Two problems with your post.

One, this was not hard news. It wasn’t news at all. Evidently it was fiction.

Secondly, an inflammatory story like this can cause violence — especially in the middle-east where violence is inflamed quite easily. Comparing it to the questionable effects of a video game is faulty logic at best and disingenuous at worst.

And the Arab “street” believes it because they keep hearing it from the liberal anti-American media as well as their own anti-American outlets.

By The Wandering Mind on 05.20.05 7:15 am

Point accepted about my somewhat faulty comparison, although I doubt Newsweek was trying to be anti-American, just pro-”we got the scoop first.” My biggest fear is the danger of blaming the messenger. Today, there is a photo of Saddam Hussein in his underwear in a London tabloid. If there are riots, is the newspaper the only one accountable? Still, this is “wartime” and I agree that the press can be more aware of how their stories can affect our soldiers overseas.

By Neil on 05.20.05 8:17 am

Hmmm, no, the newspaper would not be accountable for publishing the photos of Saddam because they are the real thing — assuming it isn’t a photoshop deal which is always a possibility these days - LOL!

The photos are news — albeit probably not as big a news story as it should be — I mean underwear? Jeeze, everything is the National Inquirer these days.

And the person who should be blamed for the photos is the DOD person who leaked them. Doing so served no valid purpose that I can see and has only hurt our both our image and the safety of our troops.

I smell courts martial if they can find out who did it.

By The Wandering Mind on 05.20.05 10:31 am

[...] Sadly, we lost touch after that first comment, so I’d like to also thank the first commenter that still reads me and that I consider a blogging friend — the former TWM, now at Not So Confidential. [...]

By Citizen of the Month » The Second Annual Thanksgiving “Thank Your First Commenter” Day on 11.22.06 10:35 am