Bush for ‘liberating’ them from an ‘evil dictator.’ Many of those interviewed expressed ‘hope’ and ‘optimism’ about the future of a democratic Iraq and a sober realization that the ‘road to stability and domestic peace may be long and rocky, but that in the end, it’s worth it.’ The New York Times regrets the error.”..
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