The Military Analyst Scandal Dies -- Even on NPR?

Two weeks ago, the New York Times revealed that the "military analysts" parading through network and cable newscasts for the past six years have been largely willing members of a Pentagon psy-ops program, used as "message force multipliers" to carry good-news messaging about the war to viewers. Today, the Politico runs a story about the deafening response from those networks, usually so eager to hop onto and run with a major New York Times scoop.

But even the Politico story misses an area of eerie silence. It cites Tom Rosenstiel, of the Project for Excellence in Journalism:

Rosenstiel's organization tracked the mainstream media for a week after the Times story and found that out of approximately 1,300 news stories, only two touched on the Pentagon analysts scoop -- both airing on PBS's NewsHour.

The silence Politico doesn't mention comes from NPR, not cited in Rosenstiel's survey as having followed up the NYT story, despite the fact that one of the analysts quoted in the story as begging for another Pentagon-sponsored trip to Iraq and citing the good work he'd done for them after past trips, was doing his analysis for both Fox News -- and NPR.

By the way, the payoff for the analysts to cooperate with the Pentagon program, according to the original NYT story, was not just increased insider access, the fool's gold of Beltway media corruption. The analysts also had day jobs working for military contractors, and their cooperation with the media program certainly didn't hurt their companies' chances of gaining contracts.

Those connections, of course, went unrevealed to viewers, and listeners. As did the connections of the host and all panelists on a recent public radio discussion of psychoactive drugs to the manufacturers of such medications. This Slate story covers that little scandal.

We may, sadly, be beyond the time when such hidden motives for the "experts" paraded before us have the power to surprise when ignored by the corporate media. Have we also moved beyond the time when public radio isn't held (or doesn't hold itself) to a higher standard?

UPDATE: Tyndall's survey covered only television news. NPR's media correspondent did indeed file a story on the military analyst scandal.

UPDATE #2: Glenn Greenwald at Salon has read through the 8000 pages of transcripts the Pentagon released as a result of the NYT's Freedom of Information Act lawsuit (the basis for the original Times story). He has two reports on what he's read, here and here

UPDATE #3: According to Regret the Error (a wonderful website), NPR"s ombudsman now says the network has a contractual relationship with the talk show in the Slate article, "The Infinite Mind", to run the broadcast on Sirius "public radio" channels.

Comments

[VValdo]

I was just thinking about this tonight. Am I romanticizing the past to think that a few decades ago, the people would have been outraged and demanded heads roll, new laws be passed, oversight implemented, and prosecutions ensue? Isn't the propogandizing of American citizens by the government still illegal?

Then I thought-- y'know-- the media won't scrutinize themselves, and the people just don't give a crap. Too much other stuff going on. Yeah, a scandal in baseball or a missing blonde teen in Aruba can fill up the airwaves for months-- but this? We're past outrage fatigue. It's all just background noise...

W

[dragbunt]

Agreeing with most who have repsonded. NPR has been news irrelevant since the beginning of the Iraq War. Thank god for the weekends. You have been one of my most trusted companions every sunday morning for what seems like two decades. We all love rituals - Bagels , Lox and Harry. You seem to have been placed on this Earth merely to assure me that I am not going crazy. You not only provide the funny, you are also a wonderful reality check.

Le show, On the Media, This American Life and even Garrison are the reasons to give money to NPR.

At this point, the Maistream media can not tell us the truth about the important stuff because if they did they would have to explain why they haven't been telling us the truth in the past and that would start unravelling other lies - For them it's just best to let it snowball.

So again, harry, thanks for being you. Thanks for playing Emmitt Rhodes. YYou fall into the category of national treasure - not the movie.

[milo9]

Maybe we're corrupt beyond redemption.

[ramal]

NPR knows which side of their bread is buttered and by whom. NPR = "Not Primetime Republican­." It's good for standard classical music and "A Prarie Home Companion.­" not much else.

