GEN. SANCHEZ AND THE WINGNUTS

You can find the transcript of Sanchez' remarks here and that will allow you see for yourself that the wingnut bloggers are spinning pretty fast on this one. The Drunk Captain tries to highlight Sanchez' criticism of the press coverage but did not comment on the 4 journalists Sanchez praised: JOE GALLOWAY, THOM SHANKER, SIG CHRISTENSEN, AND JOHN BURNS. Sanchez pointed out that Galloway was "ONE OF THE GREATEST MILITARY CORRESPONDENTS OF OUR TIME." Galloway has been a consistent critic of the Iraq Fiasco, as you can learn for yourself by reading this Galloway column from 11/2/2005.

It is true that Sanchez did criticize the Press:

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.

When he mentioned specific examples, Sanchez turned into a whiner and just gave examples of negative coverage of him:

"DICTATORIAL AND SOMEWHAT DENSE",
"NOT A STRATEGIC THOUGHT",
LIAR,
"DOES NOT GET IT" AND
THE MOST INEXPERIENCED LTG.

There is no doubt that Sanchez is a whiner because he explicitly compares himself to Michael "Heckuva job, Brownie" Brown, the former head of FEMA who in real life was a horse show judge:

MY EXPERIENCE IS NOT UNIQUE AND WE CAN FIND OTHER EXAMPLES SUCH AS THE TREATMENT OF SECRETARY BROWN DURING KATRINA.

Sanchez does go on to make substantive allegations against the Press but unfortunately does not give us any concrete examples:

THE SPECULATIVE AND OFTEN UNINFORMED INITIAL REPORTING ... ONCE REPORTED, YOUR ASSESSMENTS BECOME CONVENTIONAL WISDOM AND NEARLY IMPOSSIBLE TO CHANGE. OTHER MAJOR CHALLENGES ARE YOUR WILLINGNESS TO BE MANIPULATED BY "HIGH LEVEL OFFICIALS" WHO LEAK STORIES AND BY LAWYERS WHO USE HYPERBOLE TO STRENGHTEN THEIR ARGUMENTS. YOUR UNWILLINGNESS TO ACCURATELY AND PROMINENTLY CORRECT YOUR MISTAKES AND YOUR AGENDA DRIVEN BIASES CONTRIBUTE TO THIS CORROSIVE ENVIRONMENT. ALL OF THESE CHALLENGES COMBINED CREATE A MEDIA ENVIRONMENT THAT DOES A TREMENDOUS DISSERVICE TO AMERICA. OVER THE COURSE OF THIS WAR TACTICALLY INSIGNIFICANT EVENTS HAVE BECOME STRATEGIC DEFEATS FOR AMERICA BECAUSE OF THE TREMENDOUS POWER AND IMPACT OF THE MEDIA AND BY EXTENSION YOU THE JOURNALIST. IN MANY CASES THE MEDIA HAS UNJUSTLY DESTROYED THE INDIVIDUAL REPUTATIONS AND CAREERS OF THOSE INVOLVED.

When reading the part about high officials and lawyers, I first thought of war whore Judith Miller and I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby. The lack of specifics prevents any real analysis of these claims but if the examples Sanchez had in mind are like the ones he gave earlier about himself, it's safe to assume they are either minor or unfounded. That's not what AssRocket (John Hinderaker of PowerLine) thinks because he feels the proper headline for the WaPo reporting should be (and I'm not making this up):

"Former Iraq Commander Accuses Biased, Unethical, Agenda-driven Press of 'Killing Our Servicemembers Who Are At War'"