From Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez’ speech and Q&A session at the Military Reporters & Editors convention:

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. An Arab proverb states - “four things come not back: the spoken word, the spent arrow, the past, the neglected opportunity.” 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 strengthen 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. We realize that because of the near real time reporting environment that you face it is difficult to report accurately. In my business one of our fundamental truths is that “the first report is always wrong.” Unfortunately, in your business “the first report” gives Americans who rely on the snippets of CNN, if you will, their “truths” and perspectives on an issue. As a corollary to this deadline driven need to publish “initial impressions or observations” versus objective facts there is an additional challenge for us who are the subject of your reporting. When you assume that you are correct and on the moral high ground on a story because we have not respond to questions you provided is the ultimate arrogance and distortion of ethics. One of your highly respected fellow journalists once told me that there are some amongst you who “feed from a pig’s trough.” If that is who I am dealing with then I will never respond, otherwise we will both get dirty and the pig will love it. This does not mean that your story is accurate.

Devastating! How will the media respond to this broadside from the general?

Of course! By ignoring it almost completely and focusing on the other half of the speech, which of course criticizes the strategy and execution of the war, the story they love to focus on.

New York Times
Washington Post
Associated Press

Not a word, except for the last paragraph of the two page Washington Post article. Criticism of the media was the almost the entire first half of the general’s speech, yet isn’t considered “fit to print” by our most trusted news sources. This is an example of the media’s unique power, beyond even the government, to effectively nullify criticism. This is a media driven war. The real front line is in the opinions of the American voters. Only one side appears to know and recognize this, and it isn’t ours.