This story should be page one in every major paper, but as far as I can tell from a search on news.yahoo.com, the only paper in the land to carry it is the Ocala [Fl.] Star Banner: Rumsfeld retreats, disclaims earlier rhetoric: Rumsfeld denies he ever made several pre-war statements.
Think about it. The Secretary of Defense is either delusional, or a really stupid, clumsy liar. Asked about his claims that the Iraqi people would welcome us with open arms, he didn’t try to argue that most of the country (by area, not population volume) welcomes the US-led invasion, but rather denied he had ever said it:
“Never said that,” he said. “Never did. You may remember it well, but you’re thinking of somebody else. You can’t find, anywhere, me saying anything like either of those two things you just said I said.”
But he had. On TV.
It used to be that brazen lying was bad for political figures (for example, Gary Hart). Is there some special reason that Rumsfeld gets a free pass? Or is the media, the nation, so saturated with Administration lies that it has stopped caring? Or is it that ‘objective’ journalism as practiced today doesn’t allow reporters to point out lies, just to report if someone else — and it has to be a heavyweight politician, a mere web site doesn’t count — tries to make an issue of the lies? (Calling Sen. Daschle’s office. Calling Sen. Daschle’s office. Why is the lead item on your homepage meat labeling rules???)
The Ocala Star-Banner has an average daily circulation of about 50,000.