Friday, May 27, 2005

Memeorandum neutral?

See Update below! Memeorandum innocent.

I thought Memeorandum was a neutral site dedicated to flagging the most commented on stories of the day.
Memeorandum: Pentagon Substantiates Cases of Koran Mistreatment - WaPo - Posted 4 hours ago
Actual WaPo Headline: Pentagon Confirms Koran Incidents - "Mishandling" Cases Preceded Guidelines Established in 2003

Where is the mistreatment? Oh, here it is;
"accidental touching of the holy book" and
"bumping into the holy book" and
"stacked two Korans on a television set".

Now, the NYT, which covers the same report as the WaPo article, chooses to present exactly the same information to its dear readers this way:
Inquiry by U.S. Finds 5 Cases of Koran Harm

And the "harm" found by NYT?
"accidentally touched the Koran" and
"touched it within the scope of his duties" and
"stood over the Islamic holy book during an interrogation"

Reuters says: Guantanamo probe finds 5 Koran mishandling cases.
Reuters repeats the dastardly incidents related above.

I see. Touching accidentally or within the scope of one’s duties or standing over the book during an interrogation? My God! What could be worse?

Impeach Bush! Jail Rumsfeld! Assassinate Lincoln! Hang Aaron Burr!

Would someone please wake me when this is over?

Stayed awake long enough to link to: Betsy, Cori Dauber, Anchoress, Gandelman, John Cole, Patrick Ruffini, Ezra Klein, Michelle Malkin, Tom Maguire

UPDATE: Memeorandum innocent! Gabe and Tom both tell me what happened. WaPo changed the headline but left the story intact (see comments 1 and 2)
Thanks for the explanation.
.

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