CNN decides to 'fact check'

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Friday September 24, 2004 · 1:46 PM PDT

2004/09/24 · 13:46

I know, I know. We thought they never would. Of course the first speech they decide to fact check is Kerry's, but I guess you have to start somewhere.

Their Pentagon correspondent did a piece on Kerry's statements about Rummy/Pentagon and compares his statements with the "facts." I won't go into the whole piece, but the reporter's very last line (after telling us we are "entitled to our own opinions, but not our own facts") is that "Shinseki was never fired or forced to retire. Those are the facts."

Well, that's a blatant lie. I know there are a lot of notes to the media to send out, but I've made it easy in the extended box -- and the bonus is that the person who yelled the loudest about the "unprecedented" retirement was well-known Kerry supporter BOB NOVAK.

Please go ahead and send them a note.

Here are three links to columns or news pieces about how Shinseki's retirement came about, along with some clips:

As a yearlong lame duck when Rumsfeld unexpectedly announced Shinseki's retirement a year in advance, Shinseki never was able to convince the secretary that policy was outstripping capabilities. When his June 11 speech declared that "mistrust and arrogance are antithetical to inspired and inspiring leadership," everybody in the Pentagon knew he was accusing Rumsfeld of exercising command but not leadership. The general declared that "command is about authority, about an appointment to position" but that "leadership . . . must be learned and practiced."
Nobody from the Office of the Secretary of Defense attended Shinseki's retirement ceremony, and none had been invited. Rumsfeld's response to Shinseki was bringing back Gen. Pete Schoomaker, who retired in 2000, as the new chief of staff. That indicated the secretary of defense felt none of the serving three-star or four-star generals could be trusted. Appointing Schoomaker, renowned in his career as an exemplar of special operations, was a rebuff to heavy infantry and tube artillery advocates.

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Rumsfeld had defied precedent by announcing 14 months in advance Shinseki's retirement as chief of staff in June 2003, making him a lame duck.

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(from the LA Times, though it's a link through another source since the Times article is so old)

The secretary then seemed to undermine Shinseki by announcing his replacement -- his deputy, Gen. John Keane -- 15 months before Shinseki's retirement. Shinseki reportedly first read the news in the Washington Post.

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