PBS Breaks Media Blackout of Pentagon Propaganda Bombshell

While most TV news organizations have refused to report or even comment on the bombshell Times article exposing a secret Pentagon propaganda campaign to sell Iraq policy, PBS just aired an important segment on the controversy. PBS' Judy Woodruff kicked off the debate with a disturbing summary of the current media blackout:

For the record, we invited Fox News, CNN, MSNBC, CBS, ABC and NBC to participate but they declined our offer or did not respond.

John Stauber, coauthor of "Weapons of Mass Deception: The Uses of Propaganda in Bush's War on Iraq," contended that the Pentagon's "surrogate" program violated federal law against domestic propaganda and called for a congressional investigation. "This war could have never been sold if it were not for this sophisticated propaganda campaign," he said. Former ABC correspondent Bob Zelnick largely defended the program as standard operating procedure -- an odd claim since the administration went to court to prevent its disclosure. Zelnick did concede, however, that news organizations should disclose more about military analysts' conflicts of interest when they provide commentary. Video:

Transcript excerpt from PBS:

JUDY WOODRUFF: John Stauber, let me begin with you. The Times spent two years investigating this story. They ultimately had to sue to get documents out of the Pentagon. In your view, what is the essence of the story? What does it say that the Pentagon did?

JOHN STAUBER, Center for Media and Democracy: Well, Judy, first of all, congratulations to the NewsHour for doing this report. And it's a shame on the networks who were duped this way that they didn't show up to defend or explain their actions.

What happened here was a psy-ops campaign, an incredible government propaganda campaign whereby Donald Rumsfeld and Torie Clark, the head of public relations for the Pentagon, designed a program to recruit 75, at least 75 former military officers, as your report said, most of them now lobbyists or consultants to military contractors, and insert them, beginning in 2002, before the attack on Iraq was even launched, into the major networks to manage the messages, to be surrogates.

And that's the words that are actually used, "message multipliers" for the secretary of defense and for the Pentagon. This program continues right up to now.

JUDY WOODRUFF: And is the essence of this that what they did was -- what the Pentagon did was illegal?

JOHN STAUBER: Yes, what they did was illegal. Now, the Pentagon might contest that, but we've had various laws on the books in our country going back to the 1920s. It is illegal for the U.S. government to propagandize citizens in this way.

In my opinion, this war could have never been sold if it were not for this sophisticated propaganda campaign. And what we need is congressional investigation of not just this Pentagon military analyst program, but all the rest of the deception and propaganda that came out of the Bush administration and out of the Pentagon that allowed them to sell and manage this war....

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Comments

[WorkingClass]

"And it's a shame on the networks who were duped this way that they didn't show up to defend or explain their actions".

The corporate media were not "duped". They are complicit.

[mcthorogood]

You gotta give it to ole'Rummy, he had all the bases covered. First he stovepipes intelligence via the Office Special Plans to start the fire. Then he insures the fire stays stoked with propaganda. A pure genius, Herr Doktor Goebbels would be proud of him.

[CAPTAINSKIPPY]

This should be a big story in this year's election campaign, and in the impeachment hearings, and the war crimes trials. Instead, it will be an obscure footnote, soon forgotten, and nowhere to be found in the GWbUSH LieBrary.

[RoseMerry]

Now this is the PBS that I have known and loved for years!

[MinerSam]

To be absolutely fair to the fact based truth Bob Zelnick is a Republican operative.

During the lead up to the 2004 elections, when old Bob was chairman of the BU school of journalism there he was on C-SPAN, on a Sunday afternoon repeating the same exact eroneous Swiftboating Republican Talking Point LIES that the other Operatives were saying on ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, MSNBC, and FIX News.

IT IS AN OUTRAGE THAT GE-TV, Newscorp Disney etc Have not reported it. It proves that they are beholden to the American Fascist Republican Party for Media Consolidaiton. While the AFRP
needs them, AND COULD NOT EXIST WITHOUT THEM to poison the oxygen from the information pipelines critical to an anformed electorate.

What would be worthwhile to know is why was Zelnick invited in the first place. Who knew to invite him.
was it one of their College Republicans?

Judy Woodroof is the one who after Buh operative the Florida Attorney General refused to give the county in despute one more hour to finish their vote count (after all seen like minutes before on CNN) Woodroof had the chutzpa to reported that: they: "have just counted "al"l the votes"

[Spookcatcher]

Get a Clue Here my fellow Americans and do a little research on our fabulous beacon of Democracy and Freedom that our Ruling Class of Elitists and Fascist Supremists have really been engaged in orchestrating here and around the world since WW2! It's not universal love of Liberty and Justice for all, much less government Of the People, By the People, and or For the People, unless of course they like you and kind use you or need your resources.

[swift goat pet for truth]

So, America does not need PBS?

"The corporate networks are doing a GREAT job!"

[itmaybetoolate]

Which congress does he want to investigate? The present congress? Investigate? the bush administration? Why would they start now?

[maddie0001]

something else you won't hear on CNN
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/iraq/story/34101.html

Pentagon institute calls Iraq war 'a major debacle' with outcome 'in doubt'
WASHINGTON — The war in Iraq has become "a major debacle" and the outcome "is in doubt" despite improvements in security from the buildup in U.S. forces, according to a highly critical study published Thursday by the Pentagon's premier military educational institute.

The report released by the National Defense University raises fresh doubts about President Bush's projections of a U.S. victory in Iraq just a week after Bush announced that he was suspending U.S. troop reductions.

The report carries considerable weight because it was written by Joseph Collins, a former senior Pentagon official, and was based in part on interviews with other former senior defense and intelligence officials who played roles in prewar preparations.

It was published by the university's National Institute for Strategic Studies, a Defense Department research center.

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/iraq/story/34101.html

[OSUMercutio]

Actually, The Daily Show also aired the story earlier this week