WP: Newsweek Curbs Unnamed Sources: Koran Story Led to Rule Change

Newsweek Curbs Unnamed Sources
Koran Story Led to Rule Change

By Howard Kurtz
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, May 23, 2005; Page A02


Newsweek Chairman Richard M. Smith, responding to a week of criticism over a retracted story about the desecration of the Koran, said yesterday that the magazine is restricting its use of anonymous sources.

"The cryptic phrase 'sources said' will never again be the sole attribution for a story in Newsweek," Smith wrote in a letter to readers.

The retracted item, which sparked violent protests in Afghanistan and elsewhere that killed 16 people, relied on one unnamed government official in saying that military investigators had confirmed that U.S. guards at the Guantanamo Bay detention facility had flushed a copy of the Koran down the toilet. The item was attributed to "sources," although there was only a single source, who Newsweek said later backed off his account.

Smith, in announcing the new rules, said that "to the extent that our story played a role in contributing to . . . violence, we are deeply sorry." Administration officials have sharply criticized Newsweek for irresponsibility, and both the National Review and the New York Post have run cover images of toilets in denigrating the credibility of Newsweek and the mainstream media. Afghan President Hamid Karzai, appearing on CNN, yesterday dismissed the item from the magazine's "Periscope" section as appearing in a "gossip column."

At Newsweek, owned by The Washington Post Co., the burden will now be on reporters to show why anonymity is necessary, Smith wrote. Only the editor, managing editor and other editors they appoint will have the authority to approve the use of unnamed sources, he said. Smith said the magazine will try harder to help readers understand the nature of the source's access to information and motives for remaining anonymous. If that "puts us at a competitive disadvantage," he said, "so be it."...


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/22/AR2005052200864.html

NOT *!!!

Although I agree with the rules change, I fear it just signals that another news outlet sucks BFEE ass, big time.

Not just that. He's a war criminal.

Of course, you would print that if you weren't afraid of the BFEE.

"...relied on one unnamed government official in saying that military investigators had confirmed that U.S. guards...

Not that this type of thing did NOT happen, it did, on multiple occasions. The mistake was saying that it was confirmed in a U.S. Government report.

The Washington Post's Howard Kurtz and The Washington Post (parent company of Newsweek) are the ONLY newspaper that consistently reports this story correctly, not the Spin version, Echoed by every other paper on the Planet.

<<SNIP>>
http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGBEEFVC29E.html

Newsweek Revamps Source Policies Following Story About Quran in Toilet

By Desmond Butler Associated Press Writer
Published: May 23, 2005


NEW YORK (AP) - Newsweek has announced plans to limit the magazine's use of anonymous sources following a scandal in which one of its stories was blamed for deadly protests in Afghanistan.
In a letter to readers appearing in Monday's edition, Newsweek Chairman and Editor-in-Chief Richard Smith apologized for the original report and said the magazine will raise standards for unnamed sources.

Two of the magazine's top editors will be assigned sole responsibility for approving the use of such sources, and the magazine will stop using the phrase "sources said" to attribute information in stories, Smith said.

"We got an important story wrong, and honor requires us to admit our mistake and redouble our efforts to make sure that nothing like this ever happens again," he wrote.

<</SNIP>>