Submitted by Bob Burton on
Almost two weeks after the New York Times reported on the Penatgon's military analyst program to sell controversial policies such as the invasion of Iraq, the broadcast television news outlets implicated in the program are hoping to tough out the scandal by refusing to report it.
Submitted by Bob Burton on
One of the over 75 pundits revealed by the New York Times as being part of the Pentagon military analyst program was Robert H.
Submitted by John Stauber on
Author Glenn Greenwald notes, "It has now been more than ten days since the New York Times exposed the Pentagon's domestic propaganda program involving retired generals and, still, not a single major news net
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.
David Barstow of the New York Times has written the first installment in what is already a stunning exposé of the Bush Administration's most powerful propaganda weapon used to sell and manage the war on Iraq: the embedding of military propagandists directly into the TV networks as on-air commentators. We and others have long criticized the widespread TV network practice of hiring former military officials to serve as analysts, but even in our most cynical moments we did not anticipate how bad it was. Barstow has painstakingly documented how these analysts, most of them military industry consultants and lobbyists, were directly chosen, managed, coordinated and given their talking points by the Pentagon's ministers of propaganda.
Submitted by Bob Burton on
The Free Tibet Campaign in the UK has warned that "any PR agency that is trying to assist China in its twisted distortion of the truth would be potentially exposing itself to protests outside its offices." Despite this, PR Week reports that Ogilvy,
Submitted by Judith Siers-Poisson on
Left-wing U.S.
Submitted by John Stauber on
The pro-war lobby is heading to Washington and the halls of Congress Tuesday, April 8, when General David Petraeus testifies on the continuing war in Iraq.
Submitted by Diane Farsetta on
"Hiring a block of bloggers to verbally attack a specific person or promote a specific message may be worth considering," suggests a 2006 study written for the U.S. military's Special Operations Command.
Submitted by John Stauber on
Two leading anti-war journalists are challenging MoveOn, one "of the most prominent anti-war voices," to turn its activism against Democratic Party presidential candidates Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.
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