An interesting exchange. Here's the right-wing blogosphere's case:
"What we said was that Newsweek should have corroborated their single source before publishing that rumor, and that reprinting allegations by terrorist detainees of abuse without any corroborating evidence of their truth was highly irresponsible. It's a far cry from publishing these baseless allegations as fact -- and the basis of what turned out to be a non-existent pending report of proven misconduct -- and publishing editorial cartoons that express an opinion."
Point taken. But Anne is on the side of the angels in this dispute. And what the right-wing blogosphere avoided in its piling on against the Newsweek Koran story is that, although the actual incident was false and Newsweek deserved a shellacking in that respect, the broader phenomenon was true. The Koran was abused at Gitmo - deliberately, at the beginning. The government's own investigation found this to be true; and others cite evidence showing that it was much more widespread at one point. Exposing abuse and torture legally sanctioned by the president is not, pace Powerline, "a media assault on the American armed forces." It's a media defense of the American armed forces, from the policy decisions of their civilian superior; and their fawning followers in the more partisan parts of the blogosphere.