Rumsy the Wordsmither

What is he smoking?

Rumsy is blasting the media, saying that journalists are “rushing to find fault” with the U.S. and its military. Not only are journalists apparently using the wrong terminology, but now they’re also getting their angle all wrong. That instead of reporting on the thousands of U.S. soldiers dying in the war (a fact), journalists should blow sunshine up our asses and remind us all why the soldiers are in Iraq in the first place (insert Bush Misadministration talking point here).

[Rumsfeld] spoke just days after the U.S. military acknowledged that it had paid Iraqi newspapers to publish pro-American news stories written by an "information operations" task force. Rumsfeld complained that the issue "has been pounded in the media" but "we don't know what the facts are yet."

"We've arrived at a strange time in this country where the worst about America and our military seems to so quickly be taken as truth by the press, and reported and spread around the world, often with little context and little scrutiny, let alone correction or accountability after the fact," Rumsfeld told an academic audience.

Don’t forget, Rumsy, that journalism is supposed to be a check on government, not to serve as your personal propaganda machine. And quite frankly, it’s about damn time journalists reported on the negative. Enough people have been hoodwinked for way too long. And if you think this war is going to be won by words, you are a bigger moron than I thought.

(Photo credit: Kevin Wolf, AP)