As the fallout over the Newsweek story retraction continues, Pakistan dismissed the apology and retraction by the magazine as inadequate.
The report in the magazine’s May 9 issue sparked protests across the Muslim world, from Afghanistan, where 16 people were killed and more than 100 injured, to Pakistan, India, Indonesia and Gaza.
“The apology and retraction are not enough,” Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed told Reuters.
“They should understand the sentiments of Muslims and think 101 times before publishing news which hurt feelings of Muslims.”
I’ve got a breaking news report for all the Muslim world – Newsweek doesn’t get it. They didn’t get it before and they don’t get it now. The drama that played out yesterday was a public relations move, pure and simple. It was not the beginning of new reporting policies. It was not a confession from any of the ‘professionals’ there. In other words, it’s business as usual for many at Newsweek.
The Main Stream Media (MSM) is not an easily turned vessel. It will take more than a few mistakes by a few reporters to adjust this institution. As we know, they didn’t change after Rathergate, and nothing changed after the Jason Blair affair. It is naive to think that any major change will happen over this misaligned Newsweek story.
It will take time, but things will change. Just don’t set your watch by it.
So for now, take a breath, relax. The blogosphere can easily beat this horse into oblivion. Don’t. We should move on and await the next goof by the MSM. It will happen, and the bloggers will be there to expose it and demand changes. One by one, these milestones will result in a reformation of the MSM. The metamorphosis will not be hurried along.