Putting the Pentagon Pundits on pause
Following up on an item John posted over the weekend, the New York Times had quite a front-page scoop when it reported on a Pentagon program that recruited retired military officers, who’ve since become lobbyists or consultants for military contractors, to become propaganda agents of the Bush administration. Throughout the war in Iraq, these retired officers — or “message multipliers,” as they were described by internal Defense Department documents — took on roles as military analysts for all of the major news networks, without noting their puppet-like relationships with the Pentagon.
The controversy has become something of a scandal for the Defense Department (though the controversy would likely have been far more significant were it not for a near-media blackout), prompting officials to scrap the program, at least for now.
The Defense Department has temporarily stopped feeding information to retired military officers pending a review of the issue, said Robert Hastings, principal deputy assistant secretary of Defense for public affairs. [...]
Hastings said he is concerned about allegations that the Defense Department’s relationship with the retired military analysts was improper.
“Following the allegations, the story that is printed in the New York Times, I directed my staff to halt, to suspend the activities that may be ongoing with retired military analysts to give me time to review the situation,” Hastings said in an interview with Stripes on Friday.
Hastings, implicitly conceding an error, told reporters of his pending review, “We’ll take the time to do it right.”
As for the political angle of all of this, the estimable Ari Melber noted that the Clinton and Obama campaigns both criticized the administration for starting the program -- while the McCain campaign doesn't want to talk about it.
It is sad, but the U.S. is a military culture.... the Pentagon has had a big hand in driving policy.... the gun is not the only option, nor should it be the first option.... often does more bad than good.... the military needs to be dialed back in this country... and this country spends far too much money on the military... it is a joke... terrorism is largely a police and intelligence action.. an M1 Abrams, an aircraft carrier or a F-16 cannot stop terrorism... the pentagon driving the message that the public hears in order to manipulate the public and the country is very dangerous...
for the sake of argument, let's just say a democrat gets elected president this year.
how long before the media jumps all over him for some trite, stupid bullshit, that can only be described as a cheap political attack?
a month?
a week?
how will the media make the transitiion from reporting nothing to reporting everything?
http://glassbeadcollective.blip.tv/file/784711/
This program was illegal. And they know it. But we live in a lawless society now. So there will be no punishment for yet another crime by our government officials.
Typical MCcain response,, bury thy head in the sand and hope it goes away.
If we follow the pattern of the
Worldwide Press Freedom Index Ranking..
In 2002 The United States was #17
In 2007 it is #48
2007
http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=24025
2002
http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=4116
Not only has/is the press spewing illegal propaganda
they have assembled annually together with the criminal perpa-traitors
and all laugh about it right in america's face.
after all of the bullshit this administration has pulled, is anyone really surprised about this? it seems like standard operating procedure to me.
The program shows the path they are on, and we all know the media is complicit in propagating their misinformation. They may suspend this part of the program now, but they'll figure out another way to stay on this path.
The military-industrial complex is a juggernaut - so much money, power and influence that it will never end of it's own accord. It doesn't even matter that the country is broke. They'll take every dime and then still keep the printing press running for more.
steve duncan @ 3:
Nice link
Since the Republicans reckon all aspects of government to be incompetent and wasteful it seems bizarre that they should choose to pump limitless amounts of money into what would seem to be the most incompetent branch of government of all: the military. They can't even account for how the money is spent. Why would anyone go into the military who could make a living in a productive manner? Yet we're all supposed to revere them: there can be no criticism. These officers live off the public purse and should be held accountable for taking bribes - which is what this amounts to. McCain has lived off government hand-outs all his life. Let's have a president who has actually had to work for a living.
The liberal media lies. Thats why only blogs, communist television (aka PBS), and the NY Times report on this.
'puppet-like'....
Pretty much describes everyone who is running the war and the country. I wonder who is really pulling the strings?
Ol' Straight-Talk doesn't want to talk about it?!?
I'm shocked. Imagine that.
Typical douchebag warmonger...he and 101st Keyboarders should form a circle jerk with the Shrub.
shaneO @ 7:
I hear ya.
I think I'll just start using "SOP" now when describing anything that's f#$%ed up.
The thing that gets me about this is that it was aimed at us, the (mostly?) unsuspecting public. Not only that, but I haven't seen any real outrage over this in Congress.
Shouldn't we be hearing more than displeasure from Clinton and Obama?
Or is everybody just waiting for this *quack* a-hole *quack* to leave.
Two questions:
Did Bill Clinton do this, too, back during Bosnia?
Did Hastings stop the program because it might be improper or because it might be illegal?
The young people in every civics class across the country should discuss this today.
Cheney lawyer says Congress has no authority to conduct oversight over Vice President's affairs
http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Cheney_lawyer_claims_Congress_has_no_0429....
