Only Two News Networks Willing To Explain Their Role In Pentagon Propaganda Program
Only Two News Networks Willing To Explain Their Role In Pentagon Propaganda Program
On April 20, the New York Times published a blockbuster exposé revealing a secret Pentagon program that used retired military analysts to “generate favorable news coverage of the administration’s wartime performance.” Though the analysts often had “ties to military contractors vested in the very war policies” they assessed on air, their potential conflicts of interest were “hardly ever disclosed to the viewers.”
Four days after the Times’ expose hit newsstands, Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) wrote letters to the heads of ABC News, CBS News, CNN News, Fox News Channel, and NBC News asking for “specifics about each outlet’s policies surrounding the hiring and vetting of military analysts reporting on the Iraq War.” Here’s part of what she wrote to ABC News head David Westin:
When the American people turn on their TV news, they expect coverage of the Iraq War and military issues to be using analysts without conflicts of interests. When you put analysts on the air without fully disclosing their business interests, as well as relationships with high-level officials within the government, the public trust is betrayed.
Politico reports today that only Westin and CNN’s Jim Walton have responded to DeLauro’s questions. In his response, Westin asserted that ABC News had “acted responsibly”:
From what I know of our reporting involving our military analysts, I am satisfied that ABC News has acted responsibly and has served its audience well.
Both Westin and Walton’s responses lacked any genuine self-examination. But the fact that they were even willing to reply is more than the other networks did, proving that the Washington Post’s Howard Kurtz was right when he said “the networks are ducking this one, big time.” In the week after the story broke, the Project for Excellence in Journalism found that “out of approximately 1,300 news stories, only two touched on the Pentagon analysts scoop — both airing on PBS’s ‘NewsHour.’”
DeLauro, along with 40 other lawmakers, are calling on the Pentagon’s Inspector General to investigate the program.
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Yo Matt, shouldn’t that say “Willingly” in the headline?
May 8th, 2008 at 4:50 pmSmith-Mundt Act
May 8th, 2008 at 4:52 pmGAO restrictions on propaganda
IgnoranceIsNotBliss Says:
Yo Matt, shouldn’t that say “Willingly” in the headline?
May 8th, 2008 at 4:50 pm
I don’t believe so. In this usage, “willing” is the verb and “explain” is part of the object.
May 8th, 2008 at 4:58 pmMSM:
What? Us? Worry?
Apologies to Alfred E. Neumann and Mad Magazine readers worldwide…
May 8th, 2008 at 4:59 pmcomment from C&L:
Man someones really trying hard to deny us access to this site today.
much worse there, but TP is a problem for me today as well… very s l o w …
anyone else?
check those voter registrations of your tech people!
May 8th, 2008 at 5:07 pmMedia who?
May 8th, 2008 at 5:08 pmSee what happens when you have a State controlled media??
May 8th, 2008 at 5:19 pmABC (which I will never watch again since that awful FAKE debate) is simply another of the FAUX Noise lite channels - FAR FROM BALANCED
ABC - Government Propaganda…no need to think, just believe us.
May 8th, 2008 at 5:21 pmI am satisfied that ABC News has acted responsibly and has served its audience well
As noted, this kind of response is only a tad better (at least they responded) than the standard operating procedure currently being used. Silence and obstruction are the tools that have become the standard of the corporatist neocons and their corporate bosses. To expect the media to perform the job of the 4th estate while being corporate driven, in their own interest, is simply ignorant. Yet many folks complain or wonder when they will “get rid” of Hannity or Matthews etc. The pundit talking heads are there because the corporations want them to be. The talking heads perform an important function for them (which may seem stupid, racist or whatever to us). They hold their job as long as they perform the corporation’s wishes.
The blogs are the real 4th estate, having stepped into the vacuum left by GE etc.
May 8th, 2008 at 5:23 pmSorry this is off-topic, but Wolfson was just on Chris Matthews and he pretty much said the Clinton campaign would take their fight all the way to the convention floor, if they have to.
She reminds me of Glenn Close’s character in “Fatal Attraction” more each day!!
May 8th, 2008 at 5:25 pmOh Jeez another investigation by the DemocRats…yawn…
How about an arrest…just one…somewhere…in this god damned facist administration…
The DemoRats are also the problem!!!!!!!!!!!
May 8th, 2008 at 5:27 pmICTB ~ Let’s hope the superdelegates take due note and dump her promptly.
May 8th, 2008 at 5:30 pmFU*K the party, pyhrric victory at all costs!
The DemocRats are gonna start playing with their subpoenas again!! Disgusting!!!
May 8th, 2008 at 5:32 pmSeven and one-third years of corporate fascist rule by the Bush gangster regime aided and abetted by the corporate fascist propaganda media… Heck of a snow-job, AllBullC, CtheBS, NBC, Corporate Noisome Noise and Faux. Destroying democracy and destroying America one lie at a time…
This year, the racist corporate slime machine and the racist corporate slime Hillary machine have been attacking Obama; it’s their last pathetic stand before we reclaim our democracy this November. In 2009, we will be making some changes in how the corporate media will be operating. It will no longer be “business as usual.”
May 8th, 2008 at 6:32 pmGAO: Education Dept.’s PR Deal With Armstrong Williams Violated Law
By Michelle R. Davis
The Department of Education violated federal law regarding covert propaganda when it hired the commentator Armstrong Williams to promote its policies, the U.S. Government Accountability Office has concluded.
In a strong denunciation of an arrangement in which Mr. Williams received $240,000 in federal money, the GAO said the commentator’s work to promote the No Child Left Behind Act through his cable television show and syndicated newspaper columns, without acknowledging that he his relationship with the department, “qualifies as the production or distribution of covert propaganda.”
source
May 8th, 2008 at 6:42 pmSo Westin thinks ABC “acted responsibly”. I would like to know where Westin places the bar. If this is acting responsibly I need an example of what not acting responsibly looks like. What are the ethical standards ABC follows and that were used to measure compliance in this instance. Frankly, Westin would have been better off completely ducking the issue like everybody else did with the exception of CNN.
May 8th, 2008 at 7:28 pmWhy am I not surprised?
May 8th, 2008 at 9:28 pmDoes it strike anyone else funny that Rep. Rosa DeLauro sent a letter to people employing the likes of Karl Rove, Glenn Beck and William “The Infallibly Fallible” Kristol; and expressed “concern” over their “vetting” of anyone? Is it not obvious they employ hacks, shills, ideologues and morons?
The only questions in the letter should be; “Who got bribed”? and “Who paid them”?
May 8th, 2008 at 10:14 pmWe have media…
But not between the us and the information of our times, but between us and ruin. Between us and hell.
May 8th, 2008 at 10:42 pmWe should see the largest fines ever from the FCC, Not to mention court martials and a presidential censure. Unfortunately the govt is nearly completely run by a vicous lawbreaker.
May 9th, 2008 at 1:15 am.
ABCNNBCBS&FOXPRAVDA are one big happy family of complicit corporate miscommunication disinformation propagandists.
P E R I O D!
.
May 9th, 2008 at 1:17 am