Pirate's Cove

In the May 30th edition of Newsweak, Chairman and Editor in Chief Richard M Smith responds:

As most of you know, we have unequivocally retracted our story. In the light of the Pentagon's denials and our source's changing position on the allegation, the only responsible course was to say that we no longer stand by our story.

We have also offered a sincere apology to our readers and especially to anyone affected by violence that may have been related to what we published. To the extent that our story played a role in contributing to such violence, we are deeply sorry.

"Readers and those affected by the violence." How about to the American people in whole? I'll get back to that in a bit.

We will raise the standards for the use of anonymous sources throughout the magazine. Historically, unnamed sources have helped to break or advance stories of great national importance, but overuse can lead to distrust among readers and carelessness among journalists. As always, the burden of proof should lie with the reporters and their editors to show why a promise of anonymity serves the reader. From now on, only the editor or the managing editor, or other top editors they specifically appoint, will have the authority to sign off on the use of an anonymous source.

This seems to be a far cry from the initial news reports that went around briefly that stated that Newsweak would no longer use anonymous sources. They will still use them, but someone else has to sign off on them.

I have had the privilege of being part of NEWSWEEK's proud editorial tradition for nearly 35 years. I can assure you that the talented and honorable people who publish NEWSWEEK today are dedicated to making sure that what appears on every page in the magazine is as fair and accurate as it can possibly be. Based on what we know now, we fell short in our story about Guantanamo Bay. Trust is hard won and easily lost, and to our readers, we pledge to earn their renewed confidence by producing the best possible magazine each and every week.

Reread that. I'll wait a moment before typing more. Ok, let's go to this story:

With Newsweek still reeling from its forced retraction of the Quran-in-the-toilet story, the magazine is now under fire for publishing what some see as staunchly anti-American covers in foreign editions.

For instance, while a Japanese edition of Newsweek dated Feb. 2 published a cover story featuring an American flag in a trash can under the headline, "The day America died," and the international edition featured a photo of President Bush with the headline, "America Leads … But Is Anyone Following?," the U.S. edition cover story was an "Oscar Confidential" featuring Hilary Swank, Jamie Foxx and Leonardo DiCaprio

I guess Newsweak means that they will do a better job of hiding their anti-American sentiment in the future. Not much of a proud history there. Considering Newsweak is more like People then a news magazine, perhaps they should just go whole hog and become a Hollyweird mag.

BTW, I wonder if Arianna will notice that I am hosting the photo on my own site?

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