[THS] The Nation: Pentagon Propaganda & Antiwar Analysts

[Peter Webster]

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article19781.htm


Pentagon Propaganda & Antiwar Analysts

By The Nation

21/04/08 "The Nation" -- The Sunday Times' article detailing the
massive, secret coordinated campaign by the Pentagon and all the
leading television news channels to sell and defend the administration's
Iraq policy is a critical piece of investigative journalism. David Barstow
provided meticulous and aggressive reporting, even referencing how
The Times' amplified Pentagon "surrogates" without sufficient disclosure
for readers. The Times also deserves credit, both for running the
lengthy piece and suing the government to obtain related documents.
(Read the whole thing here, or try this YouTube excerpt.)

The Nation's Katrina vanden Heuvel is urging Congress to investigate
the program exposed by the article: In its rigorous documentation of
the relationship between the government, the networks and retired
military analysts, the lineaments of the corrosive structure and impact of
a new military-media-industrial complex are exposed. This corrupt
complex demands investigation by all relevant Congressional
committees...

Glenn Greenwald, who has written extensively about the media's pro-
war bias and undisclosed conflicts of interest, flags the galling (non)-
response of several news organizations, near the end of the article:

The most incredible aspect of the NYT story is that most of the news
organizations which deceived their readers and viewers by using these
"objective" analysts -- CBS, NBC, Fox -- simply refused to comment on
what they knew about any of this or what their procedures are for
safeguarding against it. Just ponder what that says about these
organizations -- there is a major expose in the NYT documenting that
these news outlets misleadingly shoveled government propaganda
down the throats of their viewers on matters of war and terrorism and
they don't feel the least bit obliged to answer for what they did or knew
about any of it.... The single most significant factor in American political
culture is the incestuous, extensive overlap between our media
institutions and government officials.

The article reports that most of the news organizations either didn't
know or didn't care about their paid analysts taking direction from the
administration while claiming to neutrally assess its policies; or taking
expensive trips paid by the administration; or meeting secretly with
senior administration officials and plotting military or political strategy; or
competing for military contracts.

So what does it take to disqualify a former general from on-air analysis?

Criticizing President Bush.

While the article does not cover this incident, CBS did fire Maj. Gen.
John Batiste (Ret.) for criticizing President Bush's Iraq policy in a
television ad. As the former commander of the Army's First Infantry
Division, which was deployed to Iraq in 2003, Batiste had unassailable
credentials, but his views were too much for CBS. This larger context is
key, because while the Times exposed a sophisticated, deceptive
domestic propaganda campaign for the administration, the flip-side is
harder to document. But antiwar perspectives are routinely marginalized
or scrubbed from televised debate, even when offered by our nation's
brave military leaders.

As ABC News was reminded last week, the public expects more integrity
and substance from these news organizations. They are egregiously late
in even commenting on these new reports, let alone reforming their
policies, which demonstrates why Congress must investigate this
propaganda program -- and the marginalization of experts who are
critical of the war or the government.