Newsweek's imbroglio

Accounts this morning that Newsweek has retracted the bit they wrote about the Koran being flushed down a toilet in Guatánamo Bay. It did so at request of the Pentagon and the White House, who say they found it

... "puzzling" that Newsweek had not retracted the article. "There is a certain journalistic standard that should be met," [White House spokesman Scott McClellan] said, "and in this case it was not."

The Pentagon has apparently also expressed "surprising" anger (read that a day or two ago; will link once I find the quote), having been given a chance to vet the article, and not objected to the bit about the descration of the Koran.

The White House also says:

After Newsweek retracted the article in the afternoon, Mr. McClellan called it a "good first step."

Mr. McClellan and other administration officials blamed the Newsweek article for setting off the anti-American violence that swept Afghanistan and Pakistan. "The report had real consequences," Mr. McClellan said. "People have lost their lives. Our image abroad has been damaged."

WOW. Blame the press for inciting this violence? Blame Newsweek for people (read: Americans) losing their lives? This strikes me as dangerous spinning, folks. Of course it has nothing to do with anything the administration may or may not have had an indirect hand in -- America's treatment of prisoners all over the Islamic world, from Guatánamo to Abu Ghraib ...

I have to run to work. Maybe I'll try to figure out wireless on the shuttle today and finish this. But -- holy crap!!