LAT: Gates opposes Bush plan

Citing unnamed sources -- something it has promised to curtail -- the LAT this morning says Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates doesn't mean what he says but rather what the LAT thinks he means. In a front page article, reporters Peter Spiegel and Julian Barnes argue that Gates does not agree with Bush on Iraq strategy. They quote Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman as saying "Gen. Petraeus and Secretary Gates are of like mind on this matter. To suggest that somehow he (Gates) has a different view ... on the strategy is wrong, and it's mischievous to suggest so." Despite this, they argue they know better what Gates truly believes.

Incidentally, the LAT acknowledges Doyle McManus as a contributor to the the article, which it labels a "report." The "report" reads like something McManus would write. The LAT calls McManus a "Times staff writer." Has McManus lost his job? He was head of the LAT's Washington bureau.