Dammit, Newsweek!

They retracted their story about the Quran-flushing incident. This is just the kind of juicy tidbit that news magazines have to be more careful about checking, because when they screw up like this, it allows the Bush administration to feel more secure and get away with more miserable shit. It's just like the "60 Minutes" story during the campaign about Bush's national guard service. The story turned out to be inaccurate, but the subsequent flap distracted everyone from the underlying reality--that George W. Bush did walk out on the national guard in the 1970s and was able to get away with it because of his family's connections. So sure, it's possible no one flushed the Quran during interrogations (though several other news and government organizations have found evidence that some interrogators did), but the reality of the White House's abuses of human rights (both by its own agents and by its proxy torturers in such pleasure spots as Uzbekistan and Pakistan) can't be erased no matter how badly a news weekly fucks up.

Still, Newsweek, you blew it, and the White House may be able to wriggle off a hook as a result. I used to complain that you guys were just the White House's slavish stenographers. This one's actually much better for them, because they can use it to discredit any legitimate examination of the administration's torture policy. The President and the Attorney General should invite you to the ranch for cheeseburgers and beer.

Morons.