Posted 9:02 AM by steve

Courtesy of Instapundit, I see that Austin Bay is calling the Newsweek story the Press' Abu Ghraib... that a relatively minor mistake, due to technology and the like, became a major international story with negative ramifications for the United States.

While there's no doubt that Newsweek made a mistake, I think those who are jumping all over Newsweek (Roger Kimball, Powerline, Nick Gillespie, Michelle Malkin, La Shawn Barber, among others)ought to keep the Abu Ghraib analogy in mind. When that scandal broke, many on the right - including those now criticizing Newsweek - were the biggest proponents of not extending the blame beyond the individuals directly responsible for the abuses. They were the ones defending against critics who wished to indict the entire military and civilian leadership for, if not directly ordering those abuses, creating a climate in which such abuses could take place.

The same holds true now. Hold Isikoff, Bureau Chief Dan Klaidman and the direct editors responsible. Have them resign. Have an investigation into who knew what, when they knew it, what procedures were in place to prevent such mistakes from happening and how they weren't followed.

But if we weren't willing to indict Bush over Abu Ghraib, we shouldn't be so quick to jump to conclusions here either.

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