Pentagon "Media Analysts" Appeared On Major Networks Or Were Quoted More Than 4,500

In April, The New York Times published a story exposing the deep ties between numerous media military analysts and the Pentagon and defense industries.

The Times noted that "the Bush administration has used its control over access and information in an effort to transform" media military analysts, many of whom have clients or work for companies with an interest in obtaining Pentagon contracts, "into a kind of media Trojan horse -- an instrument intended to shape terrorism coverage from inside the major TV and radio networks."

HuffPost's Jason Linkins noted at the time that neither the Times nor other major media outlets had worked to advance the story, or apologize for their role in potentially spreading government propaganda.

Now, Media Matters has issued a report showing that the analysts program had a far wider reach than previously believed.

A Media Matters review found that since January 1, 2002, the analysts named in the Times article -- many identified as having ties to the defense industry -- collectively appeared or were quoted as experts more than 4,500 times on ABC, ABC News Now, CBS, CBS Radio Network, NBC, CNN, CNN Headline News, Fox News, MSNBC, CNBC, and NPR.

Read the full report.

Comments

[Mauiloa]

Listen, I love HuffingtonPost.com as well as anyone here, but just look at the home page. Even we liberals enjoy the titillating pictures and gossipy stories. And I, too, am fascinated by the steamy kiss between Scarlett Johansson and Penelope Cruz, but at least we enjoy our sleaze with a healthy helping of real information. But HuffPost readers are a cut above.

Look at the West Virginia results. The attitudes expressed yesterday regarding Barack Obama make me concerned about how dirty the upcoming election will be. You know it will be an all out war and if we were disgusted with the Willie Horton ads in 1988, just wait for the appeal to our hateful attitudes in 2008.

I'm concerned that all the young people that have been energized by Obama will be disillusioned by the process as I have been since I first voted in 1972 for George McGovern; another politician who wanted to end a war.

Society still reels from the effects of that war. Now we get to watch a new generation of soldiers return to our country with mental and physical problems that will be with us for another 50 years.

Thank you George Bush, your NeoCon puppetmasters and all you wonderful Military Analysts that led us into Iraq.

Oh, but at least George W Bush sacrificed for this war. The asshole gave up golf!! Now if that doesn't define his lack of statesmanship for history, I don't know what does.

[jubo]

There is little information left; just formation.

[ajax2]

Please post the names of these cruds in future articles.

[vet64]

People have known for years the Neo Con Parasites have been pummping American Taxpayer dollars into the Neo Con owned News Media Conglomerates for propaganda purposes. Up to 10 billion a year comes out to 80 billion the Neo Con Parasites have been giving each other. Heckuva job Neo Nazis.
It's time for a revolution to rid ourselves of the Neo Cons infesting every Department of the Executive Branch.. And every Republican, Democrat or Independent that prostituted their votes to enrich themselves and their Corporate Pimps and also legally shielding themselves. Taxation without Representation.
I recall we already had a Revolutionary War against King George and his Mercenary Armies because of Taxation wiothout Representation. Who'll we string up first??

[itsme23]

This is a really good point!!! The media at large is now OWNED by People like Time Warner and GE and Murdoch....ie...they will report WHATEVER the OWNERS want them to report on!

[qdog112]

OK I am mad as HELL and I won't take anymore. Hey I've been outraged for 10 minutes, now I gotta go watch American Idle. Trust me those "experts" have been playing us and laughing all the way to the bank. It's just the free market working things out.

PROPAGANDA is as American as Hillary Clinton. It didn't just start and it ain't gonna end. At one time we were able to sift through the BS and figure out the truth or close to it. We had investigative media that helped us.

Now it's a blatant money grab and so called reporters put access above the "crime". Just follow the money. They are milking the cash cow and feeding the war.Those military whores would sell their mothers for a buck, so we ain't gotta chance. In the end they are all MERCENARIES.

[SnapShots]

We have allowed free speech to become free rein.

[researcher]

hey americans want to be a superpower this goes along with it. we blame the military and bush but they are only doing what an imperialist country does. control the information flow.

the american bully is about to get whipped like it did in vietnam this time by a very small muslim country with a weapon called an IED.

americans book your tickets now for the theme park being built in baghdad. the streets are open and safe ask mc cain.

americans dont have the stomach to trade that much blood and money for oil. the repubs have the stomach for it as long as they can play chickenhawk. ie hannity and bill o and rush cheney bush jr etc.

and many americans are dumb enough to go and die for these war mongers for profits. of course some just like killing people. call the enemy goons or charlie or terrorists and it makes it easier.

now vote mc cain so we can bomb iran this iraq war is getting boring. and my oil stocks need a boost.$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

god bless america soon to own the most oil reserves in the world. darn saying that feels good. hope iran likes shock and awe as much as iraq did.

[amanda85]

V for Vendetta...

[SnapShots]

The FCC needs a complete overhaul and corporate media needs reform.

You and I own the airwaves and we have no say in how broadcast licenses are managed and market ownership is regulated?

