After much print/broadcast coverage was given to last June’s Rolling Stone magazine article on Gen. Stanley McChrystal, top U.S. commander in Afghanistan at the time, supposedly making disparaging remarks about members of President Barack Obama’s national security team, the Pentagon has cleared the general of wrongdoing --- with much less coverage, notes Grumpy Editor.
It’s similar to a newspaper burying a correction under some ads.
The Rolling Stone story led to the dismissal of McChrystal by Obama who declared he had fallen short of “the standard that should be set by a commanding general.”
A Defense Department inspector general’s report finds available evidence does not show the general had violated any applicable legal or ethics standards.
The report also concludes not all events happened as reported by the magazine.
An interesting element, however, is why it took 10 months to announce results of the probe.
Rolling Stone, founded in San Francisco in 1967, says it stands by the article, terming it “accurate in every detail.”
On April 12, four days after the inspector general’s report was finished --- but before findings were made public --- the White House selected McChrystal to head a new advisory board to support military families.
