The Listening Post - Pentagon analysts exposed -2May08 - Pt1

hello I'm Richard gizbert and you're at the listening post this week the American generals and their onair war games that's the message that has to get out to the American people the Pentagon operation that embedded the military within the US media this is the best trained Force we have ever had this is Watchdogs ring the web to keep the media honest well all we're doing is putting what you said uh on the web and showing people that it isn't true and CNN looking at a billion doll lawsuit over its coverage of China we're in Hawk

to the Chinese up to our eyeballs because of the war in Iraq for one thing welcome back this week we're taking a long look at the US media and it's reporting on the so-called war on terror we'll begin with the Fallout over a New York Times story about a pentagon public relations offensive that virtually embedded retired military men into the US news media in order to sell the bush administration's line on Iraq the Pentagon shut down the program shortly after the times published its story but what about the news channels and newspapers that played along

in this propaganda game that's our starting point this week the story of the Pentagon pundits and what it says about the relationship between the US Military and the people who report on it are these retired military officials really just puppets of the pentagon a better question might have been were the media just puppets of the Pentagon remember when it started and it was kind of a big deal that uh some journalists were embedded with the troops well this is great as it turns out it was more of an exchange program because they actually also had

troops embedded with the journalists which would be funnier if this story wasn't so serious as the New York Times reported in the paper and on its site in April of 2006 when six us retired generals were making news by criticizing the Pentagon strategy in Iraq the US military launched a media counter offense know this is a 50-year war there's not going to be any short-term solution to this and the times obtained minutes of meetings involving the then Secretary of Defense Donald rumfelt his head of communications Tory Clark and another group of retired generals they summoned

to Washington to the Pentagon they were known as quote message Force multipliers surrogates who would reliably Echo administ ation talking points as if they were their own views this is the best leadership our military has had here's an example of one of the messages the retired officers were given by the Pentagon before they were sent into action on the US Airwaves in one of your speeches you ought to say everybody stop for a minute and imagine an Iraq ruled by Zara the message uh needs to be imagine an Iraq imagine Iraq under control of Zara

that's the message that has to get out to the American people it was obvious that they were not neutral and they were not independent but what we learned from The New York Times is just how dependent these people were 18 different briefings from Rumsfeld to these military analysts who were appearing on TV any network that claims total innocence is in a state of denial the networks have an obligation when they put an expert on the air whether it's a financial expert a military expert or whatever to vet the expert to see whether or not that

person might be compromised well they didn't fall for the misinformation they jumped for it they weren't dupes they were willing accompli in a system where the news media of the United States overly rely on official sources and serve as conveyor belts for misinformation coming from entities like the White House the state department and the Pentagon appreciate you're plugged in and I want everybody to know General knows what he's talking about the time story made a big splash at the Pentagon which killed the pundits program but it got very little coverage on the networks that put

the military men on the air PBS a publicly funded channel did the story or at least tried to and for the record we invited Fox News CNN MSNBC CBS ABC and NBC to participate but they declined our offer or did not respond the question is whether many of these analysts have been less uh CNN had a very short report on it and it was biased you see now that the Pentagon was releasing false information about Iran and the networks were going for a hook line and sinker just like when they went for the White House

deceptions about Iraq 5 years earlier before it canceled the pundit's program The Pentagon told the New York Times it was no big deal the intent and purpose of this a spokesman said is nothing other than an Earnest attempt to inform the American people well it's it's their job to say that that's true it's going to be a a cold day in Hell before the Pentagon officials stand up and say well yeah part of our job is to lie to you in point of fact though that is part of their job it shouldn't be the job

of journalists though the truth is that retired military men were doing the pentagon's bidding long before that meeting in 2006 all the US networks had so-called analysts on their payrolls before the Iraq War even started and some of those networks consulted with the Pentagon on who to use I went to the Pentagon myself several times before the war started met with important people there and said for instance at CNN here the generals were thinking of retaining uh to advise us on the air and off about the war and we got a big thumbs up on

all of them that was important so in effect you have a supposedly independent Network in this case CNN going to the US military High command and saying we are interested in hiring these individuals to work for CNN is it okay and the whole notion of the separation between press and state goes down the tubes here's how e Jordan who has since left CNN explains his consultations with the Pentagon we try to find the best qualified people we can so in CNN's case we also wanted to make sure the experts uh had access uh to decision

makers in the Pentagon so they could be enlightened uh in their commentary and when I say enlightened it doesn't mean guided it just means they're smart about what they're saying General Wayne Dany General Montgomery migs and Colonel Ken aard the analysts were no longer in uniform but many still held conflicts of interest as the time story detailed it is common for former officers to go to work for military contractors who profit when America goes to war so they were not only dependent uh on the Pentagon for talking points and spin and propaganda points they were

