Take Action: Tell Congress To Investigate the Propaganda Pundits
By Nicole Belle Thursday Apr 24, 2008 3:30pm
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.
Send a letter to Congress and demand better media.
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I hope they can prove that the entire Fox News Network was working for Bush.
Off with their heads!
Tell Congress media pundits have been taking steroids. That'll get 'em going.
Ever think letter writing campaigns are a tad uncreative?
why? the only thing this congress seems able to do is send letters. Very timid letters. This is a toothless congress unable to do anything about the criminal administration. so why bother.
Thank you for your interest in _media investigations_. Rest assured that we are proceeding with all haste to draft a resolution censuring the offenders, _moveon.org_, as of this mailing. Your opinion matters to us.
Luv Forevz,
Congress
Armstrong Williams!
I'm sorry, but are you suggesting that we want Congress to tell the media who they can have on as analysts? If so, maybe take a look at those Amendment thingies that have been attached to the Constitution. And don't worry; you won't have to read a lot before you find the one I'm thinking about.
What needs investigating is whether the DoD broke federal law by engaging in domestic propaganda. Yes, that will involve the media, but not in the way that you suggest.
foolme1ns @ 5:
Harry Reid writes very stern letters.
This is the very same thing that occurred during the build up to the war, when these military experts would flood the networks with their biased point of view. The same thing is happening now, and like before, one hears almost no anti-war voices to counteract the propaganda that is allowed to occur on the network and cable TV shows. Even that quasi liberal Keith Olbermann has had people like General Barry McCaffrey and Colonel Jack Jacobs on Countdown without presenting an anti-war activist to offer a counterpoint to the obvious slant that these military "experts" are presenting.
Tony Snow --> Fox News --> White House --> CNN
miss_kitty @ 3:
Bingo! You win one of the top shelf prizes!
Propaganda --> Jeff Gannon/Guckert?
Since the NYT broke this story I haven't seen any of the generals on tv giving their take on the war. Guess they might be a little embarrassed.
Here we go:
"Joint Chiefs Chairman Says U.S. Preparing Military Options Against Iran"
Oops, forgot link:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/25/AR200804...
Hillary voted for this one too, but of course she'll protest that it was war she voted for.
All of this kind of nonesense can be stopped dead in its tracks, simply by restoring the FCC to integrity.
Legal definitions of propaganda can be crafted that would stand Constitutional scrutiny (and you can bet that the courts would for once be concerned about that, because they would see that as infringing the rights of fascists - the only group the courts seem interested in protecting). Alternatively, because propaganda is fraud, it can be prosecuted under RICO - all hurdles satisfying requirements for classification and prosecution as RICO crimes are easily met in this case. From there, it is a simple matter of enforcement. If the FCC won't do it's job, it needs to be abolished and the task of protecting and defending the interests of the American People be given to a new regulatory body.
And yet..... Still nothing impeachable to see here.... go figure....PFFT!!! JD
Journalism is dead, except for PBS and NPR. Soon, they will be, too. Write to your congressman and he/she can ignore you or mention it to a colleague who will ignore them. Answer: we don't have enough votes to do anything, so we'll do nothing instead(nothing=whatever Bush tells us to do).
Was any of them giving Senators advise when the voted for War Resolution?
Congress is in there last throes, if you will.
We told Congress with our votes to end the illegal occupation of Iraq and bring our people home.
Two years later and countless more dead and injured, they gave bush permission to do it to Iran.
sorry to be cynical, but will they read our letters, let alone take heed?
Here's a bit of good news to begin your weekend with. One of Hillary's fund raisers has left her campaign to join with Obama. I read this on the crawl at MSNBC.
The sad thing about this post, re: the contractors, is that we shouldn't have to push the congress to do this, they should realize it should and must be done.
It smells of the handy work of a global PR firm called Hill and Knowlton.
9 Weaseldog Says: foolme1ns @ 5:
why? the only thing this congress seems able to do is send letters. Very timid letters. This is a toothless congress unable to do anything about the criminal administration. so why bother.
Harry Reid writes very stern letters.
