Via Ed Morrissey comes a link to what LTG (Ret.) Ricardo Sanchez actually said, as opposed to what is being reported in the MSM.

This presentation to the press began with an evisceration of the performance of the MSM in regards to Iraq. Sanchez does not mince words, and his condemnation of reporters covering the war is brutal. Funny how this didn’t show up in the MSM reports:

Almost invariably, my perception is that the sensationalistic value of these assessments is what provided the edge that you seek for self agrandizement [sic] or to advance your individual quest for getting on the front page with your stories! As I understand it, your measure of worth is how many front page stories you have written and unfortunately some of you will compromise your integrity and display questionable ethics as you seek to keep America informed. This is much like the intelligence analysts whose effectiveness was measured by the number of intelligence reports he produced. For some, it seems that as long as you get a front page story there is little or no regard for the “collateral damage” you will cause. Personal reputations have no value and you report with total impunity and are rarely held accountable for unethical conduct.

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 repected 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.

(Ed Morrissey’s edit from original all-caps transcript)

I don’t see anything particularly wrong with that.

The second part of the presentation is also worth a thorough reading, as it seems that the MSM is sitting around bloated from all the cherries it picked and ate. While Sanchez sounds alarmist at points, his overall discussion of the current political and military situation, when taken as a whole and in context, is quite sound. I agree with Bill that Sanchez has an ax to grind, but he’s swinging it at the press, first and foremost - and deservedly - here. He concludes his talk with the following:

America has sent our soldiers off to war and they must be supported an all costs until we achieve victory or until our political leaders decide to bring them home. Our political and military leaders owe the soldier on the battlefield the strategy, the policies and the resources to win once committed to war. America has not been fully committed to win this war. As the military commanders of the ground have stated since the summer of 2003, the U.S. military alone cannot win this war. America must mobilize the interagency and the political and economic elements of power, which have been abject failures to date, in order to achieve victory. Our nation has not focused on the greatest challenge of our lifetime. The political and economic elements of power must get beyond the politics to ensure the survival of America. Partisan politics have hindered this war effort and America should not accept this. America must demand a unified national strategy that goes well beyond partisan politics and places the common good above all else. Too often our politicians have chosen loyalty to their political party above loyalty to the Constitution because of their lust for power. Our politicians must remember their oath of office and recommit themselves to serving our nation and not their own self-interests or political party. The security of America is at stake and we can accept nothing less. Anything short of this is unquestionably dereliction of duty.

These are fairly harsh assessments of the military and press relationship and the status of our war effort. I remain optimistic and committed to the enabling of media operations under the toughest of conditions in order to keep the world and the American people informed. Our military must embrace you for the sake [of] our democracy but you owe them ethical journalism.

(My edit from original all-caps transcript)

Basically, Sanchez is calling the whole thing pretty much a cluster f#^k all around, and frankly, I can’t see much fault in that conclusion.

Now, contrast all the above with this front page story in The Washington Post. Irony doesn’t even begin to describe the situation.

Here is a prime example of why the press in this country is insidious and cowardly, and why when someone like Sanchez is reported on, it’s probably a good idea to get the real story. You might not agree with what he’s saying, but in the end, you’ll have reached that conclusion based on the whole story, and not the one that the gatekeepers of the press deign to spoon feed us.

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