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Monday, May 16, 2005

Damage Done

When the news is as bleak and shameful as the Newsweek retraction of the desecrated Koran story, the only place to turn for words is to the poets.

I remember hearing that "a team of horses can not pull back the spoken word." I don't know to whom to attribute that quote, but it's extremely pertinent to current events.

John Greenleaf Whittier professed "For all sad words of tongue and pen, The saddest are these, 'It might have been'."

It might have been avoided, all of the anger, death, and destruction that resulted from this discredited story. But it wasn't. People died violently, more people suffered terrible injuries, for the lofty purpose of selling magazines. To these depths has MSM sunk.

It might have been better if the story had been carefully, methodically investigated from the start.
It might have been wiser to find a corroborating source.
It might have been smarter to remember past media mistakes before rushing into print.
It might have been more thoughtful to consider the impact upon our troops in harm's way.
It might have been more intelligent to think of the reactions of foreign allies who have been helping us in the Middle East.

If only, if only...if only I could say it like Shakespeare:

O call back yesterday,
bid time return
- Richard II, Act III, Scene 2