Sometimes he even stamps his foot!! Oooooooh.
anncoulterisevil.com @ 21:
so . . . they'll be around for a while?
So how is Faux News going to spin this one?
This is one of the most important issues facing our country today and the media is stonewalling. I can't recall a more brazen attempt at propaganda aimed at Americans.
Seriously people, contact your representatives, and don't let this slip away.
Look folks, let's get serious here.
Read every single thing on Crooks and Liars, outside of individual acts of charity, compassion or isolated instances of politicians "doing the right thing", there is not ONE SINGLE POSITIVE THING in our government, our government processes, including elections, that has not been corrupted. Not only corrupted, but knowingly corrupted and NOTHING is going to be done about it.
Go home, kiss your children, your loved ones and decide what your going to do for yourselves and for them.
I already have.
Yeah, If I contact Congress they might think about doing something....
oh! Maybe they'll right a letter!
pissed off patricia @ 23:
Oops sorry I posted this here, the part about the contractors should have gone on the previous post. I'm pleading being tired as my excuse. Again, sorry.
Eason Jordan is emblematic of just how servile and pathetic the "news" media has been since day one. No embarrassment, no hesitation, just a flat out, prideful admission on the air that he and his "news" network wanted to provide only the freshest and very best version of the Administration's propaganda.
I don't mind Fox being a mouthpiece for Bush and company. But I do mind that every other news agency rushed to get on the Fox bandwagon.
And I cringe in despair at the fact that the Orwellian Republican Party has controlled the House and the Senate and the White House and the Supreme Court and the News Media since before 9/11 -- and that it continues to control them all, despite the elections in 2006 of ineffectual Democrats to a majority in the House and Senate, an in spite of a few outspoken truth-sayers like Keith, Jon, Stephen and Johnny-come-lately Dan Abrams.
The best case scenario this November is not just the executive change but the hope that the change in the House and Senate will be vast and deep because the incumbents really need to GO!!!!
I just received an email from Nancy Pelosi asking me to do something. I did with her request what she has done with all of mine. Ignored it!
I did see something about general-gate on CNN headline news. That was the one and only time I have seen anything about it on tv. Even C-span hasn't done a program about it.
L.A. Confidential @ 33:
Except Sen. Russ Feingold. He's a keeper!
Yeah, Congress – those guys! They'll fix it!
They can fix anything! Stand up to Bush? Sure, at the drop of a hat!
Hearings on executive branch improprieties and lawlessness? Yeah, they're gonna shove the Constitution right up their butts. Just wait and see!
They mean it this time! The fighting 110th!! Sis, boom, bah
This propaganda made possible by the fine folks at the Council on Foreign Relations.
I wonder how many in congress knew this was going on all along?
did'nt FEMA get caught doing basicly the same thing?
miss kitty,
Tell Congress media pundits have been taking steroids. That’ll get ‘em going.
Ha! That is so true...and so sad.
pop,
Absolutely! You can bet there were many that knew the whole bleedin' time!
left of center,
did’nt FEMA get caught doing basicly the same thing?
That doesn't sound plausible. FEMA hasn't done anything in eight years!
left of center @ 39:
They held a press conference and filled the audience with their own people.
Their people asked the soft questions and the FEMA reps on the stage answered them favorably. Total setup.
Except Sen. Russ Feingold. He’s a keeper!
Agreed.
[Deleted. Off topic-Sitemonitor]
Lib and Proud,
Go home, kiss your children, your loved ones and decide what your going to do for yourselves and for them.
Excellent advice!
thepoetryman @ 41:
Then their asses are as guilty as Rumsfeld and the pentagon, because they should have spoken up. By abetting the crime, they are equally to blame.
While it's truly disgusting and frightening, this story only confirms what we already knew.
Congress isn't going to do squat about it. They have allowed the Bushies to get away with EVERYTHING and damn the people if they're going to change now. Once Obama is elected, the Republicans will begin calls for investigations. I predict impeachment for Obama before the end of half his term.
ezpz,
“Joint Chiefs Chairman Says U.S. Preparing Military Options Against Iran”
Now they say it out loud. They've been prepping for this for over a year, easy. We go into, or bomb Iran and we are toast. Burnt toast!
