Via Atrios, here’s Editor & Publisher on the latest nonsense from the White House podium:

At a White House press briefing Monday, Press Secretary Scott McClellan, pressed by reporters and with Afghan President Karzai in disagreement, retreated on claims that Newsweek’s retracted story on Koran abuse cost lives in Afghanistan.

He also claimed that he had never said it did, even though a check of transcripts disputes that. On May 16, for example, he said, “people have lost their lives.” On May 17, he said, “People did lose their lives,” and, “People lost their lives” due to the Newsweek report.

And let’s not forget Larry DiRita, the Pentagon spokesman who told Newsweek, “People are dead because of what this son of a bitch [the Newsweek source] said. How could he be credible now?”