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May 16, 2005
Circling the Wagons
Instapundit quotes a reader trying to rationalize the rioting in the Newsweek story:
If the book were the Holy Bible of Christian faith (that was desecrated) then wouldn't there also be riots resulting??What a weak attempt at spin. Insty brings up the lack of violence after "Piss Christ" was debuted. I also don't remember riots in New York after Chris Ofili's "Holy Virgin Mary," a painting of Jesus' mother with elephant dung on it, was exhibited as part of an exhibit.
Were the rioters wrong to indulge their anger after hearing the fabricated news? Of course. While I understand the respect that should be given holy texts, I think that killing people over their desecration goes against the words contained in those texts. Destroying God's most precious creation - humanity - over some paper, ink and glue is beyond disturbing.
Liberals, though, should resist the temptation to defend Newsweek. The magazine committed a great wrong - they printed a false story that caused people to react in a way that resulted in the deaths of multiple people. The editors had to know what kind of reaction this would cause. They must have suspected this would result in the damaging of relations between Islam and the West.
Given that real possibility, the least they could have done was sourced their story better. But they did not - they ran with it. Their irresponsibility and rush to judgment cost lives. That cannot be said enough. Michael Isikoff, John Berry, Evan Thomas. Bloggers should repeat these three names over and over again until these men apologize, then lose their jobs.
UPDATE - "History may see Newsweek’s fatal “Koran flushing” story as the US press’ Abu Ghraib." Austin Bay has nailed the importance of this one.
Posted by slublog at May 16, 2005 12:01 AM
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