Rumsfeld: Media’s “Exaggerated” Reports May Be Inflaming The Situation In Iraq

Donald Rumsfeld “slammed the media for ‘exaggerated’ reports about the security situation” in Iraq following recent violence between religious factions, CNN.com reports.

“Rumsfeld told reporters at the Pentagon that he thought the news coverage since the February 22 bombing of a revered Shiite shrine in Iraq had been filled with inaccurate information that would inflame the situation there.”

Quoting Rumsfeld: “From what I’ve seen thus far, much of the reporting in the U.S. and abroad has exaggerated the situation, according to General Casey. The number of attacks on mosques, as he pointed out, had been exaggerated. The number of Iraqi deaths had been exaggerated.”

“Interestingly, all of the exaggerations seem to be on one side. It isn’t as though there simply have been a series of random errors on both sides of issues. On the contrary, the steady stream of errors all seem to be of a nature to inflame the situation and to give heart to the terrorists and to discourage those who hope for success in Iraq.”