One of the chief editors of Newsweek was on Nightline last night. Man, they put him through the wringer. Although he finally (after much prompting), admitted Newsweek was wrong, his principle justification was this:
They had taken the article to the White House Administration for confirmation. Because the administration had only commented on a different section of the story, and not the section about the Koran, Newsweek took that as "confirmation" of the truth of the Koran story, thus they were basically in the clear to publish an incendiary anecdote.
Today, I heard on the radio that no one would be fired at Newsweek for what happened.
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