On April 20, The New York Times published an expose revealing the Pentagon’s secret program using retired military analysts to “generate favorable news coverage of the administration’s wartime performance.” Since that time, the media have been disappointingly silent on the story and their roles in the Pentagon’s program.

Today, a reporter finally asked White House spokeswoman Dana Perino about the Pentagon’s propaganda. In response, Perino attempted to defend the program:

But I would say that one of the things that we try to do in the administration is get information out to a variety of people so that everybody else can call them and ask their opinion about something. And I don’t think that that should be against the law. And I think that it’s absolutely appropriate to provide information to people who are seeking it and are going to be providing their opinions on it.

It doesn’t necessarily mean that all of those military analysts ever agreed with the administration. I think you can go back and look and think that a lot of their analysis was pretty tough on the administration. That doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t talk to people.

Watch it:

The Bush administration, however, wasn’t a passive provider simply giving information to analysts who were “seeking it.” As the NYT reported, the Pentagon proactively pulled these retired military officers — many of whom had business with the government — into private briefings, provided with them classified information, and pushed administration talking points.

Even though a reporter finally forced Perino to address this issue today, a questioner in a Washington Post chat today pointed out that the regular White House press corps may still be sleeping on the job:

It also is worth noting that this was asked by someone who appeared not to be a regular in the room (perhaps a blogger) and only got to ask his question because Lester Kinsolving asked Dana why she wouldn’t call on the guy.

Transcript: Read more

Exactly five years ago tomorrow, President Bush landed aboard the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln, stood under a banner proclaiming “Mission Accomplished,” and declared, “major combat operations in Iraq have ended.” Since that day, more than 3,900 U.S. soldiers have died in Iraq, representing more than 97 percent of total troop deaths there.

Today, reporter Helen Thomas asked White House Press Secretary Dana Perino how the president would “commemorate” the date tomorrow. Perino said the White House had “certainly paid a price for not being more specific on that banner”:

PERINO: President Bush is well aware that the banner should have been much more specific, and said, Mission Accomplished For These Sailors Who Are On This Ship On Their Mission. And we have certainly paid a price for not being more specific on that banner. And I recognize that the media is going to play this up again tomorrow, as they do every single year.

Watch it:

This is only the latest tack the White House has taken to defend Bush’s 2003 remarks. Last year, Perino insisted that “we did prevail,” while former press secretary Tony Snow laughably claimed that Bush “said just the opposite” of “mission accomplished.”

In fact, regardless of Perino’s attempts to amend the banner, it’s clear what Bush meant. Just a month after his speech on the U.S.S. Lincoln, he also spoke to troops in Qatar: “America sent you on a mission to remove a grave threat and to liberate an oppressed people, and that mission has been accomplished.”

Four years ago, the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) “started a rulemaking process to protect the North Atlantic right whale” — there are only about 300 still alive — from collisions with ships. The threat to the species’ population is so serious that the NMFS says that “the death of even a single whale, particularly of a breeding female, “may contribute to the extinction of the species.” But according to a letter sent by Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA), efforts to protect the whales are being undermined by Vice President Dick Cheney’s office:

[The National Marine Fisheries Service] submitted their plan to an office in OMB at the end of February 2007 for a review that was supposed to take 90 days. Now over a year later the review has not been completed and documents point to White House officials and the office of the Vice President as being a major reason why. Cheney’s office is questioning everything including whether reducing the speed of large ships will help save the whales.

In the four years since the rulemaking process began, “seven more North Atlantic right whales have been killed by “vessel strikes” and five have been injured.” Read Waxman’s full letter here.