No Such Thing As Bad Publicity

Thanks to Andrew Sullivan and Howard Kurtz, my Newsweek post is causing quite a stir on the liberal side of the blogosphere.

But for one update in the post, it would not have gotten much notice. Here’s the offending paragraph:

Update (11:06 a.m.): Let me clear up one thing. Whether Americans flushed the Koran down the toilet is irrelevant. Newsweek should not have reported it, even if true. It’s common sense, people. Those journalists knew how Muslims would react! Why would you hurt your own country and risk more deaths just to report this “fact?” To what end???

America-hating morons media!

I closed comments on the Newsweek post before the controversy erupted but left trackbacks open. I haven’t deleted any liberal blogger’s trackback so far, and I won’t as long as their responses are relatively civil.

I stand by what I wrote. Newsweek shouldn’t report a true account of Americans flushing a Koran. Reporters make news judgments all the time, and in my opinion, the inflammatory nature of the “fact” would outweigh any newsworthiness. But as it turns out, the information can’t be confirmed, which is why the rag retracted that part of the story. That’s a confirmed fact.

And contrary to the meme floating around, this has nothing to do with “government censorship.” No government official asked Newsweek not to report the Koran flushing nor prevented them from publishing the information. But people will believe what they want. I’m no government or Bush administration apologist.

The post, subsequent updates, and this entire blog provide ample reasons why I hold the views I do. The post has moved further down, so I wanted to call your attention to the continuing controversy. The story is still evolving, and many peripheral issues are being discussed. I’ve blogged about some of them before. For instance, America’s suicidal tendencies.

I’ve said what I had to say about Newsweek on the blog; however, my detractors have inspired me to pen an op-ed about this whole mess, including their defense of sloppy, irresponsible reporting that’s nothing more than thinly disguised anti-America propaganda. In wartime, no doubt.

I’ve been blogging since November 2003, and it took this long for me to “get” the old show biz motto: There’s no such thing as bad publicity.