RUSH: I want to go to the audio sound bites. Over the weekend, I saw the screaming red headline on the Drudge Report that General Sanchez had dropped this huge bomb, and the bomb was that the war in Iraq was hopeless — we have no chance; it’s been honorably run — and the Drive-Bys seized on it, and the Democrats seized on it. It was a big deal. The only problem with this is that if you read everything that General Sanchez said or listened to everything he said, he really criticized the Drive-By Media, and they conveniently forgot to report that. But we, ladies and gentlemen, have the sound bites of Sanchez and what the Drive-Bys totally ignored in his scathing attack. This is last Friday in Washington, DC, Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez, now retired, addressed military reporters and editors. We have three sound bites. Here’s the first one.
LT. GEN. SANCHEZ: For some it seems that as long as you get a front-page story, there is little or no regard for the collateral damage that will be caused. Personal reputations sometimes have no value. They report with total impunity, and are rarely held accountable for unethical conduct. Given the near instantaneous ability to report actions on the ground, the responsibility to accurately and truthfully report takes on an unprecedented importance. The speculative and often uninformed initial reporting that characterizes our media, appears to be rapidly becoming the standard of the industry.
RUSH: Yeah. You hear that? ‘The speculative and often uninformed initial reporting that characterizes our media, appears to be rapidly becoming the standard of the industry.’ Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez ripping into the Drive-Bys for what they have contributed. No, of course, it wasn’t in the newspaper today. It wasn’t in any of the reports over the weekend. All it was over the weekend was, ‘Sanchez drops a big bomb and totally rips the Iraq effort!’ Here’s the second of our three sound bites.
LT. GEN. SANCHEZ: Once reported, your assessments become conventional wisdom and nearly impossible to change. Your unwillingness to accurately and prominently correct your mistakes and your agenda-driven biases sometimes contribute to this corrosive environment. All these challenges combined create a media environment that does a tremendous disservice to America, in some instances. Over the course of this war, tactically insignificant events have become strategic defeats for our country because of the tremendous power and impact of the media — and, by extension, you individually, the journalists.
RUSH: He was talking to military reporters and editors on Friday. Everybody had all weekend to get this part of the story. It was half the speech. It was half of what he said! None of this was reported. Only the ‘bomb’ that he dropped on our efforts in Iraq and how horrible we’re doing and we don’t have a chance, and all this. Here’s the third sound bite.
LT. GEN. SANCHEZ: What is clear to me is that you’re perpetuating the corrosive partisan politics that is destroying our country and killing our service members who are at war, in some cases.
RUSH: Did you hear that?
LT. GEN. SANCHEZ: My assessment is that your profession, to some extent, has strayed from these worthy ethical standards and has allowed external agendas to manipulate what the American public sees on TV, what they read in our newspapers, and what they see and read on the Web. For some of you, just like some of our politicians, the truth is of little to no value if it does not fit your own preconceived notions, biases, or agendas.
RUSH: What an indictment, folks! What an absolute hammer of an indictment from retired Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez on Friday addressing military reporters and editors. ‘What is clear to me,’ he said, ‘is that you’re perpetuating the corrosive partisan politics that’s destroying our country and killing our service members who are at war, in some cases.’ That is one hell of an indictment, a charge — and he is dead on with it! Now, he’s not going to say this, but you gotta throw the willing accomplices of these reporters in that whole mix, too, and who would that be? Certain members of the Democrat Party: Ms. Pelosi, Senator Reid, certainly Senator Kerry, Senator Durbin, Senator Kennedy, Senator Obama, Senator Clinton. The list goes on and on and on! It was a combined effort, and it’s still underway. None of this got reported on by the Drive-Bys, none of it whatsoever. They’re just proving that he’s right! It’s selective editing.