The Newsweek affair continues to bother me, because of the widespread assumption, perpetuated on the Right, that the magazine (with which I have no personal association) 'lied' in order to smear American soldiers, and therefore deliberately endangered our troops. In fact, they repeated a story - about throwing a Koran in a toilet - which came from Guantanmo inmates, and erroneously claimed the story would be confirmed by an official investigation. That's very, very different from lying in a deliberate attempt to endanger Americans.What, I ask, is the difference between an error and a lie when you want the error to be true badly enough that your judgement dismisses any argument that a rational person would consider before committing themselves?
THAT is why Newsweek lied. Like Dan Rather and the pre-election smear on Bush, they couldn't, couldn't, consider any alternative because they wanted it so badly to be true.
And what does that say about them? It says they lack integrity.
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