May 1, 2008
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.
Thanks to the two-year investigation by the New York Times, we today know that Victoria Clarke, then the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs, launched the Pentagon military analyst program in early 2002. These supposedly independent military analysts were in fact a coordinated team of pro-war propagandists, personally recruited by Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, and acting under Clarke's tutelage and development.
One former participant, NBC military analyst Kenneth Allard, has called the effort "psyops on steroids." As Barstow reports, "Internal Pentagon documents repeatedly refer to the military analysts as 'message force multipliers' or 'surrogates' who could be counted on to deliver administration 'themes and messages' to millions of Americans 'in the form of their own opinions.' ... Don Meyer, an aide to Ms. Clarke, said a strategic decision was made in 2002 to make the analysts the main focus of the public relations push to construct a case for war."
Clarke and her senior aide, Brent T. Krueger, eventually signed up more than 75 retired military officers who penned newspaper op/ed columns and appeared on television and radio news shows as military
analysts. The Pentagon held weekly meetings with the military analysts, which continued as of April 20, 2008, when the New York Times ran Barstow's story. The program proved so successful that it was expanded to issues besides the Iraq War. "Other branches of the administration also began to make use of the analysts. Mr. Gonzales, then the attorney general, met with them soon after news leaked that the government was wiretapping terrorism suspects in the United States without warrants, Pentagon records show. When David H. Petraeus was appointed the commanding general in Iraq in January 2007, one of his early acts was to meet with the analysts."
Barstow spent two years digging, using the Freedom of Information Act
and attorneys to force the Bush Administration to release some 8,000
pages of documents now under lock and key at the New York Times. This
treasure trove should result in additional stories, giving them a sort
of "Pentagon Papers" of Iraq war propaganda.
In 1971, when the Times printed excerpts of the Pentagon Papers on its
front page, it precipitated a constitutional showdown with the Nixon
Administration over the deception and lies that sold the war in
Vietnam. The Pentagon Papers issue dominated the news media back then.
Today, however, Barstow's stunning report is being ignored by the most
important news media in America -- TV news -- the source where most
Americans, unfortunately, get most of their information.
Joseph Goebbels, eat your heart out. Goebbels is history's most
notorious war propagandist, but even he could not have invented a
smoother PR vehicle for selling and maintaining media and public
support for a war: embed trusted "independent" military experts into
the TV newsroom. As with most propaganda, the key to the success of
this effort was the element of concealment, as these analysts and the
Bush administration hid the fact that their talking points and
marching orders were coming directly from the Pentagon.
The use of these analysts was a glaring violation of journalistic
standards. As the code of ethics of the Society of Professional
Journalists explains, journalists are supposed to
* Avoid conflicts of interest, real or perceived.
* Remain free of associations and activities that may
compromise integrity or damage credibility.
* Refuse gifts, favors, fees, free travel and special
treatment, and shun secondary employment, political involvement,
public office and service in community organizations if they
compromise journalistic integrity.
* Disclose unavoidable conflicts.
* Be vigilant and courageous about holding those with power
accountable.
* Deny favored treatment to advertisers and special interests
and resist their pressure to influence news coverage.
* Be wary of sources offering information for favors or money.
The networks using these analysts as journalists shamelessly failed to
vet their experts and ignored the obvious conflicts of hiring a person
with financial relationships to companies profiting from war to be an
on-air analyst of war. They acted as if war was a football game and
their military commentators were former coaches and players familiar
with the rules and strategies. The TV networks even paid these
"analysts" for their propaganda, enabling them to present themselves
as "third party experts" while parroting White House talking points to
sell the war.
Now that Barstow has blown their cover, the TV networks have generally
refused to comment about this matter. Further compounding their
violations of the public trust, they are blacking out coverage of the
New York Times exposé, no doubt on advice of their own PR and crisis
management advisors.
Since the 1920s there have been laws passed to stop the government
from doing what Barstow has exposed. It is actually illegal in the
United States for the government to propagandize its own citizens. As
Barstow's report demonstrates, these laws have been repeatedly
violated, are not enforced and are clearly inadequate. The U.S.
Congress therefore needs to investigate this and the rest of the Bush
propaganda campaign that sold the war in Iraq.
The attack and occupation of Iraq continues, with no end in sight.
Estimates of the number of Iraqi dead range from the hundreds of
thousands to more than a million. The cost to American taxpayers will
eventually be in the trillions of dollars. More than 4,000 US soldiers
have lost their lives, and this is just a part of the horrific toll of
mental and physical disability that the war is taking on hundreds of
thousands of troops and their families.
This war would never have been possible had the mainstream news media
done its job. Instead, it has repeated the Big Lies that sold the war.
This war would never have been possible without the millions of
dollars spent by the Bush Administration on sophisticated and
deceptive public relations techniques such as the Pentagon military
analyst program that David Barstow has exposed. It should come as no
surprise to anyone that Victoria Clarke, who designed and oversaw this
Pentagon propaganda machine, now works as a commentator for TV network
news. She may have changed jobs and employers since leaving the
Pentagon, but her work remains the same.
More info:
This commentary is a joint statement by John Stauber and Sheldon Rampton. Stauber is a member of the
Liberty Tree Board of Advisors. He is also the executive director of the
Center for Media and Democracy,
and Sheldon Rampton is its research director. They have co-authored two books about the war in Iraq: Weapons of Mass Deception and The Best War Ever.
Areas of Focus:
Defense Reform (Bring The Guard Home),
Media Democracy,
Community Media (Local Democracy),
Democratizing DefenseTags:
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