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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Heart of Newsweek story needs pursuit

Rosabeth Moss Kanter Knight Ridder

To the editors at Newsweek who let the Quran-in-the-toilet reference slip by: Farewell! If you’re not already packing your bags, you will be soon.

Recognize the imbalance of power in your situation. You can’t win nor break even. Government is in the propaganda business, spinning information for political purposes. You’re in the truth business. You must get it right, or else.

You’re trying to control the damage. You reacted fast with an apology, and when that wasn’t enough, issued a full retraction of your story. Now I imagine that you’re feeling embattled and defensive, wondering what more anyone could expect you to do. I assume you’re relieved to be off the front pages, hoping that if you lie low, the story will fade. You declined to comment on White House spokesman Scott McClellan’s suggestion that you should help repair the U.S. image abroad.

But the story isn’t over. Unlike a manufacturer that can recall a defective product, you can’t take back words. And now you’ve become the story. That’s dangerous. It means that your actions can be viewed as self-serving, designed to save your job. Inevitably, further attacks on your credibility lie ahead.

Let me remind you of another politically charged media saga, with lessons about the ebb and flow of public confidence.

On May 29, 2003, British Broadcasting Corp . reporter Andrew Gilligan alleged that Prime Minister Tony Blair’s government had “sexed up” intelligence reports of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. The government protested immediately. When it was later revealed that Gilligan had exaggerated the position of his source in British intelligence, BBC Chief Executive Greg Dyke and Board Chairman Gavyn Davies acknowledged mistakes.

Government scientist David Kelly was exposed as Gilligan’s source, and in mid-July, 2003, Kelly was found dead in the woods near his country house, an apparent suicide. Within hours of the identification of Kelly’s body, the government announced that Lord Hutton, a senior judge, would oversee an independent judicial inquiry of the BBC and its broadcast. Inside the BBC, soul-searching and self-criticism led to revised editorial guidelines.

The Hutton Report, issued on Jan. 28, 2004, exonerated the government of any embellishment of intelligence about WMD in Iraq and severely criticized BBC management and editorial processes. Davies resigned that day, Dyke the next. Dyke e-mailed all staff, saying that his leaving was necessary “to draw a line under this whole affair.”

That afternoon, an estimated 3,000 people mobbed the streets outside BBC studios in an unprecedented display of support for a chief executive. In opinion polls, a strong majority of the British public said they trusted the BBC to tell the truth, twice as many as trusted the government to tell the truth. Demonstrators outside the Prime Minister’s residence burned the Hutton report, some carrying signs reading “BLIAR.” A post-Hutton inquiry was announced, this time aimed at government intelligence about WMDs.

Just before this month’s British elections, evidence surfaced that the original BBC story might have been correct. It was revealed that Attorney General Lord Goldsmith’s advice in March 2003 about the legality of going to war in Iraq was equivocal and full of caveats. During a TV interview, Prime Minister Blair reversed his original denial that he had a role in leaking David Kelly’s name to the press. But Dyke and Davies were long gone.

Flash forward to your plight as Newsweek editors. Your incident could become a drama that unfolds over months, not days. Like the BBC, you might be right in the essence of your story, but you were nailed on one detail. Unfortunately, that detail was implicated in riots that caused 17 deaths in the Muslim world. Enemies of press freedom will use this episode to clamp down on all media, not just Newsweek.

Now is your chance to resign with honor, before you’re forced out. Knowing when to exit the stage is a leadership skill. If you bow out now, you live to fight another day. And your excellent magazine can continue to focus attention on the important story: Just what is the U.S. government doing in Guantanamo, Iraq and Afghanistan?