FreePress Urges
Further Investigation Into Pentagon's News Pundits
Tuesday, April 29th, 2008
Col. Ken
Allard, Gen. Wayne Downing, Lt. Gen. Tom McInerney, Maj. Gen. Bob Scales,
General Montgomery Meigs, Maj. Gen. Don Sheppard / Image via
New York
Times
On April 20th, 2008, the New York Times
published an article by David Barstow exposing a "media
Trojan horse." If you're not familiar with what a Trojan
horse is, it's commonly used to describe a computer virus. In this
case, it's meant to describe a virus spreading in the mass media. An
investigation by the Times uncovered military analysts and
retired military officers that were showing up on network news to appear
objective and discuss terrorism and the Iraq
War--after being given briefings from the White House, State
Department, and Justice Department (including Vice President Dick Cheney
himself, and former Secretary Donald Rumsfeld). They'd been given
talking points; and internal Pentagon documents repeatedly referred to
these people as "message force multipliers,"
"surrogates," and those counted on to deliver the current
administration's "themes and messages" to America.
In light of the
NY Times' expose, the Pentagon announced that it has suspended the program that fed information about the
Iraq War to retired military officers that appeared on U.S. television
networks as independent analysts, through a statement by Department of
Defense yesterday.
And yet, as The Huffington Post revealed, Robert H. Scales and Thomas McInerney - two of
the pundits in question - were being aired on FOX News in the same
capacity as recently as Sunday.
From
FreePress.net:
"This is a violation of every conceivable standard
of journalism," FreePress writes, "And possibly of federal law. Send
a letter to Congress and demand better media." FreePress's petition is here, where you can send their
message, or your own custom message, to Congress urging an investigation
into the Pentagon's "experts" coaxed to spread favorable views of the war
through our network news.
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