Another one, from the Albany Times-Union:

...One incident, however alarming, can't justify any subsequent pressure on the media, external or internal, to suppress thorough and critical coverage of U.S.-supervised detention camps and prisons from Guantanamo Bay in Cuba to Abu Ghraib in Iraq. More investigation is needed, not less. Incidents of Quran desecration had previously been reported at Guantanamo, for instance. Now is not the time to stop such reporting....

Newsweek erred in several regards. Reliance on a single source, particularly for such an explosive story, is a treacherous practice. Every bit as troubling is its submission of an unpublished version of the story to a Pentagon official to review for accuracy. For the official not to challenge the account of the Quran desecration is hardly the same as verifying that it happened.

If that requires a public trial of a mass circulation news magazine, let's be very careful whom we accept as the prosecutor.

Who has the clean hands and untarnished credibility?

Folks, I think this may be solidifying into conventional wisdom: that Newsweek was unprofessional (I disagree), but that the White House's response is downright dangerous.

I make it a rule not to link to Glenn Reynolds, but I see that Herr Dr. Dr. Instapundit believes the Newsweek story might be a tipping point. I have a feeling he's right -- but not at all the kind of tipping point he has in mind. A watershed moment in public disgust at the "legacy media"? Oh, please. As Roy at Alicublog says, outside the blogosphere it just isn't that big a story. A watershed moment in the press's willingness to be beaten like a rented mule? Now, there's your tipping point.