...and in all the criminal law classes they should review bush's record as president
Initial Grand Jury Investigation of Abramoff - Bush Removed Prosecutor, Probe Ended
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2005/08/08/bush_re...
...and when discussing the presidential race
Discuss that McCain is still Suppressing 97% of Abramoff Criminal Documents
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/1/8/222648/0915/57/433195
Does this include the fact that John "the republican" McCain is a republican?
War is a racket. This war has been a swindle, the scope of which is a dream come true for the swindlers, realized after the morning of 911.
Here KO in the second item talks about Iraq construction projects marked as completed, except they were not.
850 projects 'terminated before completion'. Untold billions down rat holes. As for the rats, they are everywhere.
Could these and their like have gone forward with truthful accounting by the Generals along the way, NO WAY.
Why are the Democratic candidates not calling for a Congressional investigation?
Because Washington DC is overrun by the rats. The Corporate Media are overrun by rats.
The rats are everywhere.
"— took on roles as military analysts for all of the major news networks, without noting their puppet-like relationships with the Pentagon."
Nor did they ever mention the officers actual military occupation. In most cases, the media had the speakers military rank and branch of service presented at the bottom of the screen. They never mentioned how long that speaker had been out of the service or if that speaker spent their entire service in say administration or supply. I can see why they didn't display it though. If they did display the speakers actual occupation their credibility would have been shot. Heck, for the Fox News viewers they could have put up General Gomer Pile (retired) and those viewers would have bought it.
Alice (formerly Hussein, live free of the Borg or die) @ 18:
From the Nation article:
Obama says the situation deserves further investigation, but he doesn't say who.
Clinton says Gates should do a review! Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me!
Obama may be the only one who can get ahead of this, because there are rats everywhere!
I lived abroad during Daddy Bush's big "Kuwait Can't Wait" pissing contest and everybody I heard from (and when you are the Yank, anything 'murica does you HEAR about it) laughed at how all the news channels redesigned their studio and graphics into a War Room style and all these unknown 4-stars spouting talking points.
The US media is PRO-WAR. How many god-damn flags does a NEWS programme need?????????????
"4000+ dead, 25,000 wounded, $billions spent" ... do they ever mention the unarmed Iraqis our bombing has killed? Where is the news?
Anybody here really shocked by Operation Pentagon Propaganda??
Joe O. @ 19:
"Colonel Sanders (Retired) brings us his expert opinion on Iraq today..."
On another note, this really doesn't surprise me in the least. I've spent most of my life around the military and other Government agencies. I've worked for those same institutions many times and because of it I have become the most cynical person that I know. Every time the Government comes out with some plan, economic numbers, or briefings on military matters, etc. I take it with at grain of salt. I've come to realize that if the Government does or says something that they say is in your best interest, it usually isn't and always comes with a cost to you and me.
The MSM can't comment on this story without implicating themselves. They are simply employing their fifth amendment right against self-incrimination. Now if they could only find the courage to employ their first amendment right to exist and speak the truth freely...
It bears remembering that the right and their lapdog corporate media are not alone in letting these shenanigans go unpunished. The Congress, including its Democratic members, is not anywhere near as aggressive in pursuing its oversight obligation as it should be--is, in fact, constitutionally required to be. Sometimes I read these forums and, while it is easy to understand the frustration with the crimes and misdemeanors of the Bush administration, it seems like posters assume that because the righties are clearly bad guys, that automatically makes the lefties good guys. I think we need to be holding all of their feet to the fire until they remember that they are not elected to represent the Pentagon, the Department of Defense, the White House Press Office or the major media outlets--they are only authorized to represent the will of the people. We damn sure better find that will soon and start loudly and clearly asserting it before we have no country left to represent.
I'm sure they "stopped" this - just like they "stopped" the Total Information Awareness program. [**Wink, wink**]
You can be sure this just went into the black funding portion of the budget. Nothing to see here. Move along.
Watch for a re-branding of the program under a new title and same old sh-t techniques. The Pentagon is the last place on earth to place any trust into to accept when it comes to destruction and death.
It is a black hole where 2/3's of our tax dollars go un-accounted for under the cloak of secrecy and corruption.
Will Keith Olbermann report on this?
JTM @ 15:
Let me ask you this?
If you get busted dealing crack does it really matter if everyone else is doing it too?
The Army has this wonderful saying, " don't be the guy that gets caught with the bag".
It doesn't matter whether former Presidents did the same thing.
Bush got caught; they did not.
Floridian @ 26:
Yes, it is listed under the Bush Administration's top 50 running scandals...Boooshed.
Michele @ 23:
Maybe you're just trying to be dramatic, but there is no law requiring that the MSM either disclose any conflicts of interest of their analysts, nor is it a crime for an analyst to be a shill for their (other) employer(s). The potential crime is that domestic propaganda cannot be funded by the US gov't in any way, including spending paid time priming "analysts." This, of course, would normally be investigated by an agency IG or the DoJ ... so don't hold your breath. However, the MSM could not only gain back a little credibility (as well as simple do its job) by pointing this out. As of yet, I've seen discussion of this in the MSM at all, only on a few legalistic blogs, such as Balkinization.
I like Pie @ 27:
No, if the question relates to whether it's (still) a crime.
Yes, if the question relates to what the appropriate punishment should be and how outraged you should be.
Hastings, conceding an error [over feeding info to retired Generals], said “We’ll take the time to do it right.”
All this means is a) They'll investigate who talked; b) they'll figure out a way to make it more secretive in the future.
Sheep, I see Sheep
Take the time to do it right? WTF does that mean?
You're going to wait five or ten minutes, or at least until the general public has basically forgotten this and then start again?
Do you think the next retired military butt puppet is NOT going to be there to spew pentagon propaganda? HA!
Getting caught just means a temporary slow down in lies for these people.
JTM at 29
I was being sarcastic, not dramatic. Clearly there are no federal laws prohibiting corporate/government shills from infiltrating the press and posing as legitimate journalists or how else do you explain Glenn Beck (and his ilk) and his public love letters to the oil industry aired under the pretense of journalistic "commentary" on CNN? I don't think any of us who have lived through the moral atrocities of the past eight years buy the "it's technically not illegal" argument any more. If a reasonable person should know that an activity is morally questionable, codified, written laws should not be necessary to prohibit the activity. As there is no longer a functional Department of Justice, I hold out no hope that any actual legal violations will be addressed. That leaves us no choice but to try to hold the MSM responsible for what they publish using the power of their protection under the first amendment. I wouldn't classify that as dramatic, I would classify it as necessary.
I like Pie @ 30:
The Boooshed segment was where I thought it would show up. Good for KO.
Now an insightful discussion about it between Rachael Maddow and him would be like frosting on the cake!
does the word FASCIST come to mind.
this criminal bushco administration is a fascist-dictatorship,
that is what history will decide or worse.
bush is more criminal than the worst of all the world dictators EVER.
Hastings said he is concerned about allegations that the Defense Department’s relationship with the retired military analysts was improper.
“Following the allegations, the story that is printed in the New York Times, I directed my staff to halt, to suspend the activities that may be ongoing with retired military analysts to give me time to review the situation,” Hastings said in an interview with Stripes on Friday.
*************************************************************
How many people here think that Hastings had his fingers crossed behind his back when he said this -- and/or that he has every intent to reinstate and resume the program once all the scandal has died down and the short attention span of the average American citizen has been successfully diverted elsewhere?
No, don't look at this...nothing to see here. No, look over there -- can you believe what Britney Spears is up to now?!?
Is this finally proof enough for Americans that the military CANNOT BE TRUSTED? They are in the business of deception and manipulation, just like the chimp-in-chief.
This occurrence brings to light two lessons:
1.) A little media exposure of the truth goes a long way
2.)We must continue to fight for our rights to access un-biased, fact-based information pertaining to our individual and national security.
Last week, I posted a diary on the (read: before September 11th) program I ventured that the muffling of war atrocities by the media stemmed what I predicted should be an inevitable outcry against the unjust and corrupt war.
This week, in response to the Times article and the outrage generated amongst progressives and others who care about the truth the Pentagon announced it's suspending it's program.
That's great news. Kudos to the Times for breaking the story. But history, very recent history as a matter of fact, shows that we can't rely on the mainstream media to regularly publish these stories . . .
The mainstream media is big business. It's focus on attracting advertisers (read: other big businesses) and maintaining the bottom line, rather than delivering unbiased reporting, is a blow to our security, livelihood and civic interests. For example, early in the primary race, a debate on CNN between the Democratic candidates was co-opted by the coal industry wherein no questions were asked on global climate change and advertising for the 'clean' energy alternative was omnipresent. And Fox News continues to be a broadcast platform for the administration's conservative and religiously intolerant policies.
However, we can take stock of victories like the suspension of the Pentagon's analyst briefing program and realize that any instance of citizen advocacy will make a difference, because it keeps the media in check. Some have said that the media is our fourth branch of government. If this is true, I say let the public be the fifth, using our personal prerogative to always look to alternative sources to find the true story as our method of checks and balances. I would ask those of you who haven't yet signed the Petition for an Open Media to do so, and together we can begin chipping away at the system of corporate dominance.
Isn't it obvious why there was a near-media blackout at all those networks?
The Pentagon Pundits had all been on their channels.
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