Washington Whispers

Pentagon to the New York Times on Pulitzer: Never mind

By Paul Bedard

May 6, 2009 RSS Feed Print

By Paul Bedard, Washington Whispers

What the heck is going on with federal investigators? First Justice scraps the case against former Sen. Ted Stevens, saying that the probe into charges he misused his office was junk. And now, at the Pentagon, the same inspector general's office that trashed a New York Times story that went on to win the Pulitzer Prize is saying, "Oops."

The "never mind" came just days after Whispers quoted two allies of former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld citing the inspector general's reporting in saying that the Times and reporter David Barstow didn't deserve journalism's gold medal for detailing a PR campaign to get retired military officers to talk up the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan on TV.

It probably wasn't our story that prompted the review, but who knows? At least one Pentagon insider said it was our Whisper that pushed the IG to recant.

Anyway, reporter Barstow is pretty happy that the Pentagon is recanting. He said in an E-mail to me: "Given what you wrote, I hope you will now follow up with the news we wrote about today—the fact that the DoD inspector general has taken the remarkable step of publicly repudiating and withdrawing its own report on the military analysts. Since the IG report was obviously central to your item trashing my articles it seems only fair that you would immediately note this development for your readers." Done.

Still, our question hasn't been answered: Did the Pulitzer committee members consider the IG report when looking at the NYT story? If they did and said it was junk as the IG did this week, then bravo. And if they didn't, should they have?

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Tags:
New York Times,
Donald Rumsfeld,
Department of Defense,
Pentagon

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acai berry and colon cleanse diet of 9:39PM May 05, 2010

Barstow's articles were factual. The IG report, as the IG now admits, was contrafactual. (And, though unstated, produced under political duress.)

Should the Pulitzer jury have taken the provably bunko IG report into consideration? Are you serious?

How was it ever news that Rummy and his factotums are angry over Barstow's Pulitzer?

Here's another news flash: Michele doesn't like Fox News.

I know it's the US News demographic and all, but you've got to be more than just a couple notches above the Washington Times. And you usually are.

And yes, Whispers is supposed to be more about heat than light, and that's fine, but still.

D of NY 11:41PM May 07, 2009

What a wonderful irony- acc to Wash Times' Inside the Ring (May 7), the IG faults "internet" searches for checking corporate affiliations of military analysts involved with Rumsfeld's program- yet the "mainstream"- aka liberal media relied on online information (made available only to friendly websites like Daily Kos) about Obama's COLB (Certification of Live Birth)- NOT to be confused with an actual "long form" or "vault" certificate, which typically has a doctor's signature and hospital name- and ignored his paternal grandmother's claim to his being born in Kenya, as well as the Kenyan Ambassador to the US who said in a radio interview he was born in Kenya.

Obama's legal team has amassed an estimated $1 million in legal fees to guard against public discloure (inc. his academic records) of any documents which would shed light on his actual birth and citizenship. John McCain was forced to produce his birth records b/c of his birth to US citizens in the Panama Canal Zone- double standard? One patriotic member of Congress has introduced legislation to ensure that future Presidential candidates must offer proof of eligibility (Rep Posey- R-FL)- Given that Obama is Commander-in-Chief and can place servicemembers in harms' way (some of whom have joined lawsuits demanding proof of Obama's "natural born" citizenship), you'd think there'd be at least as much interest in the President's Constitutional qualifications and in procuring his birth records as in whether Rumsfeld's DoD offered Pentagon war briefings to military retirees with defense contracts.

Margaret Hemenway of VA 9:10PM May 07, 2009

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