'News' headlines are often meaningless stories from media about media, allowing media to shape our perception of the world around us. Media answers to nobody but Wall Street while cramming consumerism down our throats.

Wall Street has all but extinguished public trust. Corporate broadcast media has failed in its role as watchdog and educator. It is lazy. Embedded journalists? What a pile of crap. Our perceptions and knowledge have been reduced to the lowest common denominator in the industrialized world.

Jay Harris, former publisher of the San Jose Mercury News, walked away from his position in 2001 to protest deep staffing cuts that were being forced upon him due to increased demands for profit ( http://www.gradethenews.org/dreamhost%20files/pagesfolder/Excess%20profits1.htm ). Harris, an African American, was one of few minority publishers of a major daily American newspaper.

When Harris told his wife and children that he was going to quit, he said, "Sometimes you have to sit at the front of the bus."

We can all sit at the front of the bus. If 50 million Americans cancelled their newspaper and TV subscriptions tomorrow, we'd see reform very quickly.

As the Internet has emerged as the great equalizer, corporate media wants to do away with net neutrality. Over my dead body.

[MajorKong]

Reminds me of Pravda and Isvestia back in the Soviet days.

Pravda meant "truth" and Isvestia meant "news". The Russians used to joke "There's no news in Isvestia and no truth in Pravda".

[castlerider]

Thank you

Thank You

Thank you Huffpo, the ONLY news source that is giving us this incredibly important news story. By keeping it alive, it will eventually find its way to the focus of the center that it needs to be. AND THE OUTRAGE WILL FIND ITS WAY HOME!!!!!

As you have so correctly stated Arianna, the center is NOT WHERE THE MSM tells us it is, but rather where the majority of Americans feel it is, and if the majority could "feel" this whole story, hear it and understand all it really means, the outrage will spill out everywhere, like it should.
Don't let it die, Huffpo...
Keep this story alive, until MSM picks it up, because if it sits on the center long enough, they will have to.

[RJC]

I don't understand why there is no outrage about this. The comparisons to Nazi Germany are right on, the corporate media threat, the jingoism, the misuse of power. Using the government as a partisan "Spoils" system. In this particular case the Pentagon or DOD has absolutely no business in supporting or opposing policy, or helping shape policy. This administration has politicized, or seeded it's deciples throughout all government depts for partisan and idealogical reasons. The DOD, as other government depts should be completely apolitical, while realizing this is a unattainable ideal, this administration has performed an unprecedented purge of the government of any dissent. The sad part is they feel justified in doing so. Disgusting, and very dangerous!

[photog606]

Geez, my PROTOCOLS comment got censored -- I was only pointing out how far off base they were. I thought we'd all have a good laugh....

[NewAmericanCenturySucks]

They deceived; you believed. Which was worse?

Canadians saw the Iraq invasion for what it was from the beginning. Propaganda was piped through our idiot boxes at comparable magnitude and intensity. Alternative (albeit less sexed-up) media sources were available to both publics.

Yet Americans fell for it. This must have been due to higher levels of 1) gullibility, 2) greed (the promise of cheap oil caused you to look the other way...?), 3) attraction to media glitz, or 4) blind patriotism.

My assessment is that it was a combination of the four. To the extent any of these shortcomings persist, please rectify; the butchery and theft of Iran looms.

[Johnagain]

You're forgetting number 5. A sizeable majority of Americans are ignorant, superstitious and myopic bumpkins. They've brought willful ignorance to an art form. Many of us are actually proud of our ability to ignore the world at large, in favor of our cocoon of entertainment/distraction.

[Mauiloa]

...and America listened to them all with rapt attention. It's just too fucking hard to think for ourselves!

[3443649]

Some of you have no knowledge of the swift climb to power, nor of the absolute CONTROL of all things German. And particularly ALL aspects of the media by the Natzi's, during their reign in power.
You are and have been receiving the same form of PROPAGANDA from your current Administration. Very likely, the guiding light to this form of corrupive control was instigated by promanant advisor of German decent. Like, Herr, Karl Rove perchance ?!?

[westcoastsc]

Hitler never got 50% of the vote. For this reason, to become head of state in Germany, one must now get over fifty percent of the vote. Bush did not get the majority in the first election and we are now paying the price. The president should get at least fifty percent of the vote to become president.

[TotobiAyokoh23]

And their cheerleaders call themselves "the best political analysts in the world." My foot!

[Rondo]

There is nothing wrong with your television set. Do not attempt to adjust the picture. We are controlling transmission. If we wish to make it louder, we will bring up the volume. If we wish to make it softer, we will tune it to a whisper. We will control the horizontal. We will control the vertical. We can roll the image, make it flutter. We can change the focus to a soft blur or sharpen it to crystal clarity. For the next hour, sit quietly and we will control all that you see and hear. We repeat, there is nothing wrong with your television set. You are about to participate in a great adventure. You are about to experience the awe and mystery which reaches from the inner mind to... The Outer Limits. " Opening narration " The Control Voice " 1960s (Wikipedia)

[DickTater]

Uh, yeah, anyone who still believes the Corporate Media is basically a fair universe with a few bad apples, please slit your throat and make some room for clear thinking specimens of the human race, so we can get busy de-throning our Masters Of The Airwaves. You are only getting in the way.

