Beating the press into submission

Now we see what the Bush Administration's agenda regarding the press is: beat those who do not report what it wants into submission or death, until the New York Post and Fox News spread the Word of Bush Throughout this Mighty Land (emphases and snarky comments mine):

The Bush administration kept up the pressure today on Newsweek magazine to do something beyond retracting an article asserting that investigators had confirmed the desecration of a Koran by American interrogators trying to unsettle Muslim detainees.

[B@B note: Perhaps ritual suicide is the only thing that will appease the Great God Bush]

"There is lasting damage to our image because of this report," the chief White House spokesman, Scott McClellan, said at a news briefing. "And we would encourage Newsweek to do all that they can to help repair the damage that has been done, particularly in the region."

[B@B note: And bombing the shit out of a country after going to war on a pack of lies doesn't do lasting damage to our image? Torturing prisoners at Abu Ghraib doesn't do lasting damage to our image? Telling the entire rest of the world to go fuck itself doesn't do lasting damage to our image? People this delusional used to be locked up and treated.]

The Bush administration was also making its own effort at damage control, sending cables to embassies, beginning last week, that instruct them to spread the word that the United States is respectful of the Koran and not hostile to the Muslim faith.

[B@B note: Bullshit. As long as the Bush Administration doesn't speak out against the Fred Phelpses and the James Dobsons in this country, its words about the Muslim faith are just that and no more.]

"There is a need to inform people, inform people what the facts are, inform people what our policy is," the State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said today. "Yesterday, we sent out another cable to our embassies giving the text of the Newsweek retraction, explaining further that our inquiries had shown nothing like this, and reiterating once more that there are policies in place, detailed policies in place, among the military for the guards in terms of the handling of the Koran, in terms of showing respect for the religious rights and practices of the detainees."

[B@B note: Well, perhaps if they informed people of the facts instead of Administration spin that is obviously bullshit, the rest of the world wouldn't react the way it does. Or maybe it would. The facts of Bush Administration policy are that ugly.]

Mr. McClellan, who called Newsweek's retraction "a good first step" shortly after the magazine issued it on Monday, said today that journalists at the magazine could do even more "by talking about the way they got this wrong and pointing out what the policies and practices of the United States military are when it comes to the handling of the holy Koran."

[B@B note: It's pretty clear from other documented sources NOT used in the Newsweek story what the military's practices are.]

When asked if he was trying to pressure the magazine, Mr. McClellan asserted that he was not. "It's not my position to get into telling people what they can and cannot report," Mr. McClellan said.

Look, I have no great love for this kind of sloppy journalism coming from the MSM for just this reason: Because the Administration will jump on it like a cat on a toy mouse. But let this be a lesson to the toadies of the press who thought that kowtowing to the party would buy them access to this White House; and to people like Michael Isikoff, who thought his Whitewater credentials would somehow insulate him from the wrath of this Administration. These guys play ugly, and they play for keeps. And the press has two choices: continue to live in fear of these guys, or expose them. So far they've chosen to live in fear. We saw some brief hints during McClellan's recent news conferences that they're getting tired of being afraid. Let's see if this continues, or if they crawl back into their craven caves after their careers are threatened by a White House that thinks the press is there to serve it instead of the American people.

[And by the way, do you think that all this righteous indignation about Newsweek has anything to do with the fact that the Downing Street memo is starting to hit the large metropolitan newspapers?]