They Cherry Pick so You Don't Have To

The Pentagon is refusing to release captured Iraqi documents because they're concerned people will pick and choose information--cherry pick, so to speak--and take it out of context in order to prove whatever point they want to make. According to Steven F. Hayes at The Weekly Standard:

The main worry, says [Pentagon spokesman Larry] DiRita, is that the mainstream press might cherry-pick documents and mischaracterize their meaning. "There is always the concern that people would be chasing a lot of information good or bad, and when the Times or the Post splashes a headline about some sensational-sounding document that would seem to 'prove' that sanctions were working, or that Saddam was just a misunderstood patriot, or some other nonsense, we'd spend a lot of time chasing around after it."

Why would the press, or anyone else for that matter, do such a thing? Where could the Pentagon have possibly come up with an idea like that? (Via Abu Aardvark and Kevin Drum.)