NightBlogger

WASHINGTON (AP) The Pentagon’s internal watchdog is investigating a government public relations effort that relied on retired military officers to defend the administration’s Iraq war policies. The House this past week passed an amendment to a defense authorization bill calling for reviews by both the inspector general’s office and the Government Accountability Office, Congress’ investigative arm.

The Pentagon suspended the program last month after The New York Times reported that retired officers who acted as military analysts for major news outlets were given plum access to the Pentagon. The analysts, many of whom had undisclosed ties to military contractors, received regular briefings by then-Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and a sponsored trip to the Guantanamo Bay military prison in Cuba. The GAO also said it was reviewing the program and whether it violated policies barring use of government money to spread propaganda in the United States. Read more

The New York Times has exposed a secret Pentagon campaign to infiltrate the media with pro-war propaganda. The scheme reaches all the way to the Bush White House, where top officials recruited dozens of “military analysts” to spread favorable views of the war via the news. Many of these propaganda pundits didn’t reveal that they were working from Pentagon scripts or lobbying for companies seeking to cash in on major military contracts. This is a violation of every conceivable standard of journalism — and possibly of federal law.

Photo courtesy of alykat

These snippets from The New York Times:

“To the public, these men are members of a familiar fraternity, presented tens of thousands of times on television and radio as “military analysts” whose long service has equipped them to give authoritative and unfettered judgments about the most pressing issues of the post-Sept. 11 world.”

“Most of the analysts have ties to military contractors vested in the very war policies they are asked to assess on air.”

“Those business relationships are hardly ever disclosed to the viewers, and sometimes not even to the networks themselves. But collectively, the men on the plane and several dozen other military analysts represent more than 150 military contractors either as lobbyists, senior executives, board members or consultants.”

This is laughable. We’ve been at war in Iraq and Afghanistan for how many years now? We’ve listened to these so-called Military Analysts on network news for how long now? And The New York Times is just learning this. And you can’t convince me the networks didn’t know. The term referring to this apparently new concept for the Times is known as the Military-industrial complex and it’s been around for decades.
Read the Times full article here