When the progressive blogosphere doesn't walk its talk

A recurrent theme in the progressive blogosphere is the lack of context offered by traditional news outlets in their news reporting. It is remarkable, therefore, that, given General Ricardo Sanchez' testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee on May 19, 2004, in which he perjured himself by denying that he authorized enhanced interrogation techniques for use in Iraq, that fact was completely ignored by both progressive bloggers and the traditional news media in the coverage of Sanchez' recent speech decrying the Bush administration debacle that is Iraq.

The memorandum written and signed by General Sanchez on September 14, 2003, contained as an enclosure the specific interrogation techniques authorized to be used in Iraq, and also noted those that were potentially in contravention of Geneva.

General Sanchez was asked if he ordered or approved those techniques by U.S. Senator Jack Reed in testimony given before the Senate Armed Services Committee on May 19, 2004.

On May 19, 2004, General Ricardo Sanchez testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee Hearing on Iraq Prison Abuse.

U.S. SENATOR JACK REED (D-RI): General Sanchez, today's USA Today, sir, reported that you ordered or approved the use of sleep deprivation, intimidation by guard dogs, excessive noise and inducing fear as an interrogation method for a prisoner in Abu Ghraib prison.

REED: Is that correct?

LIEUTENANT GENERAL RICARDO SANCHEZ, COMMANDER, MULTINATIONAL FORCE-IRAQ : Sir, that may be correct that it's in a news article, but I never approved any of those measures to be used within CJTF-7 at any time in the last year.

General Sanchez' perjury was not mentioned in any of the following weblogs or news outlets.

Think Progress

AMERICAblog (here and here)

Talking Points Memo

Atrios

Daily Kos

Juan Cole

Raw Story

Washington Post

Associated Press

The missing context is crucial information regarding General Sanchez' credibility. Its inclusion would allow readers to potentially draw different conclusions about General Sanchez' purpose in speaking out against the Iraq debacle and the Bush administration. The progressive blogosphere has prided itself on holding public figures and the traditional media to account, and has never hesitated to excoriate the vast noise machine of the right for overlooking inconvenient facts. We should not allow ourselves to fall into the same trap.

Even more interesting is that I have posted comments about General Sanchez' perjury on all of the above weblogs, including the relevant links, and still no mention has been made. Trust me, I'm not looking for recognition here, I just believe that a very important fact regarding this story has been omitted, and WHERE that omission has taken place bothers me greatly.

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