[theknife]

Originally Posted by floydian slip

In their upcoming Monday edition (dated 5/23), Newsweek now says they can not verify their story that there were incidents of "Qur'an desecration" at Guantanamo. Those charges were the apparent cause of riots in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Indonesia that left dozens dead and many more injured in the past week.

funny you should bring that up...

(White House Press Secretary) MR. McCLELLAN: Well, I find it puzzling that Newsweek now acknowledges that the facts were wrong, and they refuse to offer a retraction. There is a certain journalistic standard that should be met, and in this case it was not met. The report was not accurate, and it was based on a single anonymous source who cannot personally substantiate the report, so the -- so they cannot verify the accuracy of the report. White House Press Gaggle - 4/15/05

here we have the White House lecturing Newsweek on their lack of judgement for running with this story based on a single, unverified source. Scott McClellan has a short memory; it was about a year he was trying to justify Bush taking the whole country to war, based on several single unverified sources:

QUESTION: Does it concern the President that the primary source for the intelligence on the mobile biological weapons labs was a guy that U.S. intelligence never even interviewed?
MCCLELLAN: Well, again, all these issues will be looked at as part of a broad review by the independent commission that the President appointed… But it's important that we look at what we learn on the ground and compare that
with what we believed prior to going into Iraq.

[White House Press Gaggle, 4/5/04]

the White House is also criticizing Newsweek for a lack of accountability:

QUESTION: He's the president of the United States. This thing he told the country on the verge of taking the nation to war has turned out to be, by your own account, not reliable. That's his fault, isn't it?
MCCLELLAN: No.

[White House Press Briefing, 7/17/03]

ironic, ain't it?