Former Pentagon Spokeswoman Claims Rumsfeld ‘Respected Role Of The Media’

According to Pentagon spokeswoman Torie Clarke, the media respected Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld because he respected them:

“Reporters often told me that he raised the levels of their performances,” says…Clarke. “He forced them to be more precise in the way they asked questions.” She says he obviously respected the role of the media in society.

In reality, Rumsfeld’s tenure was characterized by severe restrictions on press freedom. He attacked news reports critical of President Bush’s policies “nonsense” and “exaggerated.” In June, the Pentagon “shut down access entirely” to the Guantanamo Bay prison. Journalists covering the suicides had their clearances revoked and were immediately flown back to the United States. Some more lowlights:

AP, 8/20/06:

“They [Terrorists] are actively manipulating the media in this country. … The enemy lies constantly — almost totally without consequence.”

CNN, 3/7/06:

“From what I’ve seen thus far, much of the reporting in the U.S. and abroad has exaggerated the situation, according to General Casey,” Rumsfeld said. “The number of attacks on mosques, as he pointed out, had been exaggerated. The number of Iraqi deaths had been exaggerated.”

AP, 12/5/05:

Rumsfeld also delivered a broadside against the media, saying that in the present era of the 24-hour new cycle, events in Iraq may be reported too quickly and without context, and at times with little substantiation. “A lie moves around the world at the speed of light,” he said, stressing there is a “jarring contrast between what the American people are reading and hearing about Iraq and the views of the Iraqi people.”

According to Reporters Without Borders, the United States is now ranked 53rd on its global press freedom index, dropping from 17th place in 2002.