[MikePatronSaintofTruth]

Hey, I am more than willing to lose A Prairie Home Companion (which I really enjoyed, but which also has been muzzled big time!) in order to get rid of NPR all together. NPR's influence, such as it is, is all negative and propagandistic. We don't need that.

[FogBelter]

Harry ... like New Orleans still is ... it's a REAL story ... A REAL STORY!!!

For heaven's Sake, man ... who in the American Media would actually bother to cover a real story? Maybe if one of the Military Analysts was also a pregnant, underage girl from a Mormon Sect there would be further ... probing, otherwise ... how is the story sexy enough to sell Viagra? Seriously?

[legalgirl]

Harry, I fear you may be the last one to the party on this, and as I am also often this person, let me school you gently. PBS/NPR has been in the bag for quite some time. Okay? Sorry, but this isn't even a question.

[wildflowermaven]

I knew NPR had lost its way when they had mainly pro-war coverage leading up to the Iraq invasion. There was no in depth analysis, questioning the rationale, nothing. It was like listening to the TV networks. I was shocked and my eyes opened. So does it surprise me that they haven't reported it? No. But someone needs to get to the bottom of it, I guess we have to hope the NYT (or Huff Po?) has people working on it.

[TheOldSchool]

NPR shills for the neocon war agenda just as much as the rest of the corporate media.

Olbermann, at least, mentioned it on his show. He's the best on tv.

On radio, Mike Malloy, of the Nova M Network, has been doing a better job covering the war crimes of this administration and the tools and whores in the media than just about everyone.

Thanks, Harry, for keeping this story in the eye of Huffpo readers.

[InofTouch]

I love how there still some love from a totalty hated media.

[cheforacle]

I have previously suggested by emailing people who work for "Off The Bus" about the need to put together a one-day boycott of the MSM and, by publicizing the fact we are going to do it, hopefully force the MSM to report on the story. For some on this blog, boycotting it won't take much (as my boycott of ABC after the PA debate only involved eliminating This Week on Sundays), but it would be a meaningful gesture to some outlets that we are not going to support efforts to run clips of Rev. Wright and the latest news on Suri Cruise while soldiers die in Iraq, food prices rise worldwide, the globe is warming, the people in Darfur are dying, gas prices are skying, health care system in this country lags far behind others with fairer systems that do offer commensurate quality, the rebuilding in the Gulf is dammed (please excuse the oun) up it appears, the real problem of Al Qaeda and the Taliban in Pakistan is both underreported and not fully explicated to the public and we have longterm fiscal issues to address.

[artsandminds]

Who does NPR go to for business news, The Wall Street Journal, they are shills for big business.

[antispin]

NPR is so laughably silly these days. It may have started with Clingon appointing Tomlinson to appease Newt and then proceeded through the impeachment of Clingon, hugely trumpeted by NPR as riveting oration bloviated the public air waves with the likes of such upstanding, honest senators as Henry Hyde. Now we have an occupying force usurping our government and all NPR can think about are super-dumb pop stars...li­ke today, the "disappearing movie critic" story. It's tragi-comic.

[JBS]

NPR went corporate years ago.

It's just commercial radio with all the commercials concentrated into quarterly beg-a-thons. They won't report on their own and their advertiser's malfeasances any more than NBC reports when General Electric gets caught with their hand in the cookie jar.

[glesslib]

Were these "expert analysts" paid by the networks to lie to us? Were the networks aware that these guys were being coached to give the administration line on this war? I have asked these questions several places and have yet to get the answer.

[julianne]

Hasn't the last 7 years been one, long, politicized psy-ops operation? No one has done anything about it. When asked if he would support a move to impeach Bush-Cheney, Obama replied that 'it would take away from the people's business." The top of the Pentagon, Executive, Judicial, and at least one-half or more of the Congress are all insane.

[Tomlastliberalleft]

Those on the right have no problem with this sort of staged distortion. Those on the left assume this is happening as a given. Those in the middle are either beaten down to the point of not caring, or they stopped reading the news years ago, throw the first section away, gimme’ the sports page, now!