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October 13, 2007

Old Media Trumpets Sanchez Iraq War Critique

But Fails to Report Stinging Rebuke of Media

The Old Media is abuzz today following remarks by retired Gen. Ricardo Sanchez that are critical of the management of the war in Iraq. His comments seem to cast a negative light on the Bush administration and every official and department involved to any degree in the war.

Associated Press: Ex-general: 'No end in sight' in Iraq

USA Today: Gen. Sanchez assails Bush, others for Iraq 'nightmare'

New York Times: Ex-Commander Says Iraq Effort Is ‘a Nightmare’

Missing from these stories is the blistering criticism of the press. Only a Polish news outlet reported the remarks: Former Iraq Commander Sanchez Accuses Press of Perpetrating The Corrosive Partisan Politics That Is Killing American Troops

Some overlooked gems: "I HAVE ISSUED ULTIMATUMS TO SOME OF YOU FOR UNSCRUPULOUS REPORTING THAT WAS SOLELY FOCUSED ON SUPPORTING YOUR AGENDA AND PRECONCIEVED NOTIONS OF WHAT OUR MILITARY HAD DONE. I ALSO REFUSED TO TALK TO THE EUROPEAN STARS AND STRIPES FOR THE LAST TWO YEARS OF MY COMMAND IN GERMANY FOR THEIR EXTREME BIAS AND SINGLE MINDED FOCUS ON ABU GHARAIB."

"FOR SOME, IT SEEMS THAT AS LONG AS YOU GET A FRONT PAGE STORY THERE IS LITTLE OR NO REGARD FOR THE "COLLATERAL DAMAGE" YOU WILL CAUSE. PERSONAL REPUTATIONS HAVE NO VALUE AND YOU REPORT WITH TOTAL IMPUNITY AND ARE RARELY HELD ACCOUNTABLE FOR UNETHICAL CONDUCT."

"FINALLY, I WILL LEAVE THIS SUBJECT WITH A QUESTION THAT WE MUST ASK OURSELVES--WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR MAINTAINING THE ETHICAL STANDARDS OF THE PROFESSION IN ORDER TO ENSURE THAT OUR DEMOCRACY DOES NOT CONTINUE TO BE THREATENED BY THIS DANGEROUS SHIFT AWAY FROM YOUR SACRED DUTY OF PUBLIC ENLIGHTENMENT?"

Read the TRANSCRIPT and be educated to the real story of Iraq War reporting as seen through the eyes of one of the commanders in the field.

I discuss this subject at length in my book, "The Great Media War: A Battlefield Report". I relate an incident involving Gen. Sanchez in an Oval Office photo-op and my question about it:

At the height of the furor over allegations of prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib, many of my questions reflected the singularity of the press corps’ agenda. The group focused only on those events that portrayed the Bush administration and the American military in a negative light and ignored events that tended to mitigate their sensational impact. The reporters wanted to portray George Bush as more evil than Saddam Hussein. I tried to inject some balance into the weeks of relentless badgering about Abu Ghraib:

Q: Despite warnings that the release of the Abu Ghraib pictures might put Americans in danger, CBS went ahead and did it anyway. The feeding frenzy over these photos has been briefly interrupted by the video of Nick Berg being brutally beheaded. But they won’t show that on the air. Do you find any inconsistency with regard to the media treatment for releasing these photographs they knew would inflame the Arab street, but not airing something that they also know would inflame the American street, or at least the center and the right part of it?
– White House Press Briefing, May 12, 2004

I continued to draw out the White House to comment on the impact negative reporting had on the morale of troops in the field and Americans who supported the war:

Q: Scott, I frequently communicate with soldiers stationed in Iraq. And many of them ask me why only the bad news about Iraq is reported in the American media. More than one has told me how demoralizing it is to hear so much about the Abu Ghraib pictures, and so little about the murder and annihilation of American contractors and the beheading of Nicholas Berg. Can I get you to comment on the negative impact our reporting is having on the morale of our troops?

MR. McCLELLAN: One, I always try to avoid being a media critic from this podium. I’m here to address your questions….

Q: Okay. But is it time to take the filter off again? Is it time to go around the filter? Because, you know – because there are men and women that we have sent to defend our country that are hearing nothing but bad news in the press.

MR. McCLELLAN: Your point is well taken…. We removed a brutal regime from power, a regime that, when its economy started going down, went and found seven merchants and tried to blame that on those merchants and had their hands cut off and Xs put on their heads. That was the kind of brutal, oppressive regime that has been removed from power. And thanks to the gratitude of some Americans, those individuals came to the United States and received prosthetic hands. And they met with the President the other day….

Q: They met with the President, right, Scott. They met with the President in the Oval Office and not one question was asked to those gentlemen about their torture in Abu Ghraib. The first question was about whether General Sanchez was being rotated out of Iraq because of the scandal.
– White House Press Briefing, May 28, 2004

In this unusual dialog with McClellan, I pointed out that seven Iraqi merchants had met with President Bush a few days earlier in the Oval Office. Saddam Hussein ordered the men to be tortured at Abu Ghraib and their hands cut off. Their “crime” had been accepting American dollars at their shops. When the press pool entered the Oval Office for the photo op of President Bush and these survivors of Saddam Hussein’s tyranny, reporters asked no question about those men or the reason they were there. All of the questions remained focused on allegations of brutality committed by American troops.

Posted by jeffgannon at October 13, 2007 09:29 AM

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