Rumsfeld Hates the Media - Round 67

Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld hates the media, unless of course, he is able to manipulate it to his own ends. Then it's an endless love affair with the propaganda machine.

Rumsfeld told reporters at the Pentagon that he thought the news coverage since the February 22 bombing of a revered Shiite shrine in Iraq had been filled with inaccurate information that would inflame the situation there.

He based his comments on remarks made Friday by U.S. Army Gen. George Casey, the top-ranking U.S. military official in Iraq.

"From what I've seen thus far, much of the reporting in the U.S. and abroad has exaggerated the situation, according to General Casey," Rumsfeld said. "The number of attacks on mosques, as he pointed out, had been exaggerated. The number of Iraqi deaths had been exaggerated."
[...]
On Friday, Casey said the military had confirmed about 30 mosque attacks and about 350 civilian deaths. CNN and other media outlets, citing local officials, have reported more than 100 mosque attacks and at least 500 deaths during the same time.

Let's get real here. This is the same military operation that tried to sell a false story about the rescue of Jessica what's her name and said that Pat Tillman was a hero killed by terrorists - which they later had to admit was a big, fat lie. We're supposed to believe what the military supposedly confirms? Right. I don't think so.

Rumsfeld continued:

He said Iraqis have "looked into the abyss and have said, 'This is not where we want to go. We want to have calm. We want to have a peaceful future.'

He forgot to mention that they also looked into the abyss and told the Americans to get the hell out of their country because they're making the situation worse - not the media reports.

The day Rumsfeld starts telling the truth is the day I'll start believing him. In the meantime, pretty much anything that comes out of his mouth is bullshit. At least the media tells the truth more than he does. That's not saying much, but we certainly can't hold Rumsfeld up as some shining beacon of openness and transparency. He's as thick as a brick and has a head just as hard to match.

What ever happened to that Republican mantra of "taking personal responsibility"? Oh. I forgot. That only applies to everyone else but them.