In his Washington Post column this morning, Howard Kurtz seems to take the position that it’s debatable whether Newsweek really has an anti-American bias, asking “Has Newsweek’s retracted [Koran] story simply handed the right a new club with which to beat journalists?”

It may be a fake story, you see, but it’s accurate. Abu Ghraib! Abu Ghraib!

“Now it’s Newsweek’s job to repair the image of the U.S.?” scoffs liberal radio host Stephanie Miller. “It’s amazing they want Newsweek to take accountability when no one in the administration has taken accountability for either the unnecessary war or Abu Ghraib.

“This is part of the chilling effect the administration wants to have on the media, an attempt to shut down any further investigative reporting. Most of the media is so scared they’ll do anything not to appear liberal.”

One other parallel: Some people believe that the Koran desecration, as alleged by a number of detainees, is “likely true,” as Miller put it, just as former CBS producer Mary Mapes says the botched National Guard story is still true. The appalling abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib certainly makes seem the Koran incident seem plausible. But as CBS and now Newsweek have learned, believing something could well be true is a long way from journalistically proving it.

Thesis: anti-American and anti-military bias is rampant at Newsweek. Journalistic proof: the February 2, 2005 Japanese edition.

The Washington Post, by the way, owns Newsweek.

UPDATE at 5/23/05 7:41:56 am:

Here’s some more journalistic evidence of duplicitous bias at Newsweek, with an American cover featuring Spiderman and an international edition hyping Michael Moore: Idiotprogrammer: 2 Newsweek Covers.

UPDATE at 5/23/05 8:05:00 am:

Rick Adams has translated some sections of the Newsweek issue shown above:

The red text at the left just above the “Newsweek” logo says:

“America forsaken.”

The big white and yellow text says:

“The Day America Died — The ideal of ‘freedom’ falls to the ground due to Bush continuing in office.”