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December 24, 2004

Associated Press At It Again

Powerline points out that the Associated Press is to be viewed with the utmost skepticism as a news source. This is particularly true when they publish anything related to the Bush administration. It seems as if the AP is at it again in their coverage of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's trip to Mosul:

The questions from the troops for Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld were considerably more friendly on his Christmas Eve visit to Iraq than they were on his previous trip to the region a couple of weeks ago.

Two weeks ago at a forward base in Kuwait, a handful of soldiers openly challenged him about inadequate equipment and long deployments.

Rumsfeld cut off their complaints by saying, "You go to war with the Army you have, not the Army you might want or wish to have." That set off a wave of criticism of the defense chief's brusque manner.

I watched that exchange a couple of weeks ago, and Donald Rumsfeld did anything BUT cut off the "complaints" of the troops. The AP has
LIED in stating this. It is not a matter of different people having different impressions of an event, the AP has been disingenious here.

The AP did manage to include the fact that at least one of the questions at that meeting two weeks ago was in fact planted by a reporter, but they also managed to put it at the bottom of the story.

The entire question and answer session is here.

Does it appear that any of them were "cut off?" I think not.

Powerline concludes:

What a country, in which a National Guardsman can be "cut off" so "brusquely" by one of the most powerful men in the world. Actually, if you read the whole transcript, what comes through are Secretary Rumsfeld's forthrightness, common sense and immense good humor, and the affection the troops show for their leader.

Which is consistent, I guess, with the question a soldier in Mosul asked Rumsfeld yesterday: "How do we win the war in the media?"

I do use Associated Press reports on this page from time to time. But if the stories even approach having anything to do with ANY part of the Bush administration then I ALWAYS make sure that I have cross checked the facts elsewhere. The AP just cannot be taken at face value when covering George W. Bush and his team.

Posted at 04:16 PM Pacific