Gut Check
Yes, Newsweek and Michael Isikoff screwed up.
Yes, because of their screw-up, people died.
Yes, the US position in the Middle East and Central Asia was damaged – not fatally, but perhaps permanently.
No – nothing will change in the way the MSM conducts business.
Let me repeat that, just to make myself clear: Nothing will change. No improvements will be made. For the MSM, the lesson learned is not “let’s stick to the facts next time.” The lesson is, “let’s be more careful in how we present what we think the story is/should be.”
If there’s any kind of tipping point here, it will be in how the public perceives the news. There will be no change, none at all, in how the MSM perceives the news – nor in how it will choose to shape the story.
9/11 changed everything, we keep saying. For the MSM, 9/11 changed maybe a couple things
Just found out about you from Samizdata. Nice blog. Should anybody really heed MSM anymore? I barely check their web pages anymore, and never listen/watch their broadcasts.
You’re right. It’s unlikely there will an epiphany in the media during which the error of their ways will be revealed to them. Any change will be forced on them and here’s something that might start the ball rolling, I just read that families of riot victims are being approached by lawyers with an eye to law suits.
The Newsweek article was obviously planned to weaken Bush and distract him from the senate confirmation battles. The silver lining in this tragedy might be that Democratic senators will be too chagrined to continue their obstructionist tactics.
We can hope
Further Implications of the Newsweek Debacle
A commenter on Austin Bay’s Weblog (who says he works for a mid-sized newspaper) makes a great point about how Newsweek’s story directly impacts how the US as a whole is viewed by many in “the Arab Street” (to dust…
i think it says a lot about the MSM that they lost one of their own to the islamic monsters in afghanistan when daniel perle was decapitated. they still fail to grasp that islam is an intolerant religion and insist on pointing the finger at the west. too bad they haven’t learned their lesson. i think the only way for them to learn is to stop watching/subscribing to MSM outlets that don’t let the facts get in the way of a good story.
It’s over. Newsweek apologized. Let’s move on.
This will be the message from the media now. It doesn’t matter that sixteen people have died and hundreds were injured. That wasn’t Newsweek’s fault anyway. That’s the administration’s fault for having gotten Muslims into such a state of anger that …
Hey,
Couple things to chew on:
1) MSM, Newsweek et al. are a bunch of lefty douche-bags.
2) Obviously, this was political.
3) Rioting Muslim Afghans are also douche-bags.
4) Rioting and killing is not a cogent response to some politicized report.
Newsweek, while editorially irresponsible and in all likelihood, intentionally produced this inflammatory piece…is not responsible for a bunch of fuckfaces rioting.
5) Hope your bro is safe and well. God bless America and the men and women who keep it safe!
Change? no.
Gave some westerners pause w/their rioting?
Just maybe.
The Day Mass Media Sold Its Soul
I have been and will be until the 25th very busy with graduation stuff. That is where I have been, that is why I have been missing, I will return. But something has happened that has angered me so much…
Insert Reality Here
People died because of their own actions. Yes, Newsweek spread the false reports, but those involved in the riots chose to act on them in the way they did. They rioted, they hurt people, they killed people. They didn’t have to, just like those in Ira…
jesus, you really are just an idiot with a microphone.
u.s interrogators would anally rape these guys with broomsticks, but nooooo, no, nooooo, they’d never desecrate the koran?
what fucking kool-aid whackos you people must be. please go to iraq and serve the cause immediately, please.