This is more nazi rule.
betray-us got a raise for all his lies.
I don't understand why hillary and Obama are taking anything chimpy says as truth.
Missing emails, missing memos, missing phone records, lying cronies, this will take years just to figure out the paperwork.
It's disgusting this hasn't gotten more attention...but then again, there's a decided media and government bias against free, stimulating rational debate these days anyway. Of course, they'd cover up their own mistakes.
theWalrus @ 48:
Well if he lies to us and gets us into war he's safe. If he gets a bj while in office, I will leave that punishment to Michelle. I doubt there would enough of him left to impeach.
hood,
I hope they can prove that the entire Fox News Network was working for Bush.
That would certainly be good. Problem is...it only takes someone breathing to recognize this fact, which leads me to believe that there are plenty more to herd together when it comes to complicity with Faux News. We'll need more holding pens.
Who is left to do the prosecution? The govt was in on it and the media was in on it, so who is left to do anything?
pissed off patricia @ 54:
Us?
goat hussein sage @ 55:
And we do what exactly? Besides vote our asses off in November.
goat hussein sage @ 55:
Exactly. Why do we always seem to forget that the government is ultimately responsible to us, in every thing it does?
pissed off patricia @ 56:
Well, we can always sign another petition...
goat hussein sage @ 58:
If we did, who would we send it to? The govt that committed the crime?
pissed off patricia @ 59:
The most effective thing to do would be to boycott the television stations, which would give them an incentive to check their sources better. But I doubt most people would do that...I think we all find this stuff as just entertainment sometimes, and rather than do anything substantive, our complaining just feeds their profit machine.
messed that up...I meant to say:
The most effective thing to do would be to boycott the television stations, which would give them an incentive to check their sources better. But I doubt most people would do that...I think we all find this stuff as just entertainment sometimes, and rather than do anything substantive, our complaining just feeds their profit machine.
[FIFY-Sitemonitor]
pissed off patricia @ 59:
Yeah, that'll show 'em!
There was one media military man I remember appearing on PBS's NewsHour with Jim Lehrer many times. His name is Colonel Patrick Lang, a former special forces officer.
He was mild-mannered and matter of fact when he spoke. He was also laughed and sneered at repeadetly by bellicose others, mainly these retired general types sitting next to him on the guest panels for his views, not only on the justification for war against Iraq, but on the likely scenarios and outcome.
He was right every time. The best example; when he predicted early on that Saddam's forces would melt away and begin a protracted insurgency to slowly wear us down with ambushes and bombings.
Obviously, he wasn't on the Pentagon payroll.
I believe the elite think they will kill us all who speak the truth. We must circle the wagons and start underground newspapers. Boycott all Ganette Press for starters.
JTM @ 8:
Ah yes, let the "free market" once again magically do the right thing as they always do...right. Gimme a break!!!!!!!!!!
the USA is not the USA I grew up in. They WILL do what ever it takes to do what ever they want to do. Soon the American people will see these people for what they are. IT WILL BE TOO LATE BY THEN.......
Underground Pirate @ 65:
The free market would work if the government didn't tamper with the analysts and the viewers cared enough to stop paying attention to the media outlets, which would force them to do actual journalism. But, this isn't about the government infringing upon free speech by forcing TV channels to avoid tainted analysts; it's about the government infringing upon the right of a free press by tainting those analysts in the first place.
Yes, a Democratic-led investigation - a.k.a. a judicial proceeding wherein participants are not sworn in, and any outcome is non-binding - this is exactly what we need. And let's have Henry Waxman do it, too; he can give them a feel-good, yet utterly ineffectual tongue-lashing. As a result, he'll claim to be tough on corruption and get elected again. Everybody wins - except, of course, for the taxpayer that pays for the above inanities.
The only positive that could come out of a hearing conducted by the House Judiciary commitee is that it represents time that they don't spend signing bills (like the Patriot Act, for instance).
It's not just the military complex salesmen that has infiltrated our news , it's every Council on Foreign Relations sycophant that parrots U.S. foreign policy , every former administration rep.
