TV's Response to Pentagon Propaganda: It Never Happened

TV's Response to Pentagon Propaganda: It Never Happened

www.commondreams.org

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:

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. Trillions of dollars and hundreds of thousands of casualties later, we learn that the drum beat to war was led by a choir lip-synching the Pentagon’s talking points.

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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.

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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-N.D.) 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.

(visit the link for the full news article)



[edit on 24-4-2008 by DimensionalDetective]

I am almost stunned into shock with the amount of regularity I am seeing this theme pop up as of late...Not only the total infiltration of Mainstream media outlets by gov and military talking heads, but the total compliance, and then subsequent denial of such disgusting practices by these bought and paid for jokes that call themselves "the free press"...

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.

Kind of hard for them to do that when their strings are being pulled by the corruptive scum that are pushing these agendas...

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 few coveted advertisers and pisses off politicians who would otherwise hand over policy favors, earmarks and tax breaks worth millions.

BINGO...Corporate, M.I.C., Gov ownership dictates what is "acceptable" fodder to feed to the sheeples...

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.

I have pretty much denounced any of the MSM anymore, with the exception of one or two entities that may have not been bought out and corrupted by the propaganda spinsters who are destroying our nation and holding us all hostage.



www.commondreams.org
(visit the link for the full news article)

[edit on 24-4-2008 by DimensionalDetective]

OK, cool. I am glad it didn't happen because that would suck if our media was a propaganda tool for the government. Now back to the real hard hitting issues... Did you see who got voted off of American Idol last night??

You can only warn people about media corruption so many times before they respond - 'it would be on the news...' (irony lost?)

ATS should be required reading for all American Students from junior High School forward. If for no other reason as to expose them to the 'possibility' that the quacking, waddling, egg-laying, thing out there actually is a duck!



[edit on 24-4-2008 by Maxmars]