May 07 2008

Pentagon’s Propaganda Documents Go Online

(10 am – promoted by ek hornbeck)

These documents were released to the New York Times regarding the Pentagon’s Military Analyst program.

Much more in Backtrack can be found at this link at PR Watch.org!

News of the Pentagon’s online posting of the documents came from Joe Trento of the National Security News Service, who notes that NSNS provided the New York Times “limited information about a military office early in the reporting process.”

The Pew Excellence in Journalism project has a chart showing that ” there was virtually no mainstream media follow up to The Times’ expose” with the only national TV coverage being the introduction segment and live debate featuring CMD’s John Stauber on the PBS NewsHour.

PBS Newshour Report:

Government Curries Favor With Military News Analysts

The Pentagon may influence the analysis of some retired military personnel who appear on television news programs, the New York Times recently reported. Media insiders discuss the details of this murky world of defense companies, the current administration and the war in Iraq.

Transcript at above Link

Real Media Newshour Player to Listen

Streaming PBS Video Player to Watch

17 comments

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  1. … (Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting) also has a piece up on TV News Blackout on Pentagon Pundits.

    The media organizations most implicated in facilitating the Pentagon’s propaganda program have been far less responsive. The networks and cable outlets refused a request to address the issue on PBS; as the NewsHour’s Judy Woodruff stated (4/24/08), “We invited Fox News, CNN, MSNBC, CBS, ABC and NBC to participate, but they declined our offer or did not respond.” The cable and broadcast networks have yet to respond to FAIR’s request that they change their practices to ensure that their audience will never again get official talking points passed off as independent analysis.

    • jim p on May 7, 2008 at 07:30
    • #

    they gave the Downing Street Memos.

    Thanks for posting the links.

  3. May Not Contain Some Missing E-mails;

    Court Filing Says White House Cannot Identify Hard Drives in Use When E-mails Were Lost

    The White House yesterday admitted to a federal magistrate judge that it has no computer back-up tapes with data written before May 23, 2003, and that it cannot track the history of individual hard drives within the White House system that may contain missing e-mails.

  4. Not Serving

    Why neither one of these youngsters is Serving, and any of their young guests for this weekends ceremony??

    Daughters do look for the ‘daddy feature’, come from a ‘chickenhawk’ marry a ‘chickenhawk’!!

  5. How Americans Have Become Targets of Their Own Military

    By Scott Ritter,

    America is a country at war with itself.

  6. Is:  The military “pundits” weren’t the only ones on the Pentagon payroll.  IMHO, in order to make sure that the military analysts on the Pentagon payroll got hired, got sufficient airtime, and got softball questions, without challenge by the network “pundits” would be if the Pentagon also put some of the network “pundits”, editors, and non-military analysts on the Pentagon payroll too.

    I know it could be considered “paranoid”, but to me it’s just a logical way for the Pentagon to cover all the bases and ensure that they kept the WH/Pentagon propaganda machine working smoothly.

    It would also explain why the media are currently so reluctant to do an in depth, ongoing investigation and expose of the “Pentagon Military Analysts Program”–they don’t want their own complicity publicized.  But, it’s just a theory, I can’t prove it, and the media won’t “out” themselves.  

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