PBS did an excellent report on the explosive NY Times story which says: the Pentagon may influence the analysis of some retired military personnel who appear on television news programs. Oh, really? Wow, I never would have guessed. I’ve covered this scandal at length already, but since Network News refuses to comment on this report, I’ll keep pushing it. And I thank PBS for also not sticking their heads in the sand.
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Woodruff: And for the record, we invited Fox News, CNN, MSNBC, CBS, ABC and NBC to participate, but they declined our offer or did not respond. We’ve been talking to the Pentagon since Monday about participating in this segment. But when we finally scheduled it today, they were unable to supply a guest on short notice.
Bob Zelnick admirably plays the media’s chief apologist for this segment. It’s not surprising that someone that works in the media defends them to the end. The Pentagon and the Networks thank you.
JUDY WOODRUFF: How surprised were you to see this report?
BOB ZELNICK: I wasn’t surprised at all. In fact, when I covered the Pentagon, I often sought information from retired generals and admirals and colonels because I knew they were well-informed.
I knew they kept in touch. I knew they had drinks at the Army-Navy Club. I know they went to Army-Navy football games on special trains together. I knew that many of them were serving as what we called Beltway bandits or consultants.
So I wasn’t surprised at all, except by the amount of space devoted to this piece by the New York Times.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Since the months leading up to the start of the Iraq war in March 2003, dozens of retired military officers served as analysts on cable and network television.
JUDY WOODRUFF: These former generals and colonels have been a mainstay of commentary and analysis. And the networks paid them for their appearances.
Now, a lengthy New York Times investigation, published on Sunday, revealed the Pentagon targeted many of these analysts as part of an information apparatus to generate favorable news coverage of the administration’s wartime performance. (transcript below the fold)
Pentagon officials organized hundreds of private meetings with senior military leaders and the military analysts. They included talks with Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.
According to the Times, analysts were also taken on tours of Iraq and given access to classified intelligence. In turn, members of this group have echoed administration talking points, sometimes even when they suspected the information was false or inflated.
It was also disclosed that most of the analysts have ties to military contractors…read on
No Trackbacks To “CNN, FOX, CBS, ABC, NBC and MSNBC decline PBS’ interview request over the “Military Generals’ scandal“
Can anyone seriously doubt that corporations can and do engage in censorship? Any Libertarians care to discuss why it is that Public Broadcasting will take this on but not the Corporate Media?
What makes this story even more repulsive is remembering that one of the networks (CBS?) fired their military consultant (Batiste?) because he appeared in a VoteVets ad. So meeting with Rummy at the Pentagon and supporting the war is just fine, but give an opinion that goes against the Pentagon’s script - and you’re fired.
Or have the Libertarians that frequently troll this site all called it quits along with Ron Paul?
These companies are beyond reason. If you make them uncomfortable - YOU will pay a price, not them.
Since they are beyond reason, they will only change their behavior if made to change.
These are not decent people.
I dont know what is gained by a discussion about them that assumes decency and reason - neither apply. Instead, discuss what would be needed to force their behavior.
judy woodruff does not belong on PBS’ Jim Lehrer newshour. she’s a fucking mainstream media hack.
Nice job Professor Zellnick. You generalize the facts to make it look like this was standard operating procedure and then put on the rose-colored glasses to make it sound like this propaganda campaign was a good way to get information.
How to I sing up for you Journalism 101 class? David Horowitz would be proud.
Zelnick is the perfect shill. I’m willing to bet he’s a paid CIA agent who poses as a journalist. Notice how he refused to address the fact that this was an illegal act and intentionally fudged the difference between a journalist approaching a source that might give a different story than the official one and the government providing prepped stooges to pretend to be objective analysts.
the ceo is now the highest rank in the military.
When a war has to be sold so deceptively, so forcefully you know that war is bullshit.
I’d give all the greedy sycophants immunity in exchange for testimony on Rumsfeld, Cheney & Bush.
