THE BUZZFLASH MEDIA PUTZ OF THE WEEK

http://mediaputz.com/08/05/putz0501.html [1]

Pentagon Media Pundits

For reporting that is an embarrassment to the profession of journalism, and for being beholden to corporate paymasters rather than the citizens of America.

As the corporate mainstream media provides wall to wall coverage of a retired minister's comments, it is remaining silent about its use of some 75 embedded Pentagon television analysts. But the twist is that they were -- and are -- supposed to appear to be retired, independent commentators and experts.

As it turns out, however, The New York Times broke ranks and revealed that the so-called military "experts" have really been parroting talking points provided by the Pentagon. In short, instead of providing third party insight, they have been peddling propaganda.

FreePress.net, an organization ever on the prowl for big media lapses, noted, "These so-called experts went on the air to cover up bad news about Iraq with White House spin. Many of these pundits work for private military contractors as consultants, board members and lobbyists."

So the Pentagon and the pundits both win; the Defense Department disseminates official government policy and the pundits get a fat paycheck.

And then there are of course the networks, which must have known -- with a wink and a nod -- about the collaboration between their hired guns and their White House connections. As FreePress.net reminds us, "The Pentagon propaganda wouldn't have spread far if not for the administration's cozy relationship with corporate media outlets like Fox, ABC, NBC, CBS and CNN. Their failure to properly question the case for war -- to counter the official version with dissenting views -- poses a fundamental threat to our democracy."

The Pentagon has officially "suspended" the "independent television analyst" propaganda campaign, but don't count on it. They've just learned to be more discreet, we imagine.

According to PRwatch.org:

The Pentagon military analyst program unveiled in last week's exposé by David Barstow in The New York Times was not just unethical but illegal. It violates, for starters, specific restrictions that Congress has been placing in its annual appropriation bills every year since 1951. According to those restrictions, "No part of any appropriation contained in this or any other Act shall be used for publicity or propaganda purposes within the United States not heretofore authorized by the Congress."

As explained in a March 21, 2005 report by the Congressional Research Service, "publicity or propaganda" is defined by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) to mean either (1) self-aggrandizement by public officials, (2) purely partisan activity, or (3) "covert propaganda." By covert propaganda, GAO means information which originates from the government but is unattributed and made to appear as though it came from a third party.

So the Pentagon broke the law, while using well-compensated Media Putzes to mislead Americans about the life and death issue of war.

Now that is more just Putzdom; it's a crime.

So the next time that you see a former general or admiral on television, don't think that an American flag lapel pin means that they are being patriotic. If they were being patriotic, they wouldn't just parrot message points sent down from the DOD.

We are sure that there are some independent military analysts, but according to The New York Times, you would have to look long and hard to find one.

THE BUZZFLASH MEDIA PUTZ OF THE WEEK

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