Rumsfeld backs off from media battles in last days
Source: Reuters
By Andrew Gray WASHINGTON, Dec 14 (Reuters) - Donald Rumsfeld, once famous for his combative news conferences, has chosen to limit his media contacts to friendly audiences in his final days as defense secretary rather than do battle one last time. The ex-college wrestler reveled in sparring with reporters during the war in Afghanistan in 2001. President George W. Bush jokingly dubbed him a "matinee television idol" due to the popularity of his frequent televised briefings and People magazine named him the sexiest man in the administration. But as the Iraq war became increasingly unpopular, with Rumsfeld a symbol of the conflict, he cut back on news conferences with the Pentagon press corps and they grew more tense. "Why do we have to keep going through this?" he declared with exasperation on Oct. 11 when asked if he took responsibility for what had gone wrong in Iraq. "Of course I bear responsibility. My lord, I'm secretary of defense. Write it down. Quote it. You can bank it." Later in the month, he told a reporter asking about Iraq: "You ought to just back off, take a look at it, relax, understand that it's complicated." Rumsfeld has backed off further since Bush announced on Nov. 8 -- the day after Democrats scored big victories in the congressional elections, largely due to the unpopularity of the Iraq war -- that former CIA chief Robert Gates would take over at the Pentagon. NO PENTAGON PRESS ON FINAL TRIP He has not held a single news conference since then and he did not take any of the Pentagon press corps on a farewell visit to Iraq last weekend. Normally about a dozen reporters would travel with Rumsfeld on a publicly funded visit to a war zone at the center of public attention. News organizations pay the costs of the trip but their reporters get to travel with the secretary. Instead, Rumsfeld took only outspoken conservative talk show host Sean Hannity and his Fox News television crew. A couple of days before his trip, he was interviewed by conservative columnist Cal Thomas. On Tuesday, he was a guest on conservative talk radio host Laura Ingraham's program. He had another Fox News interview on his schedule for Thursday. "The secretary ... is certainly entitled to, in his final few interviews, sit down and have a discussion with those individuals that he's come to know over time and has had a good dialogue with," Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said. "And that's what he's doing." The Pentagon said it did not take reporters to Iraq because Rumsfeld just wanted to thank U.S. troops for their service and was not looking for "broad news coverage." Although he has avoided their questions, Rumsfeld did chat with reporters at a Pentagon press office reception on Wednesday. And he insisted he thought highly of the press corps at a town hall-style meeting for Pentagon staff on Friday, while suggesting with a smile he may be damning with faint praise. "As a group, they may well be, year to year, the most professional press corps in the Washington, D.C., area," he said. "Now, considering the competition," he added to laughter from his audience. "I'll leave it to you to determine exactly what kind of a compliment that is."
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