Rumsfeld: Enemy in Iraq 'Manipulating' the U.S. Press

[sabra]

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003346990

Rumsfeld: Enemy in Iraq 'Manipulating' the U.S. Press

NEW YORK in this pre-election news cycle, several top Bush administration officials have been giving interviews to friendly local radio hosts. Among them: Secetary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. Yesterday he chatted with Bill LuMaye of WPTF, in Raleigh, N.C.

Rumsfled complained that the news media has focussed on the bad news out of Iraq, which he claimed is mainly isolated in provinces close to Baghdad. Then Lumaye asked about insurgents and the election and the press. Here is that portion of the transcript.

...

LUMAYE: Do you think -- do you agree with the vice president -- and I think there's a lot of validity in this -- in that part of the uptick we're seeing in violence in Iraq -- and I don't want to lay it all on his statement that -- but it could quite possibly, could it not, be due to the fact that the -- we're going through the elections cycle here? Do you agree with that?

SEC. RUMSFELD: Well, General -- I believe General Caldwell out in Baghdad announced that there are websites that are encouraging violence because of the election. So it -- I mean, there's evidence of that.

You know, they're very good at manipulating the American press and managing the news in a way that advantages them and tries to break the will of the American people. And they're good at it, they know what they're doing, they consciously plan their attacks to achieve that end.

[stillcool]

1. this shit has got to stop...

we're going to have to make televisions illegal or something. We can't have all these people being so fucked up by believing all this shit. It's got to be more harmful than any drink or drug I've ever taken.

[lfairban]

3. Freedom of the press.

This was radio not television, and you cannot do much about people expressing opinions, no matter how stupid they are.

Too bad there is no smiles for the pot calling the kettle black. The closest I could come was:

:crazy:

and

:shrug:

[KAZ]

10. Oh, a constitutional citation. How quaint. I kinda of...

.. remember that document. It looked sort of old, and yellowed.

[stillcool]

14. not in this country...

freedom of the propaganda maybe...all the horse shit you can buy, and then spoon-feed to the target audience of your choice.

[humbled_opinion]

2. Next the claim will be that

The Democrats are causing the terrorist expansion because of their Anti-War stance... Jeez.. When will it end??..... Here let me answer myself... It will not end until a Democrat led Congress is seated in JAN07....

[Jacobin]

4. Rumsfeld is so fucked

Boehner claimed today that the problems in Iraq were the result of the generals in Iraq and not bush or rumsfeld.

I predict the generals will come out swinging...and not the retired ones anymore

[OKthatsIT]

22. He is truely insane...OMG, this is sick beyond belief

[KansDem]

5. Well, you got that half right: it's not "the enemy" in Iraq but in D.C.

...specifically, in the White House, that's "manipulating" the press (not that the American press is overly concerned about it).

[DBoon]

15. He's got it entirely right...

If by enemy you mean the country that has invaded, occupied, and destroyed whatever chance to build a civil society Iraq had. That is, the country that has managed to become the enemy of a large part of the Iraqi population.

Yes, this "enemy" does also in fact control the US press, and is manipulaitng the press to ensure its preferred party wins the November US elections.

The White House got this one right.

(Like the Vietnam era headline on a student alternative paper, "Enemy bombs Hanoi")

[rodeodance]

6. he gets paranoid in his old age.

[twaddler01]

7. * Administration 'Manipulating' the U.S. Press'......

*sigh*

[MGD]

8. It's not called "manipulating the press" Rummy, it's called "winning the war"

You are the one trying to manipulate the press into believing it is anything other than that. The enemy has been increasing his audacity and lethality steadily ever since we arrived there. Your strategy of is not winning because your strategy is not designed to win, it's designed to mediate potential political unpopularity back home. That isn't working either incidentally.

[gratuitous]

9. Oh golly, they're everywhere!

In Iraq, under the bed, lurking in the hallway, hiding in my Bosco! Help Unca Donald, save us from the insurgents and the terrorists and the dead-enders and the last throes-ers and the, the, the, the WEBSITES!

Only the original Bad Touch Daddies themselves, your Republican party, can save you from the boogey-men that infest their drafty little crania.

[HuffleClaw]

11. "manipulating the American press and managing the news"

who are they kidding?

[EFerrari]

12. How can they manipulate the press owned by GE, Disney,

Viacom -- isn't that YOUR JOB, DON?

:rofl:

[Anakin Skywalker]

13. Sounds Like Rummy Is Paranoid.

The enemies. They are EVERYWHERE!

[Az_lefty]

16. Fucking Media, their always screwing things up..

like reporting 102 KIAs and 700 wounded in the past month. the seige of Baghdad and things like that. Why can't they just learn to tell "happy" stories?
:sarcasm:

[wholetruth00]

17. When did the neocons move to Iraq?

[FreeStateDemocrat]

18. This is a Vietnam re-run, same BS, forty years later.

[Thor_MN]

19. The NeoCons face a problem they can't handle. Reality.

They can work wonders if you just drink the Kool-Aid and put on their rose colored glasses. Everything else that leaks through their provided viewpoints is the fault of the people that choose to think for themselves (the rest of the world)

[0007]

20. Jesus Christ.....Who will win the biggest bullshit award of the Universe?

Ann Coulter or Donald Rumsfeld? faux news will bring us the winner, 'eh?

[AlwaysQuestion]

21. I'm speechless - EOM

[Supersedeas]

23. Not only are Democrats in league with the Terrorists, the Media is too-how does that feel Paula Zahn