fake but accurate

that's the lame damage control strategy the news media has taken after the newsweek retraction.
sound familiar? that was essentially the dan rather-cbs news defense last fall during the bush national guard memo-gate.

however, this time the entire media appears to be congealing around this strategy. the NYT's elisabeth bumiller [bugmenot login] is on the forefront:

"Newsweek's retraction dealt only with its mistaken assertion that the report on a months-long Pentagon investigation was expected to confirm the toilet accusation. But around the world, discussion continued on the larger issue of whether such abuse ever occurred at Guantánamo, as released prisoners have asserted over the years."

in the same article harvard univerity fellow marvin kalb turns the blame on the administration

"This is hardly the first time that the administration has sought to portray the American media as inadequately patriotic.... They are addressing the mistake, and not the essence of the story. The essence of the story is that the United States has been rather indelicate, to put it mildly, in the way that they have treated prisoners of war."

conservative brent bozell nails the parallels between memo-gate and flush-gate