Katie Couric cut her teeth in show biz as a Pentagon correspondent for NBC.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPnGuIKmq0s
Biff Limbaugh @ 8:
This is what happens when a country *ahem*“elects” a CEO prez…
…or one you would want to “have a beer with.”
Staggering incompetence.
:(
Snowball @ 3:
I think a lib would argue that we will all stop watching TV news and we’d stop patronizing all their sponsors, and we’d stop funding the military because we’d obviously elect govt officials who would protect our interests. Then (if we could afford it) we’d pay $50 to go to our local suburban security guarded park and read Ayn Rand and jump up and down about how free we all are.
Has this even been in any newspapers?
If people remember, the Pentagon started this “war” being fairly straightforward. As things turned to shit, the spin machine from the Vietnam era was tuned up. All the advances of Powells lessons of Nam went out the window. Now that giant shithole is worse than ever. Lie, grind the kids, lose and deny it. We took a step forward before bush pushed us back three.
Reminder: there is no victory, there is no magic window that is the perfect time to get out. We get out and save lives, or kill more people for no reason.
Teddy Phuf @ 12:
That is, if we can keep the corporations we boycott from hiring Blackwater to crack our heads in or doing this:
Corporate Spies
A private security firm employed former Secret Service and CIA agents to spy on Greenpeace, U.S. PIRG, Environmental Media Services and other environmental organizations on behalf of corporate clients including Monsanto, Halliburton, Wal-Mart and Allied Waste. Documents obtained by Mother Jones, which broke this explosive story, reveal the spying lasted from the late 1990s at least through 2000. The company paid private spies to collect phone records and other private information on prominent activists, to root through dumpsters and infiltrate the staffs of environmental organizations.
moniker @ 13:
… from the NYTimes
John
please stay on this story, the MSM and the Pentagon
someone has too
It also should be noted that while all the major media have had no hesitation in presenting the military point of view, they have also made sure that the military perspective was never going to be challenged by an anti-war voice, and that includes PBS and that quasi liberal, Keith Olbermann.
The only reason the official MSM machine chose not to participate in this discussion on PBS is because the Network executives all know that they consciously acted in collaboration with the Administration.
And they are responsible for the deaths of 4,000 young Americans, the maiming of 10’s of thousands more, and the deaths of untold 100’s of thousands of Iraqi civilians. As responsible as the Administration they supported and sucked-up to.
I watched this interview on TV (rare for me now). I was impressed by John Stauber. He said the following about Bob Zelnick and this scandal in a calm, professional manner:
JOHN STAUBER: Well, let me say I’m just shocked to hear Bob Zelnick depict and misrepresent what’s going on here. And I have to wonder, Professor Zelnick, if you even read the New York Times article very closely.
This is an instant where these people were recruited by Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld as agents of Pentagon propaganda and inserted into the networks.
Now, you can fault — and we should fault — the networks for not vetting these people properly, for not being much more careful about their credentials.
But the fact is this program began with the Pentagon, with the Bush administration, recruiting these people to be their surrogates. And those are the words that the internal documents used. This is the Pentagon Papers of this war.
Erroll @ 18:
PBS is not “quasi-liberal” as you erroneously state. It is however, significantly more objective (although far from perfect) than the Corporate Media. Conservatives conflate objectivity with Liberalism because, as Colbert stated so well, “Facts have a Liberal bias.”
Sadly, im not surprised.
I’m a bit surprised that MSNBC (who is the the only news channel that I watch) did not chose to do this. Shame on you, Dan Abrams.
john @ 5:
she’s married to that supreme asshole on the WSJ can’t remember his name
Was it for ” expert ” analysis , well then the could have gone to collage professors or military school , to show some sense of of neutrality , no they went for the direct pipeline to the Pentagon , to get some nuggets of early info, maybe .
Did they care it looked like blatantly bias to hire only the military and intelligence officers to give their ” opinion ‘ during the run up to the invasion ?
