Last week, it was a mudslinging debate hosted by ABC. This week, it's revelations of pro-war propaganda on nearly every major television news outlet.
The quest for quality journalism and for the truth about the fast sell on the Iraq war just hit a new low. And today, in the ensuing days, our loyal Bush lapdog news outlets are either dismissing the damning revelation or pretending it never happened.
And no one - not the network officials, not the military analysts, and certainly not the White House - can walk away from this scheme with clean hands. Of course, propaganda has always played a role in the government's wartime strategy. But the extent to which the American people were duped into trusting military officials in the build-up and ongoing pursuit of the Iraq war -- aided and abetted by the largest news outlets -- is as devious as it gets.
We need more than an empty reprimand of these propaganda pundits. Congress must investigate the Pentagon's "hidden hand" in driving war coverage, and the defense contractors, military analysts and national news media who went along for the ride.
The Department of Justice must launch an investigation to determine if the Pentagon broke the laws prohibiting government sponsored covert propaganda. But don't hold your breath. As Senator Byron Dorgan (D-ND) said in a Capitol Hill hearing this week, Bush-appointed DoJ officials are so MIA on government accountability, they should all be "on the side of milk containers".
This is not a partisan issue. Democrats, Republicans and everyone else are the victims. Public interest groups have launched an effort to pressure our lawmakers to act; to send a resounding message that the American people will no longer tolerate government lies, half-truths, and manipulations in the media.
Many of the network officials interviewed by the Times "acknowledged only a limited understanding of their analysts' interactions with the administration" and said analysts were not expected to disclose their financial conflicts before being broadcast as an expert.
Shame on the media for their irresponsible and shoddy reporting, for their unwillingness to vet sources, and for being compliant lapdogs when we needed snarling watchdogs.
Welcome to a familiar refrain. America's media system is dominated by a handful of giant corporations obsessed with making money, and terrified of upsetting the apple cart. Problem is, critical, accountable journalism questions authority, stirs the pot, and almost always spills more than a few apples. It even scares away a coveted advertisers and pisses off politicians who would otherwise hand over policy favors, earmarks and tax breaks worth millions.
Every time you see the media fail to inform and enlighten - a failure you can witness every time you turn on your TV or radio - don't get mad, join the ranks of Americans who are realizing that the fight for media reform is perhaps the most important political fight of our time. A fight who's outcome will determine whether our nation will continue its Orwellian slide into propaganda and falsehood, or become the enlightened democracy we so desperately want to live in.
Correction: The video refers to CNN's Rick Sanchez as a morning host. His show appears evenings.
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Republicans can proceed to just shut the fuck up for the next decade or so. We'll call you when we want you for something. IE:Don't hold your breath.
Lincoln, Kennedy, oh please dear Lord, add George W Bush to that list.
And, it's not just TV that has to be scrutinized. The Washington Post ran this story in their "Style" section along with movie reviews and the comics. Page 1 story? Well, at least they printed something, eh?
Seriously, how was that article even a revelation? They ask campaign surrogates for political news, brokerage firms and hedge fund managers for business news, and interview economists about the climate change. Anybody that is watching these news casts and doesn't realize that there is very VERY little investigative journalism and that all the information provided must be taken with a few pounds of salt deserves to be misled. Realistically how often in the last 12 months have you heard of a news station being the original source of breaking news? All the investigative and meaningful coverage is done by the Associated Press and print news, mainly the Washington Post and New York Times.
I used to think that people who said our government was Fascist were exaggerating and wrote it off as hysteria. Sadly, I can't deny it any more. We have become the bad guys of the cold war. And, we're the critters in Animal Farm. What a nightmare!
Welcome to the party. You're only about 8 years too late. Who's the "Moonbats" now?
Please google "Operation Mockingbird" to learn about the CIA's 28 year operation infiltrating the domestic and international media with PAID programming and operatives.
