Yesterday, Newsweek, had it's spinners all over the national media trying to absolve themselves of any culpability by explaining that they did everything they could to ensure they were responsible and accurate in their reporting. As details kept emerging, and criticisms from the public and bloggers grew, it became harder for Newsweek to drown out the truth and spin the resulting 15 deaths and the hundreds that were maimed and injured into anything positive. The fact that they tried made their efforts more abhorrent to the public. They have finally retracted their story!

Where do we go from here? For me it's clear, we go back to the pre-watergate era when reporters were questioned thoroughly by their editors; when claims by anonymous sources were investigated by reporters and corroborated with existing factual information and not just from a source's lone witness account; when editors personally met big news sources to gage their credibility and truthfulness, double-checked that against the data and story their reporters had presented.

News Editors need to dig deep into their values and go back to a place before news was a commodity; before news became earnings, ratings and subscriptions competition, to a place where a News Editor's role is once again that of a vanguard and protector of the truth. For that is what the American people want, and that is what our system of democracy demands.

If we are to have any credibility, as a leader in democratic principles and the lone nation that will singlehandedly stand up in the global war on terror, it is imperative that truth be valued more highly than anything else. For it is only then that we will have the most powerful weapon in our arsenal, one that is undeniably powerful in opening the hearts and minds of our critics, and potential enemies. Truth is the most accurate and powerful weapon we have in the battle against propaganda and holy jihad. For what we are fighting in essence is an ideology and a belief system.

The only way our nation will ever be effective in combatting the darkness of terror, is by holding up the powerful light of truth for all to see.

The blogosphere has similar opinions but from diverging viewpoints. Several former journalists and prominent bloggers bring up excelent points. I'm linking to Laughing Wolf, Indiepundit, and Buzzmachine, are all good reading on this subject.

Posted by: Michele at 12:39 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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In the past few weeks I've been monitoring media stories and their retractions for errors made as a result of not verifying facts!

The riots and deaths that have recently occurred in Afghanistan are one of the most egregious examples of bad journalism I've ever seen. That it came out of a Newsweek Magazine story (worldwide circulation of 4.9 million) is all the more shocking.

The media has of course, white-washed or muted the truth of their culpability in this situation. The facts are that unverified inflammatory and defamatory information found it's way to print. This caused a destabilization in a politically charged environment which fragmenting relations with a population that were still tenuous at best, creating chaos and causing many injuries and death (to both Afghani's and Americans), from the rioting which result from these stories.

These injuries and deaths are a result of unbridled arrogance by yet another news organization, whose hubris led them to neglect their duty as vanguards of the truth.

Is it any wonder why viewership of tv news and readership of newspapers is at an all time low? No one can trust or believe in what they report anymore as they have proven, especially in the last 9 months, to be extremely fallible. I'm sure Marshall McLuhan has been turning over in his grave.

Update: This is what National Review has to say after contacting Newsweek editors and reporters responsible for this story:

Equally disturbing is the fact that Newsweek reporters seemed to have little idea how explosive such a story would be. While noting that, to Muslims, desecrating the Koran “is especially heinous,” Thomas looks for explanations, including “extremist agitators,” of why protest and rioting spread throughout the world, and maintains that it was at Imram Khan’s press conference that “the spark was apparently lit.” He confesses that after “so many gruesome reports of torture and abuse at Abu Ghraib and elsewhere, the vehemence of feeling around this case came as something of a surprise.”

What planet do these people live on that they are surprised by something so entirely predictable? Anybody with a little knowledge could have told them it was likely that people would die as a result of the article. Remember Salman Rushdie?

Dudes, the damage has been done! I say each family of a deceased and injured person should teach Newsweek a valuable and costly lesson!

Posted by: Michele at 08:12 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger does not want to destroy the moon.

A U.S. political commentator has admitted he failed to check his facts when he erroneously reported on the MSNBC cable news network last month that Schwarzenegger had jokingly advocated doing away with the moon.

In one of the stranger mea culpas from a major U.S. news outlet in recent years, the commentator, Joe Scarborough, a former congressman, acknowledged on Friday that the governor's purported lunar outburst on the nationally syndicated radio show of Howard Stern was actually a spoof, something he was unaware of.

