Christie Hefner: Bush Administration Has Obligation to Clean Up Newsweek's Mess

Come again? Now I know why Playboy has become so virulently leftist that it's unreadable; it's the daughter's influence. Hefner, blogging a storm up at ol' Huff'n'Puff', belches forth the following:

Let�s ask why the Koran story was credible in the first place. Might it have something to do with the accurately reported (in words and pictures) horrible actions that took place at Abu Ghraib, and allegedly at Guantanamo Bay? Might those events be the source of �lasting damage� to our reputation abroad, especially among Muslim people?

And what�s with the notion that an independent media has an obligation to �help repair the damage?� That obligation is our government�s.

I don't know what's worse, the unbelievably condescending attitude on display or the incomprehensibility of Hefner's position. Under what possible mode of logic is the Bush administration obligated to clean up after Newsweek?

I'm not stupid, and neither are you; we know damn well what Hefner's doing...she's trying to get the reader to accept the canard that because a few idiots did some stupid things at Abu Ghraib, somehow it's acceptable for Newsweek to run a poorly sourced inflammatory allegation, because it's plausible. (Furthermore, she wants you to completely absolve Newsweek of wrongdoing...who printed that false allegation? Why, it was the Abu Ghraib crew...). This is deplorable, and if this is really the new standard, the 60 Minutes II, Newsweek rule of false but possible, then the MSM is in worse trouble than anyone imagines.

No excuses, please - Newsweek ran a story that should have never been run, and people died needlessly. That's the long and the short of it.