Then director of the CIA, George H. W. Bush, called for an end to paying for this service when it was exposed as an illegal activity of the CIA in the Church hearings. He did however say that the CIA would continue to accept "voluntary" assistance.
Research this and share with those whom you love so the media will not be able to fool them as they bang the drum for the next 20-30 years in the lead up to the war with Iran.
Don't trust the media, know the source.
Too bad the TV networks have every reason NOT to cover this, since it pretty much destroys any credibility they have left. If they don't know (or care) that their military experts are getting talking points from the military, what other standards have they lowered?
It's the same reason CBS doesn't want to talk about Dan Rather these days. It took them two years to realize that'd they'd been duped into railroading one of it's cornerstones out of a job.
Just look at your local programming guide. There can't be much further to go!
So the Bush administration has total and complete contempt for the American public. Well, what to heck, George is a great guy to have a beer with, so let's make him our president!
Great contribution Josh. I wish this story would get legs and really turn into a major American re-evaulation of our media situation. But, you know the very same media that could promote this, will be trying to stop this from getting legs. That isn't all that surprising.
I'm grateful that you're keeping this important story going. I am not hopeful that we will be able to stop the descent into the world George Orwell so presciently predicted many years ago.
The republicans and their corporations know how to make a profit and if it takes buying lying military men and selling them to their own corporate entities, then so be it. All's fair in love and the war on democracy.
Our MSM is pathetic! Every time they have an opportunity to do the right thing they do just the opposite. Our corporate media structure has all but ruined real journalism in this country but it's at least encouraging that more and more people are recognizing this fact. Eventually this decaying house of cards will fall under it's own weight and these people who pretend that they are "serious" journalists will be shown for the preening fools that they have become.
"Congress must investigate those who went along for the ride." ???
But Congress went along for the ride too.
Remember when Voldemort took over the media? Yeah, that was supposed to be fiction. J.K. Rowling gets ever more relevant the more we learn. And guess who CNN just hired?
NPR today (Thurs April 24) is running a news feature on this story, pointing to the New York Times story, and discussing the outrageous ways the Bush Administration used the retired military to build support for their specious war:
+ Training retired military to tell stories about what was going on in Iraq and the need for a war
+ creating a "speakers bureau" for retired military to be placed as commentators at stations
+ bringing the commentators to Iraq to see what the handlers wanted presented on-air (ie positive stories) + hiring an outside agency to tally the impact of the military commentators.
Keep fighting for net neutrality.
While we're criticizing the TV networks for their use of corrupt "military analysts," let's not forget the practice of "embedding" reporters, which helped the Bush administration sell the Iraq war before, during, and after the invasion by letting journalists play dress-up and become emotionally attached to "their units."
While I agree that embedding reporters with the military in Iraq is just a not so clever tactic which is meant to dupe the gullible and ignorant American public it did prevent some atrocities by the U.S. troops there. Their was an article to this effect by a soldier/marine that said his unit engaged in wholesale atrocities such as murder and rape they didn't do so when their were embedded reporters around. Remember, the Pentagon blames th MSM for it's "loss" in Vietnam.
This whole war has been covert govt. sponsored media propaganda.
At this stage of America's decay only really dumb people or the poor saps who have been fooled by our ludicrous education system into thinking their ignorance doesn't really exist continue to watch the networks or the cable news programs. The only way I could sit through the Sunday Morning Corporate News programs is if I were as high as Rush Limbaugh used to be when he was wrestling with his back condition by stuffing illegally acquired painkillers down his fat throat (I just fact checked that sentence...all true).
If you want news you don't have to read try PBS, NPR and the BBC. If you have learned not only how to read but also to differentiate bullshit from facts you can slog through the Times, the Post, the LA Times, but really you should subscribe to at least two monthlies (e.g., Harpers, Atlantic), one or two good book reviews (e.g, NYRB, TLS), some sort of weekly that isn't the incredibly lame TimeNewsweek (e.g., The New Yorker, the Nation, the Economist), and one of the science mags (e.g., Scientific American, Science).
