Another great animated cartoon by Mark Fiore!
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(Click on cartoon to go to source to view.)
Below is an article on the issue of the retired generals who went on several major news networks as “military analysts” in the run-up to the Iraq War, only coming out now that they were working with the Pentagon to spread propaganda to the unsuspecting American public. After the initial story broke out, there has been virtually NO reporting on it in the MSM.. Why is that?
Last night, on Dan Abrams’ show on MSNBC, a panel guest brought it up when discussing the Rev. Jeremiah Wright story, and Abrams cut him off before he could say anything about it. (I do have a lot of respect for Abrams for putting so much effort into the Don Sieglelman story and going after Karl Rove.) The panelist persisted and Abrams talked over him, cut him off completely, and totally changing the subject. Abrams said something like ‘I’ll talk to you later about this offline’.. (Did anyone else pick up on that?)
What’s the message here? This is HUGE news, but the news commentators and journalists aren’t allowed to speak of it. Is it embarrassment? Or is it the fact that all the networks are owned by corporations that are part of the military industrial complex..? Did the orders come down from above that they needed to shut this story down?
I hope people continue to push to get this story out.
Below the fold is a story about a reporter for Raw Story who, after being totally snubbed and ignored by Dana Perino at White House Briefings, got his shot at a question. Guess what that question was.. Note that he was sitting right next to Helen Thomas in the front row. (Dana definitely didn’t look happy.. I don’t think I’ve ever seen her so flustered and ‘pissy’).
White House Blacklist Breakthrough: Online media team up for free press victory
I thought it was shameful that 10 days after David Barstow’s NY Times article about how the establishment media colluded with the Pentagon to sell the war in Iraq and the “war on terror” to the American people by hiring the Pentagon’s “message force multipliers” as military analysts, no one had asked the White House about it.
I’d been trying, but I’d been on Dana Perino’s ‘blacklist‘ during my last six visits to the briefing room.
Today she again ignored me (I was sitting in the front row) until the very end of the briefing, when she was forced to call on me thanks to the intervention of Les Kinsolving of WorldNetDaily. Les had noticed at previous briefings that I was being singled out, and he thought it wasn’t fair. Today he put Dana on the spot.
Les Kinsolving: How about this gentleman’s question? He’s had his hand up all this time.
Ms. Perino: Yes. I’m well aware. I’m sure it will be a great question. Go ahead.
Me: The NY Times has reported that over the last…
Ms. Perino: It’s definitely going to be a good question.
Me: …over the last 6 years, the Pentagon conducted a secret operation designed to sell the war in Iraq and the ‘war on terror’ to the American people. It recruited more than 75 ex-military officers, many with financial ties to the defense industry, provided them with talking points and an extraordinary degree of access not available to ordinary members of the press, including meetings with the Secretary of Defense, and got them hired as supposedly independent military analysts by every U.S. television network. One of its participants described the program…
Ms. Perino: Do you have a question?
Me: One of its participants described the program as “Psyops on Steroids,” and others said…
Ms. Perino: Is this your opinion?
Me: I’m describing the program.
Ms. Perino: What’s your question?
Me: Others said that if they departed from the Pentagon’s talking points, their access was cut off, and my question is: Did the White House know about and approve of this operation?
Ms. Perino: Look, I don’t…I didn’t know…look, I think you guys should take a step back and look at this op…look, DOD’s made a decision, they’ve decided to stop this 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 it’s absolutely appropriate to provide information to people who are seeking it and who 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.
Weak, Dana. The DOD has decided to suspend, not stop the program. And secretly propagandizing the American people IS against the law. This one:
“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.�
And when you say, “That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t talk to people” who are “tough on the administration,” why won’t you talk to me unless Les Kinsolving forces you to?
Afterwards, I thanked Les and had a good talk with fellow White House correspondent Helen Thomas. She advised me to keep coming, keep sticking my hand in the air, and, if I’m ignored, to speak up. None of the other journalists spoke to me, but one cameraman walking by said “Good work”.
FULL WHITE HOUSE TRANSCRIPT AT THIS LINK
from thinkprogress.org posted with vodpod
The preceding article was a White House report from Eric Brewer, who will periodically attend White House press briefings for Raw Story. Brewer is also a contributor at BTC News. He was the first person to ask about the Downing Street memo at a White House briefing.
More articles on this subject:
Glenn Greenwald (Salon, Common Dreams)- Major revelation: U.S. media deceitfully disseminates government propaganda
Mark Morford (SF Gate Columnist) - All the president’s liars
Joe Strupp (Editor and Publisher) - TV Networks Remain Mum on ‘NYT’ Pentagon/Media ‘Propaganda’ Story — Critics Keep Firing
Crooks and Liars - In Honor of the Lying Military Analysts for Cable TV
Think Progress - Perino Defends Pentagon’s Propaganda Campaign: ‘It’s Absolutely Appropriate To Provide Information’
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