Like William Cohen and Richard Hass both CFR members , who infest our news with their propaganda and if you just go to the CFR.org OWN damn web site , you can read who these guys really are . In Their own words , you can outrages and anti American ideas like " monetary sovereignty" is a hindrance to economic growth . GEt that , Richard Hass from the CFR ( who is on CNN frequently and CBS ) , wrote that one world currency is preferable and the first step being one dollar for the whole of North America . THESE are the people , along with the pro-pentagon , pro U.S. foreign policy that are on TV and for CNN to hire TONY SNOWJOB is a disgrace and insult to everybody who wants am independent media .
Tony Snow spewing out every republican talking point like ' Bitter-Gate ' ; " who really is obama ' " why doesn't he debate Hillary again ' , insinuating there some danger possibility of obama in the white house and add Blitzer going out OF HIS WAY , proclaiming in his monotone , loaded statements that " McCain didn't pretty well debating " , it's all a fricken propaganda campaign by CNN , CBS and FoX to damage both Dems before the election and preferably have Clinton in , because the MSM fav. "straight shooter " is who they want in the WH .
Tony Snow on CNN? , this lying lapdog that couldn't answer the majority of questions , mislead the country on most answers, gets to say anything he wants along with the other apologist for Bush/McSame Gloria Borger .
NOW look at the build up for an ATTACK on Iran that's in process , by CNN that looks like as if it's produced by the pentagon , OBVIOUSLY manufacturing Consent to start another war . GOOD job CNN , you helped start the last war and previous invasions and now you continue the " sources say " propaganda , to parrot reasons for invading Iran for the Administration , like good little propagandist .
Oh yes, send a letter Congress, like THAT'S going to do anything!
Bush will just change the laws to make them retroactively immune anyways.
Standard Operating Procedure.
Because some jerk retires from the military that automatically makes him an expert about war? Really?
Nicole:
I did a video for Max and the Marginalized (the mp3 was featyred at HuffPo) that is related and may interest you...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCIn5sCTIpw
Long time no see
BuelahMan
Frankly, I'm not surprised Howard Kurtz would miss the point entirely. This is the same guy who read Huffington's piece on media hiring government propagandists (like Kristol, Rove and Snow) and interpreting this to mean that Huffington thinks there should be no conservatives in the media.
Kurtz -- not the sharpest tool in the shed.
Which side is the US Gov. on? And survey says!! The Dark Side
This is just more proof that the neo-con cabal could not get what they wanted without resorting to illegal behavior!
"Covert" propaganda is illegal. Covert propaganda is defined as "materials such as editorials or other articles prepared by an agency or its contractors at the behest of the agency and circulated as the ostensible position of parties outside the agency."
Pentagon officials helped two Fox analysts, General McInerney and General Vallely, write an opinion article for The Wall Street Journal defending Mr. Rumsfeld.The military "analysts" did not disclose to the networks, the papers or the public that they were parroting the Bush party line or working in their defense. Instead, they were presented as "experts" This is illegal!!
-- one assumes vetted for neutrality by the networks. We're only now finding out that they were in fact paid to appear on TV, which turns them into .... what, exactly? ... (no, not that) ... a consultant? And were they paid to write op-eds as well?
Whether any laws were broken, clearly the military officers operated in a place of moral disquiet -- from the appearance of conflicts of interest to admitted failure to disclose, even when they knew that they were "carrying water" or acting like puppets (the opening quote) for the White House.
What price will these paid propoganda officers have to pay? What price will the networks have to pay? My guess is none, because the people overseeing are involved ....go figure!
Transparency has not been evident MSM run-up to the war or in most of its continuing coverage. Neither the government nor the MSM need any new examples of behavior that erodes public trust, and yet they keep engaging in questionable acts that do just that!
Our Congress continues to insist that impeachment is off the table (complicity)
Is it any wonder that average Americans don't trust politicians or the media?