Did they think it was possible for them to be totally neutral , given the OBVIOUS conflicts of interests , not to mention those who worked for defense contractors or munition manufacturers and conversely how large would the uproar would be if CNN hired 20 HIPPIES or 20 ANTIWAR people . I mean there might have been no war or needless body parts laying all over the ground and SERIOUS questions might have been asked , challenging the well planned propaganda machine that infested cable tv , pounding away all with the same message, that this war necessary because powell told us Saddam was going to fly model planes with chemical weapons to America .
it’s indefensible and blatantly offensive to everybody who want a neutral news media , to see these war profiteers, the corporations ; the ” analysts ” present not only one side of the issue , but misleading and false information to purposely mislead and sell these goddamn wars .
No Fox , CNN, NBC, ABC, CBS run like little cowards that they are , with their profits from selling the war , collaborating with the military as inbeds and don’t forget what Abe Vreis discovered in the late 90’s , CNN hiring Psychological Operatives from the military as ” interns ” , another indefensible act by cable lapdogs .
NOW watching CBS 60 minutes has the ” heroes ” of the Israeli attack on Saddam’s nuclear reactor , with interviews and even cock pit video of Israeli fighter pilots . Wonder how thy got that via FedEx or UPS from the mossad . But of course this is linked to the attacking Iran propaganda campaign , another needed and “justified ‘ attack, manufacturing consent .
Here we go again , and for the same reason CBS won’t do a serious report about the inhuman conditions in Gaza , the malnutrition; the oil cuts ; the food cuts ; the electricity cut by ISRAEL , they work in concert spreading lies and misinformation for Israel and the W.H.
votingvet @ 19:
I often wonder if it’s not the Republican party that controls the Corporate Media, but the Corporate Media that controls the Republicans. The media is, after all, owned by major corporate interests that profit mightily from war.
marko @ 23:
Al Hunt…I think.
The Networks won’t talk about this; the Pentagon won’t talk about this. Now that they’ve been busted, they’ll just stay mum and move on to commit the next atrocity against our Constitution.
I hate to shout - but I’m right:
EVERYBODY NEEDS TO READ NOAM CHOMSKY’S MANUFACTURING CONSENT.
(The book, not the film.)
Filter #3: “Experts”
Chomsky was calling this shit out during the Vietnam war.
Do you really think these institutions started doing this shit with the advent of Fox News?
Yes, Al Hunt is married to Woodruff. He writes books about American politics for the American Enterprise Institute. No wonder Judy kept trying to step on John Stauber’s points and throw them to Zelnick. If the Corporate Media shills had accepted PBS’ invitation, Stauber would not have been able to get a word in edgewise.
BOB ZELNICK: So I wasn’t surprised at all, except by the amount of space devoted to this piece by the New York Times. I mean, what? You really expect us to do critical journalism? Puleeeze.Are you aware how not cost effective that is? How are we in the television media going to turn a profit unless we tow the line and use those cheap experts that we know are pawns of the government? Com’on Judy: I knew you were a terrorist sympathizer, but a commie too?
Since govt and media collusion are as obvious and as well reported as, oh say, penis and vagina collusion, this isn’t surprising or interesting. Its like you say, “hey, you know that guy with flesh rotting disease? His flesh has open running sores so you can see how diseased he is.” and I say, “Yah, I know, he’s flesh rotting-disease-guy.”
I will say, that as much as I love the Newshour, I can’t stand Judy Woodruff. It was about 2 weeks ago, and she was interviewing someone over a satellite hookup, audio and video. All of a sudden the video for the guy cuts out, but we can still hear what he’s saying, and Judy, INTERRUPTS him, saying they’ve lost the video, and the guy a bit put off pauses and says, “But you can still hear me, right?” and Judy realizing what an silly thing that was to do, sort of trails off, losing steam as she replies: “Yes, but we wanted people… to… see… you.”
