Bad and Worse

The story of the Newsweek debacle rolls on. Here is the New York Times account; tellingly, it takes the lines of defense first floated by Newsweek:

(1) Why didn't the Pentagon "warn" Newsweek off the story? (In other words, it's the Pentagon's fault, and with it lies the responsibility to vet, verify or disprove every piece).

(2) The U.S. may not have done that particular bad thing, but it's done other bad things . . . at least according to some of the detainees. (Conveniently, it's rare to find anything in the MSM like the last line of this piece, which points out that Al Qaeda handbooks instruct followers to make false claims).

Seems to me that the follow up coverage by the MSM on the Newsweek debacle is only making a bad situation worse, at least in terms of public relations within the US.