Top Newspaper's Journalists Praised: Blackout Imposed on Praise

The news media blackout of General Sanchez' criticism of the news media got more interesting for me today. I discovered that that a major and (so far) well-respected newspaper employs two of the four journalists praised by the retired general. Normally, I'd think that being singled out like that would be an occasion for some well-bred bragging.

Thanks to The QandO Blog / Free Markets, Free People, a blog I ran across during research. QandO's October 13 post made me aware of a transcript of General Sanchez' remarks last week. QandO's Friday post began with these paragraphs:

"The New York Times reports that LTG Ricardo S. Sanchez, one of the former commander's in Iraq, faults the Bush administration handling of the war as 'incompetent' and 'warned that the United States was "living a nightmare with no end in sight."'

"Question: does this come as a suprise to anyone? Is there anyone left out there that is claiming this war has been competently fought since the beginning? In fact, as I recall, Petraeus, et. al., have been saying that we almost lost it in 2006."

The QandO Bolg goes on to discuss, among other things, how The New York Times and other mainstream, traditional, media, pounced on Sanchez' disapproval of the Bush Administration and the war in Iraq: and utterly ignored Sanchez' massive indictment of mainstream media's pursuit of an agenda at the expense of American soldiers' lives.

Not that General Sanchez thinks poorly of all journalists. He named four that he thinks are doing a good job:

• John Burns
  (probably the one who works on The New York Times and won two Pulitzer Prizes, not the John Burns who works on Modesty Blaise and Judge Dredd)
• Sig Christensen
  (San Antonio Express News)
• Joe Galloway
  (McClatchy Newspapers columnist)
• Thom Shanker
  (The New York Times)

Notice that two of the four journalists on General Sanchez' 'approved' list work for the New York Times. And one of those won two Pulitzer Prizes.

I would expect The New York Times, at least, to jump at this chance to point out how superior their stable of journalists was, at least in the eyes of the famous and now-perceptive General Sanchez.

The New York Times didn't. In common with the rest of the old-school news media, The New York Times decided that General Sanchez's indictment of news media didn't fall under the newspaper's definition of "All the News That’s Fit to Print."

The Military Reporters and Editors / The Official Association of Military Journalists has a transcript of General Sanchez's remarks.

Here's an excerpt. The original is in all caps. To make it more readable, I converted it to cap/lowercase. Other than that, this paragraph is unchanged. I recommend reading the entire transcript. General Sanchez discusses quite a bit in addition to what appears in this paragraph.

"Today, I will attempt to do two things - First I will give you my assessment of the military and press relationship and then I will provide you some thoughts on the current state of our war effort. As all of you know I have a wide range of relationships and experiences with our nations military writers and editors. There are some in your ranks who I consider to be the epitome of journalistic professionalism - Joe Galloway, Thom Shanker, Sig Christensen, and John Burns immediately come to mind. They exemplify what America should demand of our journalists - tough reporting that relies upon integrity, objectivity and fairness to give accurate and thorough accounts that strenghten our freedom of the press and in turn our democracy. On the other hand, unfortunately, I have issued ultimatums to some of you for unscrupulous reporting that was solely focused on supporting your agenda and preconceived 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."

Finally, it's nice to hear from others in the blogosphere. The author of American Interests.blog was kind enough to leave a couple of comments recently, one of them in reference to General Sanchez and the news media.

Another post on General Sanchez, Iraq-as-nightmare, and journalistic behavior: "'All the News We Want to Print:' Iraq War Reality Check Missed"

'All the News We Want to Print:' Iraq War Reality Check Missed

Americans know what's happening in Iraq: car bombings, atrocities, car bombings, futility, and car bombings. Admittedly, that's an exaggeration: but not by much.

News media certainly do not simply repeat each other: writing, as it were, from one playbook; as may be seen in this selection of lead paragraphs.

• ABC News: "The White House insists progress is being made in Iraq despite the former top US commander there describing the war as a nightmare."
• Bloomberg: "Retired Army Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez, who led U.S. forces in Iraq during the Abu Ghraib prisoner-abuse scandal, criticized American leaders for placing partisan gain at home above victory abroad and consigning America to a 'nightmare with no end in sight.'"
• CBS: "The U.S. mission in Iraq is a 'nightmare with no end in sight' because of political misjudgments after the fall of Saddam Hussein that continue today, a former chief of U.S.-led forces said Friday."
• Fox: "The former top commander of coalition forces in Iraq may have called U.S. efforts there catastrophically flawed and unrealistically optimistic, but much of the criticism of the media by Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez has been left unreported."
• MSNBC.com: "A 'failure of the national political leadership' is responsible for the 'nightmare' of the Iraq war, retired Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez said Friday."
• USA Today: "The former U.S. commander in Iraq, retired Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, has delivered a withering indictment of the the White House's handling of the war, telling a gathering of military journalists that 'America is living a nightmare with no end in sight.'"

And, in the English-speaking world outside America, there is even more diversity:

• BBC: "A former US military chief in Iraq has condemned the current strategy in the conflict, which he warned was 'a nightmare with no end in sight'."
• The Sydney Morning Herald: "Foreign Minister Alexander Downer has dismissed a former top US military commander's scathing assessment of the war in Iraq as 'a nightmare with no end in sight'."

The Sydney Morning Herald also reported that Downer said, "With the greatest of respect, General (David) Petraeus, the general in charge there, our military people in Iraq, our diplomats on the ground there, people like me who have actually been there in recent times, talked to people, looked at the situation, are likely to know a fair bit about this, not just playing a political game or trying to make a rhetorical point."

My hat's off to the news media, for reporting a former military commander's criticism of America's political leadership. That's the sort of reporting that help keep politicos relatively honest and diligent.

On the other hand, I'd be more impressed if one cable news network didn't scoop everyone else about the rest of what General Sanchez had to say.

General Sanchez, speaking at the Military Reporters and Editors Association (MREA), targeted

• Congress
• The State Department
• The National Security Council
• The Pentagon
• General David Petraeus, the current Iraq commander

General Sanchez may have missed some potential targets of criticism, but bear in mind that he had limited time.

Besides the usual suspects in Washington politics, General Sanchez said that reporters were guilty of "unscrupulous reporting, solely focused on supporting an agenda and preconceived notions of the U.S. military."

He didn't name a specific company, but Sanchez said that the political agendas of "parent media organizations" directing news coverage of the war sometimes put U.S. soldiers in lethal situations.

This criticism of the press shows up only on Fox News. That news organization released quite a bit of General Sanchez' remarks to MREA to the general public.

"What is clear to me is that you are perpetuating the corrosive partisan politics that is destroying our country and killing our service members who are at war. My assessment is that your profession, to some, has strayed from these ethical standards and allowed external agendas to manipulate what the American public sees on TV, reads in newspapers and what they see on the Web," Sanchez said.

Fox News reports the current score of car bombings, just like any other news service, but I wish they weren't the only one to mention, let alone quote, General Sanchez' scathing criticism of the news media.