It was to laugh.
i’m actually in favor of a class-action lawsuit aganst the entire msm on behalf overy man, woman & child in america for conspiring to not only cover up 9/11, but to mislead our nation into endorsing illegal preemptive war on a nation that never threatened us.
take every penny they got, cut checks for everyone.
bet that’ll kickstart some economic stimulation.
*every
(although i do enjoy me some ovaries)
Ex-generals, just like ex-presidents, often have a hard time in “retirement.” Their egos just can’t stand being “sidelined” after they’ve been the center of attention, their hands holding the levers of power in our society, calling the shots.
So, Rumsfeld’s Pentagon contacted many of these “mothballed” ex-generals, appealed to their “retired” bloated egos, fed them disinformation based on the Bush administration’s policy of “fixing the intelligence around the policy” instead of basing policy on factual information, sent them out on their mission as right-wing pundits on MSM outlets, where they proceeded to act no differently than some Communist generals spouting Kremlin propaganda in the old Soviet Union on the old Soviet MSM.
These ex-U.S. generals have disgraced their uniform, and have abetted the damage done to our military, especially the damage done to the U.S. Army and the U.S. Marines, with none of these ex-U.S. generals apparently having the courage to tell the most corrupt administration in American history to go shove it. But why would they? Many of these ex-U.S. generals sold their patriotism long ago to the Military Industrial Complex for thirty pieces of silver. Thus, these ex-U.S. generals have served their purpose, and served their corporate/neo-con Republican governmental masters well. These ex-U.S. generals have helped merge Corporatism with Militarism with right-wing Governmentalism…which equals Fascism…which represents a “clear and present danger” to all that U.S. citizens hold dear.
And I really doubt that any of these ex-U.S. generals will apologize to the American people for what they’ve done. They have been too corrupted by Corporatist greed.
Joseph Geobbels understood the power of “images…” and controlled public opinion of the Motherland masses.
KKKarl Rove understood the power of statistics and mailing lists… and took over control of the Republican Party.
Dick Cheney understood the power of SECRECY, INFORMATION, and INTIMIDATION… and KILLED A DEMOCRACY.
To some ‘people’, war is just business and the analysts they hire are taking care of the infomercials they need to sell the public their product, which is war. This won’t change as long as politicians, thanks to the voters, leave this situation as it is.
Two and a half thousand years ago Sun Tzu had written that war can’t be sustained without popular support at home. He wrote that leaders must consider the enemy’s ability to drain the morale and treasure of the people back home as a potential cause of defeat. He wrote that leaders should be careful to ensure that there are legitimate reasons to go to war so that the people will give their support.
Our leaders think they’ve found a shortcut. One of the dangers of putting businessmen in charge of the military is that they will start to think that they can best the most brilliant military strategists in history by instituting a clever marketing strategy. That may work when you’re selling Diet Coke but it doesn’t help you win wars in real life.
When I hear this story unfold, I don’t think of our leaders as sinister masterminds, I think of them as fools who are heading towards defeat.
anon @ 4:
These companies are publicly owned. You and me and everyone that has a 401k owns a piece of them. These CEOs are a group of parasites that have stolen myne and your property and are stealing money from me and you.
bullfrog @ 32:
If there are legal grounds, they should be investigated, and held accountable if found guilty. If they go, it makes space for something new and good.
Uh, I believe you meant misinform Bryan
It took the NYT 6 years to figure out that the TV networks were shilling for the Pentagon?
Wow, the CPM - Corporate Propaganda Media won’t answer legitimate questions, whoddathunkit?
The most important question is, “Now that we are aware of what the Corporate Propaganda Media is feeding us will we refuse to listen when they trot out other ‘analysts’ who have been hand selected by the Bu$hco Admin to try to expand their already disastrous wars by, say, a nuclear strike against Iran or something similar?”
and how many of you
dumbassesstill think this is a democracyand not a fascist state? well, i hope you can hold your breath while
your head in under the sand.
The structure of our government is different than the old Soviet Union. In the USSR the government controlled the companies and the media, including Pravda.
In our country, corporations control the governm