It would be one thing if the magazine had been unprofessional in its handling of the story but at least by its own account, the magazine was not. In the wisdom of hindsight, sure, a second, specifically corroborating source should have been required, but a seasoned reporter and his editors relied on a familiar if anonymous source who had a record of reliability and the magazine went to the distinctly uncommon length of having the Pentagon review the piece before printing it. No one along the way raised a red flag.

In effect, then, a reporter got burned by a source, apparently inadvertently, and Newsweek has properly retracted the story and apologized.

So much for that — or so you would think. Journalism can be expected to be error free when auto-makers no longer need to issue safety recalls and the term “product liability” drops from legal jargon because of disuse.

Hypocritical scolding?

But a grand hoo-ha continues to be stirred up over the incident, not least, in a classic moment of the pot calling the kettle black, by the White House's repeated scolding of the magazine. Lord, the hubris of this administration that had everything wrong about Saddam Hussein except his general vileness striking a holier-than-thou pose on an issue of falsity.

Why land like a ten-ton bomb on a news magazine for what, at bottom and despite the dire consequences in the street, finally was just a garden-variety error?

Because this has become another skirmish in the on-going culture war. Newsweek is the moment's target of opportunity.

There has been a game afoot on the right for some time now to discredit the mainstream media and its leading institutions. Conservatives endlessly bellyache about the supposed liberal bias of every newspaper, magazine or TV network that is not overtly on their side. “Liberal” has been redefined as any utterance that is not markedly conservative.

Cow the media

The idea is to cow the media from any reporting that doesn't suit conservative ends or, failing that, to poison readers and viewers against the source.

The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, public radio and television and the commercial TV networks that aren't Fox are constantly flogged. CNN is especially vilified.

Ubiquitous right-wing radio has gone ritually bananas over the Newsweek story. Rush Limbaugh and all the Mini-Me Limbaughs have it that the story is more proof that the mainstream media hate America. It is part of the MSM's agenda to get George W. Bush. It shows the media are working hand-in-hand with al Qaida to destroy the American military.

And so on and so on.

To hear Limbaugh tear into any New York Times story is to fall down Alice's rabbit hole into a maze of distorting mirrors. The most ordinary reporting tropes are twisted into supposed evidence of a hidden liberal agenda.

Much of the commentary on the Newsweek bobble sails under false colors. You are meant to think you're hearing indignant media critiques.

Instead, you're just hearing more politics.

Tom Teepen is a columnist for Cox Newspapers. He is based in Atlanta.

© 2005 Cox Newspapers

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