In conjunction with this COLLUSION between the CORPORATE MEDIA/ GOVERNMENT/PROPAGANDA/THE GENERALS are two interconnected events that most of us have forgotten yet that which ILLUSTRATES PERFECTLY this COORDINATION... one is that prime time news conference just before the invasions of Iraq in which THE FUHRER BUSH 'informed' the American people about all the concocted 'evidence' to justify the invasion at hand. This 'news conference' was coordinated with the entire Corporate Media in such a way that not only was Bush's performance totally 'scripted' but so too was the MEDIA PUPPETS who had also been scripted in their answers to the scripted Bush. So here we had this prime time 'news conference' in which the Fuhrer 'presented' all his lies and the PRESELECTED REPORTERS LIKE DAVID GREGORY had their preselected 'questions' in which the Fuhrer gave his 'scripted' answers .. so complete was this deception to the American People that other 'reporters' were ordered to 'pretend' that they were asking questions knowing that they would not be called upon. So from the viewing perspective of the American People one would see these reporters waving their hands in the air as if they had 'questions' knowing that they would not be called upon, and only those 'reporters' that had been preselected with the 'written' questions for them being called upon that the scripted president would then answer. This actually fucking happened. And is tied into this very collusion between the CORPORATE MEDIA , the GOVERNMENT, AND THE MILATARY.
The other 'event' that also demonstrates this collusion and coordination is the very day that 9/11 happened where the Fuhrer was at that school reading 'my pet goat' to the students and being informed by Card that AMERICA IS BEING ATTACKED. Bush sat there for another seven fucking minutes reading his fucking book. This actual event was on video tape. Yet this actual event was BLOCKED BY THE SAME FUCKING MEDIA FOR OVER TWO YEARS FROM ANYONE SEEING OR KNOWING ABOUT IT. THE ENTIRE FUCKING CORPORATE MEDIA. THINK ABOUT THAT. ACTING AS ONE. ASK YOURSELF JUST WHO HAS THE POWER TO BLOCK THE ENTIRE FUCKING MEDIA LIKE THAT ? ANY OF YOU HAVE THAT ANSWER ? And this event was only exposed when Michael Moore made his famous documentary about 9/11. Only then. And then, of course, THE ENTIRE CORPORATE MEDIA THEN ATTACKED MOORE FOR DOING SO. And now, of course, the entire Corporate Media is trying to block any investigation into itself relative to the GENERALS AND THEIR PROPAGANDA THAT THE MEDIA ITSELF IS IN COLLUSION WITH. This is what our once great country had come too: A STATE OF TOTAL FACISISM. Seig Heil !
Is this a turning point? I've been paying relatively little attention to this story because It's like nobody ever heard the phrase "military-industrial complex". But maybe this is an "aha" moment where a larger mass of people are realizing that figures like Noam Chomsky who have been writing about this sort of thing for decades really aren't crazy?
blue-
You overstate , but not much, the truth of the My Pet Goat coverage. Here are three examples of reportage of the incident before Moore's film was released. None of the three are television, and only one- the SF Chronicle- can really be considered mainstream media, but someone did try torun with the story. But I don't think it's a matter of the story being blocked as much as it being an interesting but, when boiled down, superfluous story. IMO. I just think that there wasn't a whole hell of a lot that Stupor Mundi could have done in 7 minutes that wasn't already being done below him along the chain of command.
As for the media puppets- I find it rather ironic that one of the administration's most well known puppets during the ramp-up to the invasion of Iraq was Judith Miller, who reported for the same organization (The NY Times) that broke the story we're discussing now.
When referring to the military industrial complex, it's a mistake to assume congress is independent of it or more than its funder.
The boys and girls in DC are bought and owned , almost every last one of them , period . There will be no investigation and if there was some Mickey Mouse show put on nothing would come of it and this goes for investigating Bush and his cabal too , if Obama is elected President . It would take more than one to restore law and order , ethics and bring justice to the criminals , it would take a friggin miracle of some kind , three quarters in the Congress and Senate are guilty themselves !Our government is no better than Putin's Kremlin , the only thing our government hasn't done ( yet ) is assassinate and murder the opposition and each other . There is only one way , the people voting new blood in and voting out the old but we as a whole are just too stupid and selfish .
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