And finally, you should read books...and of course toodle around the Huffpost before dinner!
Is there any surprise that this once Cable News Junkie refuses to watch TV news anymore? God, I detest National TV news!!
Agree!
Same here, except for Olberman snippets occasionally.
Don't know whether I agree with your analysis or not, but I did notice a proverbial "deafening silence" from the TV on this issue. I'm provisionally taking your word that my limited viewing was reflective of the entire coverage. I had avoided jumping to conclusions. I'm not going to get blindsided here and find out that some outlets did cover it, am I?
jjhayes and dotmafia...
Please, believe it. Mr Silver.....I have been linking to your blogs on this.
The CorporoMedia has been doing this for 30 years. Except for John Stossel telling us that americans are fools who will fall for anything, there hasn't been a consumer watchdog on TV since David Horowitz.
The CorporoMedia is in the business now of NOT TELLING YOU stuff at a much higher rate than it is TELLING us.
There is no objectivISM or journalISM. There is their PRISM. They are showing you what they want, and ruthlessly blacking out anything they don't want you to see. And it is not about ratings.
What Mr. Silver said about pissing off advertisers and politicians....that is it truly. Huge CorporoMedia working hand-in-hand with other Huge Corporations (advertisers) in order to brainwash you into buying buying buying. Politicians are just Corporate Heads on Leave. On loan from the corporations and soon to be found working again in their boardrooms.
The CorporoMedia is blacking out any stories that give blackeyes to corporations or expose malfeasance. They are pro war, and pro pharma, and pro corporation and pro consumerism and that is their lens, their prism on the world.....which we used exclusively for 40-50 years to get our opinions and news. Ratings is only part of their game these days, controlling our minds is lucrative too, in it's own way.
The supreme arrogance and ignorance of America is that it erroneously believes it should be the one bringing freedom and democracy to the nations of this world.
I believe this natural ignorance comes from an inherent ultra-patriotism. This is the belief instilled in every American, from birth to death, that there is no greater citizen, no greater country, and no greater way of life than America.
This criminal Bush "administration" has deviously and immorally used patriotic propaganda, manipulating public perception into supporting its illegal aggressions. Anyone speaking against these fascist policies is labeled unpatriotic.
You want to end this war? Start by consistently showing the American public the daily effects on the Iraqi people. Without censorship. Show the blown-up bodies. Show the dead and wounded children. Show the grieving families. Anyone criticizing this as blatantly indecent, should question the decency of what America has forced upon Iraq.
If the American public was truly exposed to the realities of what their government subjects the peoples of other nations to, they wouldn't be so quick sending their children off to war, and they'd think twice about the decency of their own morals and "Christian values".
These "analysts" are nothing more than war profiteers, plain and simple. The American mainstream media is directly complicit to this unnecessary war. All for ratings. They have failed the innocent citizens of America and Iraq. Shame on them forever.
you can never go wrong in your understanding if you follow the money. Else you willingly follow the presented monkey. And that's a damn slander of our primate cousins.
When the defacto policy is that government should do nothing but enforce the market outcomes, the bottom line eventually overwhelms every other consideration. What else can happen in a system that puts the market above all else?
It's the only way these folks can live with their selves. It's like the guy from fox trying to re-write Watergate to make Nixon look more favorable.
"Sunday's New York Times' article exposing a secret Bush administration campaign to infiltrate the media with pro-Iraq war "analysts" is enraging and is likely illegal."
Why is the New York Times article "likely illegal"? Because while I'm pretty sure that's not what Silver meant to say, it is most certainly what he did say.
Hello? Copy editor! Wake up!
You can't drive yourself nuts quibbling about the stuff you already know. Is the mistake egregious? Is the mistake intended? We all make syntactic or Strunk & White mistakes. Context is, in quick riposte or immediate blurb, more important. If you don't have context in thought it would be difficult to converse with you.
Say what?
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Posted April 24, 2008 | 11:31 AM (EST)