Behind TV Analysts, Pentagon’s Hidden Hand

[Breeze54]

Behind TV Analysts, Pentagon’s Hidden Hand

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/20/washington/20generals.html

A PENTAGON CAMPAIGN Retired officers have been used to shape
terrorism coverage from INSIDE the TV and RADIO NETWORKS.


By DAVID BARSTOW
Published: April 20, 2008

Corrections Appended

In the summer of 2005, the Bush administration confronted a fresh wave of criticism over Guantánamo Bay. The detention center had just been branded “the gulag of our times” by Amnesty International, there were new allegations of abuse from United Nations human rights experts and calls were mounting for its closure.

The administration’s communications experts responded swiftly. Early one Friday morning, they put a group of retired military officers on one of the jets normally used by Vice President Dick Cheney and flew them to Cuba for a carefully orchestrated tour of Guantánamo.

To the public, these men are members of a familiar fraternity, presented tens of thousands of times on television and radio as “military analysts” whose long service has equipped them to give authoritative and unfettered judgments about the most pressing issues of the post-Sept. 11 world.

Hidden behind that appearance of objectivity, though, is a Pentagon information apparatus that has used those analysts in a campaign to generate favorable news coverage of the administration’s wartime performance, an examination by The New York Times has found.

The effort, which began with the buildup to the Iraq war and continues to this day, has sought to exploit ideological and military allegiances, and also a powerful financial dynamic: Most of the analysts have ties to military contractors vested in the very war policies they are asked to assess on air.

Those business relationships are hardly ever disclosed to the viewers, and sometimes not even to the networks themselves. But collectively, the men on the plane and several dozen other military analysts represent more than 150 military contractors either as lobbyists, senior executives, board members or consultants. The companies include defense heavyweights, but also scores of smaller companies, all part of a vast assemblage of contractors scrambling for hundreds of billions in military business generated by the administration’s war on terror. It is a furious competition, one in which inside information and easy access to senior officials are highly prized.

Records and interviews show how the Bush administration has used its control over access and information in an effort to transform the analysts into a kind of media Trojan horse — an instrument intended to shape terrorism coverage from inside the major TV and radio networks.

Analysts have been wooed in hundreds of private briefings with senior military leaders, including officials with significant influence over contracting and budget matters, records show. They have been taken on tours of Iraq and given access to classified intelligence. They have been briefed by officials from the White House, State Department and Justice Department, including Mr. Cheney, Alberto R. Gonzales and Stephen J. Hadley.

In turn, members of this group have echoed administration talking points, sometimes even when they suspected the information was false or inflated. Some analysts acknowledge they suppressed doubts because they feared jeopardizing their access.

A few expressed regret for participating in what they regarded as an effort to dupe the American public with propaganda dressed as independent military analysis.

“It was them saying, ‘We need to stick our hands up your back and move your mouth for you,’ ” Robert S. Bevelacqua, a retired Green Beret and former Fox News analyst, said.

Kenneth Allard, a former NBC military analyst who has taught information warfare at the National Defense University, said the campaign amounted to a sophisticated information operation. “This was a coherent, active policy,” he said.

More....

All the president's PR men: Raw Story investigation reveals revolving door on Iraq PR

http://rawstory.com/news/2007/All_presidents_PR_men_Raw_Story_1017.html

Larisa Alexandrovna and Muriel Kane
Published: Wednesday October 17, 2007

New questions are being raised about political operatives who have promoted President Bush’s Iraq war agenda and their role in spreading “good news” about Iraq, illustrating a public relations revolving door among the Republican Party, the White House and the private sector.

A month long investigation by RAW STORY, originally prompted by the pro-Iraq war advertising of a “grassroots” group called Freedom’s Watch, has unearthed a series of connections between the Bush administration and two subsidiaries of the PR giant Burson-Marsteller, particularly BM’s own “grassroots” firm, Direct Impact.

Founded in 1988, Direct Impact boasts of over “1,200 field representatives covering every Designated Market Area in the nation, ready to engage their community in a moment's notice. Self-designated as a “grass roots” company, Direct Impact's community operations include media and online advocacy.

Direct Impact began working with Burson-Marsteller by 1997 and became a full-fledged subsidiary in late 2001. Following the acquisition, the formerly low-profile firm began hosting a steady stream of powerful Republican Party political and communications figures.

More... much more...

:eyes:

:puke:

[davidpdx]

1. Not to mention, guess who works for Burson-Marsteller....

None other then Mark Penn....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Penn

[Breeze54]

3. Thank You for making that connection....

I wasn't totally sure what they meant but I knew it was very important!

:yourock:

[H2O Man]

2. Thank you.

Very important.

Nominated.

[Breeze54]

4. I'm glad someone else also see's "the light"... Thanks, H2O Man!! n/t

:yourock: