Posted on 08/28/2006 6:28:04 PM PDT by Dubya
FALLON NAVAL AIR STATION, Nev. - Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said Monday he is deeply troubled by the success of terrorist groups in "manipulating the media" to influence Westerners.
"That's the thing that keeps me up at night," he said during a question-and-answer session with about 200 naval aviators and other Navy personnel at this flight training base for Navy and Marine pilots.
Rumsfeld was asked whether the criticism he draws as Pentagon chief and a leading advocate of the war in Iraq is an impediment to performing his job. He said it was not and he knows from history that wars are normally unpopular with many Americans. "I expect that," he said. "I understand that."
"What bothers me the most is how clever the enemy is," he continued, launching an extensive broadside at Islamic extremist groups which he said are trying to undermine Western support for the war on terror.
"They are actively manipulating the media in this country" by, for example, falsely blaming U.S. troops for civilian deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan, he said.
"They can lie with impunity," he said, while U.S. troops are held to a high standard of conduct.
Later, in remarks prepared for delivery at a Reno, Nev., convention of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, Rumsfeld made similar points.
"The enemy lies constantly - almost totally without consequence," he told the veterans group, which was presenting him with the Dwight D. Eisenhower Distinguished Service Award. "They portray our cause as a war on Islam when in fact the overwhelming majority of victims of their terrorism have been thousands and thousands of innocent Muslims - men, women and children - they have killed."
In his prepared remarks at Reno he also said, "While some argue for tossing in the towel, the enemy is waiting and hoping for us to do just that."
Rumsfeld often complains about what he calls the terrorists' success in persuading Westerners that the U.S.-led wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are part of a crusade against Islam. In his remarks at Fallon he did not offer any new examples of media manipulation; he put unusual emphasis, however, on the negative impact it is having on Americans in an era of 24-hour news.
"The enemy is so much better at communicating," he added. "I wish we were better at countering that because the constant drumbeat of things they say - all of which are not true - is harmful. It's cumulative. And it does weaken people's will and lessen their determination, and raise questions in their minds as to whether the cost is worth it," he said alluding to Americans and other Westerners.
Rumsfeld flew to Fallon on Monday from Fairbanks, Alaska, where he spent the weekend meeting with families of soldiers deployed in Iraq. He also visited a missile defense site at Ft. Greely and met Sunday with Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov to discuss Iraq and other issues.
Vice President Dick Cheney addressed the VFW convention in Reno on Monday morning. He asserted to the veterans that policies initiated by the Bush administration are the reason the United States hasn't been attacked since the Sept. 11 terrorist strikes five years ago.
Cheney defended the Iraq war as necessary in the overall battle against terrorism and reiterated the administration's position that U.S. troops would not withdraw until Iraqi forces were able to maintain order and stability.
I disagree with Rumsfeld. "Manipulation" implies that the media is being duped, and is an unwilling partner. Yet it's clear that they know exactly what they're doing.
Our media allows themselves to manipulated. Their hatred of the truth and the desire to bury what is good and decent about this country is their primary source of what they call news.
Rush pointed out how differently the Media acted with Sentani and Wiig than they have ever acted with others today. Especially our precious FNC. It proves beyond doubt that the media knows what responsible journalism is and that they simply choose to operate in a way that inhibits our efforts to win the war.
Exactly
Terrorists aren't clever and the democrats aren't political geniuses
MSM does all their water carrying for them and knows damn well they are covering up for them
That is why the administration and GOP has to CONFRONT the MSM on that fact and NOT BACKDOWN
They need to state it over and over and stay on message PERIOD
That is the only way to handle it
Unfortunately Bush won't do it so his people won't do it
Sad and depressing
This is a HUGE indictment of the MSM from the Pentagon. Note he did NOT say that the media wasn't part of the manipulation process. He knows as well as you and I that they are. I think Bush needs to come out swinging against the MSM. That will rally conservatives.
Naw. The media isn't manipulated...Being anti-American just comes naturally.
ping to Islamic manipulation of the media. Who would have thunk it?
Exactly right !!!
Exactly. Rumsfeld knew that he had to walk a fine line, and he did just that. It's up to the talking heads and bloggers to fill in between the lines.
But what Rumsfeld leaves out is that even knowing its a lie, Governments, including his Government acts as if the lie is truth.
So when the media lies that Israel bombed civilians at Qana, Rice demands of Israel a 48 hour cease fire.
One is forced to ask: if the Sec and his colleagues know its a lie, what do they continue to play the under enemy's ever changing rules.
And we have been filling in those balnks for years now. Hopefully, Tony Snow, now that he has the Prez's ear, is keeping him in touch with the blogosphere.
I dissagree. The whole world has watched the Iranian leader politically outsmart the present White House leadership.
The scary part is that many uninformed people in this world are blindly cheering this. They are blind because they do not yet understand that there is no political solution to end this war. There is only one solution and that's to convert to islam.
I knew it wouldn't take more than one or two posts for FREEPERS to see the obvious. The media are not manipulated by terrorists. They collaborate with them.
One Palestinian even said on FNC, "We don't have F-16's, we only have the media as our weapon".
The media did this during the latter parts of Viet Nam as well. Walter Cronkite decided it was finished and we had lost, despite a resounding win for US Forces in the Tet 0f 68 offensive launched by the North.
After that, General Vo Ngyuen Giap knew all he had to do was play to our media and wait us out.
They betrayed us all then and they are betraying us now.
The Secretary of Defense, one of the leaders in the President's cabinet, has just made a flat statement accusing the media of being manipulated by the enemy during a time of war.
And this isn't major breaking news? Why is this buried in an AP secondary?
Where are the howls of outrage? Why isn't the media publishing this in bold headlines and aggressively responding to the Secretary's allegation.
Could it be because...it's true?
"In his remarks at Fallon he did not offer any new examples of media manipulation"
Keyword,"new" as in meaning today but yesterdays manipulation is no longer "new" and since tomorrow has yet to arrive there can be no determination if it's "new" since the media recycles old manipulations on a frequent bases.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.