actually dependent on saying the right things on t tevision in order to keep the money the military contracts coming into the corporations that they currently work for if we want to have full disclosure in this case you would have something similar to what takes place with the racing sport in the United States uh when a driver of a racing car has stitched into his uniform the various sponsors uh that he is working for so if we're going to have these so-called military analysts on us TV networks beating the drums for war then perhaps when they're

wearing their suits you should have stitched into uh the fabric of their clothing uh Boeing uh McDonald Douglas all these other huge military contractors since that's really in effect who many of them are working for for all the criticism the Pentagon pundit story lays at the feet of big Us Media it's worth noting that the story did become public through that media the the New York Times which has apologized for its own failings during the runup to Iraq spent two years working on this story and sued the Pentagon to get the relevant documents we should

acknowledge that this sort of problem is not unique to the United States and the American government one of the big differences is that the United States is pretentious about its freedom and so the hypocrisy is larger another major difference is the United States has the most powerful military in the world and imple such horrific violence as has been the case in Iraq but that fundamental question from Hong Kong to South Africa to Jordan to Washington DC is still with us to what extent are the news media being independent and that have the US media learned

their lesson well when one considers that the pr woman behind the Pentagon pundits program Tory Clark is now a paid onair consultant for ABC News the answer is probably not our Global Village voices now with their take on the Pentagon pundits I think this this practice clearly has to stop I don't blame the Pentagon for trying to spin people that's the British Min Ministry of Defense does that I do blame the networks for allowing this practice to continue and in a sense to falsify the picture you see either the generals get it right or the

Network's own correspondents get it right when they're in Conflict one or other should be fired and I suspect in this case it should be the generals nothing uh the Pentagon in this Administration does really would surprise me at all and the fact that a lot of these generals appear on Fox News is no surprise either because listening to Fox News is like joining the Republican party I think uh Fox News covers the Iraq War as they cover really all of American politics and that is in in a way that's slanted towards the administration this is

another black eye for the mainstream American news media which has been played like an oud by the Bush Administration the media allowed itself to surrender to the military strategy of the war embedding themselves basically as instruments of conflict rather than of Truth they gladly reported what they were told to report why should we now be surprised that an Administration that lied to the public to justify the invasion of Iraq and co-opted the so-called free media would not then engage in more unethical Behavior by planting individuals to pretend they were objective to help sell the administration's

agenda we're always open to direct onair feedback from our viewers on the state of the world's news media just email us at listening poost aljazeera.net and we'll find a way through a webcam even a camera phone to get you on the air as one of our Global Village voices some quick hits from the world of media now listening post newsbites the Israeli government is reported to be close to a mult multi-million dollar settlement with the family of a British filmmaker who was shot dead in Gaza 5 years ago James Miller was killed by an Israeli

bullet and his story was poly told in the award-winning documentary death in Gaza the Israeli paper hret reports that Israel's government has offered the family $3.5 million to settle the case the family has already launched a civil case in an Israeli court and the British government warned Israel at one stage it would seek to extradite the soldiers involved in Miller shooting and in another legal case how do you put a price on a News Network alleged to have slandered an entire country well if it's China and the claim is for $1 per citizen that adds

up to 1.3 billion that's how much money is being claimed in a lawsuit launched in New York against CNN after one of the Network's commentators had this to say about China and the controversies over Tibet and the Olympic torch relay we're in Hawk to the Chinese up to our eyeballs because of the war in Iraq for one thing they're holding hundreds of billions of dollars worth of our paper we also are running uh hundreds of billions of dollars worth of trade deficits with them as we continue to import their junk with the lead paint on

them and the poison pet food I think they're basically the same bunch of goons and thugs they've been for the last 50 years all right the suit is being brought by two Chinese citizens one of whom lives in New York they claim the network quote intentionally caused mental harm unquote to the plaintiffs a spokesperson for the Chinese foreign Ministry said he hopes the network takes the case seriously that the offending comments hurt CNN's image Afghanistan's most popular private television station too TV is defying a ruling by the kai government that bans Indian soap operas from

being broadcast in Afghanistan the Afghan information and culture Minister Abdul Karim Kura has sought to ban five shows which the country's top religious Council has criticized as un Islamic however too which airs two of the shows has kept them on the air saying the ruling has no basis in law it's just the opinion of one Minister the broadcasts in question show Indian women Hindus unveiled wearing sis that often expose the waste news coverage of Myanmar the country formerly known as Burma has gone quiet but there's still a story there there's a referendum on a new

constitution coming at May 10th however the media are only allowed to report on one side of the story there was a big media clamp down last year when pro-democracy riots broke out in Myanmar the military hun running the country wants citizens to vote Yes in this referendum and its critics say that all coverage of the no side of the argument has been forbidden the Press Freedom group reporters Without Borders argues that unless the media are allowed to do their work covering both sides of the debate the referendum process cannot be seen as valid we're back

after the break with a story about some websites you might find interesting if you're looking for alternative reporting on us politics