Hey Pot, Kettle called to tell you that you're black...

It's not everyday that such a clear example of irony and hypocrisy presents itself on the world stage. Well with the Bush cabal in charge it happens at lot more than one would hope for, but today's is a classic.

The White House using the recent Newsweek article (which they vetted and whose claims came from Administration sources regarding a government report) claiming that US officials desecrated the Koran at Gitmo by flushing it down a toilet. Apparently, the White House is claiming this to be the sole reason for recent riots and uprisings in Afghanistan and other predominantly-Muslim countries throughout the Middle East (though I have a hard time with that, perhaps it was one factor among others). So everyone is blaming Newsweek for this violence that has led to numerous deaths.

Well, smelling blood in the water, the White House decided to attack the "liberal media" generally, and Newsweek specifically, stating that the inaccurate report based on an anonymous source has damaged the U.S. image overseas. But the juice is all in the quote. Are you ready for this one? Take it Scotty...

"It's puzzling that while Newsweek now acknowledges that they got the facts wrong, they refused to retract the story," White House spokesman Scott McClellan said. "I think there's a certain journalistic standard that should be met and in this instance it was not."

"The report has had serious consequences," McClellan said. "People have lost their lives. The image of the United States abroad has been damaged."

McClellan lecturing the media about a “journalistic standard that should be met?” Claiming that Newsweek is what has done the most damage to the U.S. image abroad?Isn't there also a political standard of accountability that should be met as well? Aren't the lives of over 100,000 people, American soldiers included, serious enough consequences for the President to apologize for his actions? Even if the Newsweek reports were wrong and the Koran was never flushed down any toilet, there is so much rage right now against America in so many areas of the world that the mere mention of such an act in an American magazine (and not a very good one at that) can cause people to become so violent. That is not Newsweek's fault. They were trying to do their job, if imperfectly. And they should be criticized for that. But that violence is a result of Bush's policies and actions. If we are talking about responsibility, let's have McClellan lecture Bush next time and not the news media.