Selective accountability
A Times EditorialThe Bush administration's indignation over an erroneous Newsweek story about desecration of the Koran at Guantanamo is self-serving and hypocritical.
Published May 19, 2005
Newsweek failed to meet basic journalism standards when it printed an item based on a single anonymous source that claimed American interrogators flushed a Koran, the holy text of Islam, down the toilet at Guantanamo Bay. After the report ignited anti-American violence in parts of the Muslim world, the magazine's source - identified as a senior government official - backed off his original account. Newsweek issued a retraction and now journalists everywhere are re-examining their own reporting practices, especially their use of anonymous sources. Yet the Bush administration's indignant response about the damage the error has done to America's image abroad is self-serving, and its sanctimonious lectures to reporters about accountability are, to put it mildly, hypocritical.
The retracted report about the desecration of the Koran resonated because it fit neatly into a pattern of confirmed abuse and misconduct by Americans interrogating Muslim prisoners in Iraq and Guantanamo. The torture and humiliation at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq have been well-documented. So have the abhorrent tactics used on prisoners at Guantanamo, where released detainees previously have complained that American soldiers threw the Koran into the toilet and disrespected it in other ways.
The Bush administration has reacted with more outrage about Newsweek's error than it has about confirmed abuses that have fueled hatred for America in the Muslim world. No high-ranking officials have been held accountable for the sickening abuses at Abu Ghraib. There has been no retreat from interrogation practices that would be considered torture by any definition other than the contorted one the White House hides behind. The collective weight of these abuses created the atmosphere that enabled Islamic extremists to seize upon the Newsweek item days after it was published and trigger demonstrations in Pakistan and Afghanistan, where at least 17 were killed.
Newsweek made serious mistakes that can only further erode the credibility of news organizations. A veteran reporter relied on a single anonymous source when more confirmation should have been required. A Pentagon official challenged one part of the item but not the part about the Koran, which apparently was taken as an affirmation. The magazine did not have the document it was writing about in hand. But it is absurd for the Bush administration to suggest Newsweek help rehabilitate America's image and to admonish reporters about accountability.
This White House is one of the most secretive in history. It tightly controls what administration officials say for attribution and insists on background briefings where the speakers cannot be named. It refuses to release documents on prisoner abuse, Vice President Dick Cheney's meetings with special interests on energy policy and any number of other subjects. The president's personal distaste for self-examination extends to the entire federal government.
Journalists should be accountable for their work and hold themselves to the highest standards. When we make mistakes, we should acknowledge them and explain ourselves. So should the Bush administration.