NEWSWEEK sucks!!!
I'm a little pissed off today. I'm not sure, exactly at who, maybe myself, or what but I am. See, about this time last week I was watching CNN, actually it was the same day that douchebag decided to fly into the no-fly zone in D.C. I saw that day that in Afghanistan riots had been breaking out for two days because of an article that NEWSWEEK printed about torture involving mistreatment of the Koran at Guantanamo. Not only did I hear that there were people rioting but that 4 (today I heard a total of 15) people died as a result of the riots.
Now, as a Christian, I too would be pretty upset if the Bible was mistreated in such a fasion as reported and I can understand why these Muslims were so upset. However, today I read that NEWSWEEK publicly apologized because they "cannot stand behind their story." The mere fact that this magazine lied is not what really pisses me off though. The real reason for me being so angry is that the day I saw the news report on CNN I said to myself "how does anybody really know that that report is true?" It's like winning the lotto and knowing it but you lost your ticket and have no way of proving that you one, or maybe in one of Alanis Morisett's weird, twisted definitions it's ironic. Anyway, I wish that I had said that thought to just one person that day.
I, now, will never trust another journalist for as long as I live. First it was Dan Rather and CBS and now it is NEWSWEEK. The really sad thing in this instance, however, is the authors of this article now have the blood of 15 people killed in Afghanistan on their hands. This leads me to a new thought. Why would NEWSWEEK, who surely knew that an article of this magnitude could have some sort serious impact, ever even think about publishing something that they couldn't "stand behind." This got me thinking about how NEWSWEEK should be punished for their negligence. Since the result was the death of 15 people I believe that the authors involved should be charged with manslaughter, which is punishable by up to a life's sentence in jail, or at very least involuntary manslaughter.
Why can't we have things the way our grandparents did? A time when the media wasn't sticking their noses into to everything and screwing things up. I've said it before and I'll say it again, "journalists have no place in a war."