The Pentagon, not Metallica, The Master of Puppets

The New York times today reports that a Pentagon campaign using retired officers has been used to shape terrorism coverage from inside the TV and radio networks.

I note from the screen shots Rupert Murdoch's Fox features heavily.



The Pentagon information apparatus has used these analysts in a campaign to generate favorable news coverage of the administration’s wartime performance.


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.





Source: Behind TV Analysts, Pentagon’s Hidden Hand - New York Times

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