Pentagon Propaganda and Media Compliance
Pentagon Propaganda and Media Compliance. Are we o.k. with this? — by Catherine Morgan (cross-posted at The Care2 Election Blog)
From BlueBloggin…
In a stunning 11 page article, David Barstow of the NYTimes exposes generals who were and still are the Pentagon’s propaganda puppets for the war and threats by Iran. These so called expert military analysts appeared on all the major networks, cable news and radio promoting a positive message for the Pentagon and White House. Of course, Bill O’Rielly and Fox is their favorite forum for the propaganda puppets.
From ABC News…
The article raised some good points — particularly on the heavy-handed way former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld’s Pentagon tried to control the message — but it made no mention of a far more ambitious propaganda tool: the Pentagon Channel.
The Pentagon Channel is a 24-hour cable news channel launched in May 2004. The idea was to provide military news and information to people on military bases. But the channel now reaches millions of households through commercial satellite and cable systems. Most recently, they announced a video-on-demand deal with Time Warner.
From The Huffington Post…
The Department of Defense ran an elaborate “Psy-Op” against the American people when it was selling the invasion of Iraq. The New York Times‘ David Barstow penned a superb front-page story on Sunday based on thousands of newly released Pentagon emails. Like everything else Iraq-related we learned that it is far worse than even the most cynical among us expected.
Media analysts Norman Solomon, Glenn Greenwald, FAIR, and others have long pointed out that the corporate news media relied heavily on retired military officers posing as independent “analysts” for their pro-war opinions leading up to the invasion of Iraq.
What Barstow has revealed is the degree of coordination between these “analysts” and the civilian leadership at the Pentagon as well as the astounding conflicts of interests these former officers had. Not only did these officers who dominated our television screens on Fox News, CNN, ABC, CBS, and NBC, loudly beating the war drums during the months leading up to the U.S. invasion, have special access to Pentagon “talking points” to promote the lies that led us into war (i.e. WMDs, Saddam-Al Qaeda links, etc.) but these men also were poised to line their own pockets through their lobbying firms and by serving on the boards of military contracting corporations that stood to make fortunes if the war became a reality.
Cynthia from Don’t Gel Too Soon has a very interesting perspective on this issue…
In 1971, when I worked at CBS News in Washington, the network aired a documentary called The Selling of the Pentagon. The Museum of Broadcasting website says: “The aim of this film, produced by Peter Davis, was to examine the increasing utilization and cost to the taxpayers of public relations activities by the military-industrial complex in order to shape public opinion in favor of the military.” The Congress tried to cite CBS for contempt – it was a real drama. In his book The Place to Be, my mentor Roger Mudd tells the whole story better than I ever could – he was the correspondent on the award-winning program. Despite all that happened, there was real satisfaction in knowing that the film had made a difference – that our defense dollars would go to protect and support our soldiers, not a military PR campaign.
Ah, but like all good news, it was short-lived. Maybe not too short – we made it to 2008 — but the whole thing is back – and because it’s about Iraq and Guantanamo this time, not just some recruiting and appropriations manipulation, it’s far more malignant.
Also See:
What do you think about this? Does it make you mad? Sad? Indifferent?
