More like:
Media suddenly catches wind of something that has been known for years - army needs to use scrap to armor some vehicles - and gasps in astonishment and belatedly lets rest of public know.

The only part of Rumsfeld's comments that was missed in the excerpts you complained about was that they were armoring as fast as possible (even throwing in the laws of physics there).
The USA is the biggest industrial nation ever. No need to invoke the laws of physics, more like the laws of greenbacks.

I'm really surprised he didn't say "Well, I didn't know" since that excuse has worked before, though from De Rita's spin that's what she implied....
Credit to him for trying to explain it.
No credit for not having fixed it already.