By missing most of the important stories and making stuff up which just isn't so.

Mainstream media covers up horrifying Obama mistake

By Michael Barone | The Washington Times

No one in mainstream media seems inclined to mention Barack Obama's horrifying mistake last Thursday when, speaking at Fort Drum,  he said that SFC Jared Monti was "the first person who I was able to award the Medal of Honor to who actually came back and wasn't receiving it posthumously." Alas, he was mistaken. He awarded the Medal of Honor to Jared Monti posthumously in 2009 and awarded the Medal of Honor in person to SSG Sal Giunta in person in 2011. Obama later apologized for this mistake, but it's really dismaying that a president who spoke movingly and even eloquently in awarding the Medal of Honor made a mistake of this magnitude.

"It shouldn't take a teleprompter for the C-in-C to get it right," writes military blogger Black Five. It's interesting that mainstream media journalists who are so eager to zing Michele Bachmann for getting John Wayne's birthplace wrong, have not been interested in asking whether this was a mistake Obama made in ad libbing or whether the White House speechwriters and fact-checkers fell down on the job. You might think that their chief motive is to make Obama look good and to suppress facts that make him look bad.

The New York Times' natural gas fiasco

By Tina Korbe | HotAir

Talk about hot air. The Gray Lady blew a spectacular bit of smoke with a recent article that suggested shale natural gas production is a shaky investment at best and, at worst, a Ponzi scheme of sorts, destined to devastate those who buy the "lie" that shale plays will not only produce high profits for companies, but will also provide affordable energy for the country.

The piece -- "Insiders Sound an Alarm Amid a Natural Gas Rush" -- appeared in the Sunday New York Times and implied natural gas companies intentionally or even illegally overstate the productivity of their wells and the size of their reserves. The article mentioned by name (among others) Aubrey K. McClendon, CEO of Chesapeake Energy Corporation, the second-largest producer of natural gas in the country. The piece juxtaposed a McClendon quote -- "It's time to get bullish on natural gas" -- with supposed "facts" that suggest no reason to be bullish exists.

Uh oh: White House caught lying about Petraeus's withdrawal recommendations?

Allahpundit | Hot Air

Terrific catch by Stephen Hayes from this afternoon's Afghanistan testimony by Lt. Gen. John Allen. I can't help but wonder: Why would the White House lie and claim that Obama's withdrawal plan was within the range of options presented to him by Petraeus? I thought the next 18 months were going to be all about Obama going with his gut. Wingin' it, if you will.

His gut told him that he needs to get reelected, and the easiest way to do that was to yank as many troops as possible out of the country no matter what it might mean for the war. That was the only "range of options" that mattered.

So he winged it.

In response to questioning from Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Allen testified that Obama's decision on the pace and size of Afghanistan withdrawals was "a more aggressive option than that which was presented."

Graham pressed him. "My question is: Was that a option?"

Allen: "It was not."

Allen's claim, which came under oath, contradicts the line the White House had been providing reporters over the past week--that Obama simply chose one option among several presented by General David Petraeus. In a conference call last Wednesday, June 22, a reporter asked senior Obama administration officials about those options. "Did General Petraeus specifically endorse this plan, or was it one of the options that General Petraeus gave to the president?"

The senior administration official twice claimed that the Obama decision was within the range of options the military presented to Obama.

Follow the link up top for a full transcript of what that senior administration official said last week. Are Hayes and I missing some nuance in the quotes? It's one thing if the White House wants to squander the surge in the name of winning next year, but at least own it. Don't use Petraeus as the fig leaf for a terrible, electorally motivated war "strategy." Good lord.