That includes folks who think it is all about ratings, or profit, or that it is just our goofy american culture that get's mirrored in our boob-tubes.

No, it is much worse. They are in the business of managing perception. Showing us only what they want us to see. They orchestrate every move, control every video and sound bite. They throw things at us by the thousands....while real news and truth dies a thousand deaths nightly in editing rooms across the nation. We hear endlessly repeated pap, while a real story can't get enough air to survive 5 minutes.

Please stop shaking your head at the CorpMedia and start shaking your fist.....or just admit you are a brainwashed bovine herd animal and go turn yourself into burgers.

[theidaexpress]

Were they all on FOX?
http://www.theidaexpress.com

[Moxo]

Given the Bush/Military/Industrial complex's propensity for truthifying, one can only wonder how many of the medals awarded were actually given legitimately, for ac tions deserved, rather than for the PR value. After all, Presidents don't hand out Purple Hearts, but they do hand out the MoH!

[zitlight73]

Trillions wasted on a phony war on terror. American people who have willingly given up their Bill of Rights are now looked down upon with utter contempt by their overlords as they are herded through airport lines with all the respect and dignity of castrated cattle. No aspect of their lives is too personal or trivial for the government to illegally spy on. People are indefinitely imprisoned and tortured without knowing what it is their being accused of in our name The United States of America. But when Americans see Building 7 implode on 911 they believe the lies of the most corrupt, dishonest administration this country has ever seen before they'll believe their own eyes and accept the horrible truth of 911. Having the Pentagon giving them their news? The American people as a whole could care less. We have the government we deserve.

[alaintex]

I'm glad you added Building 7, I thought you sounded a littl loopie up to that point.

[imusintheevening]

The Senate voted 98-0 against such propaganda in 2005, it there has been an annually renewed statute since 1951, so why is this not illegal and why is nothing done about it!

[alaintex]

That vote applied to an amendment related to:

"prepackaged news stories."

[tyrodin]

Congress has turned their backs on it. There are some old school Democrats who always seem to fold at the last minute to give the neo-cons what they want. People like Pelosi, Rockefeller, Schumer, Feinstein, and Rangel to name a few need to go. They always act like their fighting for the people, but at the last minute, just enough of them will roll over to get nasty legislation or confirmations passed. I think they flip coins and take turns so they can pass it around and not look too evil.

[katzooks]

From here it's just a hop, skip and a jump to the media stating outright we invaded Iraq for oil, that we are still in Iraq for oil, and that the only people who hate our freedom are our leaders. Yeah, right.

Heads up, folks. We are the occupiers, not the liberators in Iraq. Which makes rather dumb the idea that our government would promote or even allow the Iraqis to set up a soveriegn government. Iraq and Afghanistan are utterly strategic to our oil interests, and our government decided this decades ago. The information's been there all along. I read it in the early, early war days, back when the real patriots in this country were wallpapering their car bumpers in American flags. I knew simply by reading alternative news on the internet, much of it foreign news. You know, those places frequented by freedom-haters and the tin-foil hat crowd (more propaganda to keep people from thinking).

The main reason the American people have swallowed hook, line and sinker the war propaganda is because they chose to. The big stinking elephant in the room is September 11, 2001. How was it really related to the war in Iraq? Were the true story told, it would begin, in the words of Deep Throat, with: Follow the money.

[kae]

"The main reason the American people have swallowed hook, line and sinker the war propaganda is because they chose to."

I'm not buying the we get what we deserve line, sorry but the Bush administration used fear and the public's trust of journalists to manulipulate america into this war. True, we need to be vigilant but given what the msm is capable of - look at how they've been able to keep the war & Iran & Syria out of the news - Rev. Wright is of no threat to my personal freedoms but hey I guess the msm didn't think we needed to know about our gov. bombing Syria - it was reported once or twice and now POOF! it's gone. There are posters here today trying to get the message out that the MSM have not broken any laws - they broke something..


"One of the leading voices in the U.S. on the subject of Journalistic Standards and Ethics is the Society of Professional Journalists. The Preamble to its Code of Ethics states:

...public enlightenment is the forerunner of justice and the foundation of democracy. The duty of the journalist is to further those ends by seeking truth and providing a fair and comprehensive account of events and issues. Conscientious journalists from all media and specialties strive to serve the public with thoroughness and honesty. Professional integrity is the cornerstone of a journalist's credibility."

[Mogamboguru]

Great comment. Perfect.

[JiminNC]

The Russians are laughing their a$$es off at our pretense of "freedom and the American way." Nothing will restore our credibility short of arrest, trial, conviction and punishment of those who have hijacked our government and prosecuted this war.

http://www.wanttoknow.info/officialsquestion911commissionreport