Citing a British newspaper, Scarborough had quoted Schwarzenegger on the air as saying: "If we get rid of the moon, women, whose menstrual cycles are governed by the moon, will not get (pre-menstrual syndrome). They will stop bit%$ing and whining."

more...

Posted by: Michele at 09:32 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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NEW YORK (AP) — Two small makeshift grenades exploded outside the British Consulate early Thursday, causing slight damage to the building but injuring no one, officials said.

The blasts occurred at 3:50 a.m. and originated inside a cement flower box outside the consulate in midtown Manhattan, said police department spokesman Noel Waters.

In Britain, voters were voting in national elections, a heated race in which Prime Minister Tony Blair's fight for a third term could be hampered by public anger over the Iraq war. It was not known whether the explosions were related to the elections.

After piecing together the shrapnel, police determined the devices were toy grenades that had been filled with gunpowder. Officers estimated that one was the size of a pineapple; the other the size of a lemon.

The blasts shattered a panel of glass in the building's front door and ripped a one-foot chunk from the planter. The department's bomb squad was at the scene and streets were closed in the area.

The building has retail shops on the lower level

Posted by: Michele at 07:56 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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The above picture is is the latest color panorama of the martian landscape from a ridgeline vantage point overlooking slopes, valleys and plains, taken by NASA's Mars Rover, Spirit.

Science news of the year: NASA's Mars Exploration Rovers' discovery of evidence of past water on Mars was named the top scientific "Breakthrough of the Year," by The Journal of Science.

Although I love space exploration, I often wonder if that money would serve a better purpose for our country if we paid down our deficit. What do you think?

Posted by: Michele at 09:55 AM | Comments (7) | Add Comment
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1 Yeah, it's just dirt & rocks... ... but it makes me tingle to see it :-)

Posted by: Harvey at May 02, 2005 10:38 AM (tJfh1)

2 Harvey, everything makes you tingle!

Posted by: michele at May 02, 2005 12:05 PM (ht2RK)

3 Couple of quick thoughts: NASA is only a very small fraction of the budget, somewhere around one percent if memory serves. It is by Congressional standards, chump change and far more goes to pork each year than to NASA. That said, when has any program been eliminated and had its money get used for anything other than pork? No matter what is promised, it never goes as said. Second, consider all that has come out of space research: modern electronics (arrived much faster because of the need for miniaturization and reliability); advanced firefighting equipment and safety gear; advanced protective systems for law enforcement and military; medical diagnostic and treatment systems including but not limited to ultrasound and advanced cancer treatments, not to mention monitors and telemedicine capabilities; and, many modern fabrics came about by or were improved through the program. NASA will very gladly list any and all spin offs, would that they paid as much attention to the spin-ons that have come from commercial space activities: new treatments for cancer, advanced water purification systems for hikers and cities, and even a new perfume. That said, a great deal of the current budget is not well spent in my opinion. A huge amount of it goes not into breaking new territory, but in maintaining the kludge that is the Shuttle. If we want to see the same-pace of technological advancement, and a host of new products that come from companies making use of space and microgravity, then NASA needs to get out of the Shuttle business and start pushing commercial launch such as Space Ship One, XCOR, and the others. Just a few thoughts...

Posted by: Laughing Wolf at May 03, 2005 08:37 AM (zI0Ey)

4 Wolf's got a point. Although NASA is a waste of money compared to the private sector, it's less of a waste than, say, mohair subsidies :-)

Posted by: Harvey at May 03, 2005 10:32 AM (tJfh1)

5 I'm not so sure that NASA is a waste of money. To me it's more that they're mis-directed. NASA is better at research and development style projects, whereas in the recent past they've had to do more business-oriented tasks. Business will always do business better than the government.

Posted by: Ted at May 03, 2005 11:36 AM (blNMI)

6 I agree 100% with this "Laughing Wolf" guy, whoever he is....

Posted by: _Jon at May 03, 2005 12:15 PM (uHRYR)

7 Thanks LW, You raised some very important points which I had forgotten. If I look around my home I can see 5 things that are currently making my life easier and that have come as a direct result of space exploration and research. As for its budget, it's currently over 1%, but you are absolutely right and dead on target when you talk about the obscenity that is pork barrel funding. Thanks for the reminder!

Posted by: michele at May 03, 2005 12:33 PM (ht2RK)

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