Bush and Military TV Analysts

The New York Times is reporting that the Bush Administration, through the DoD, launched an orchestrated campaign to influence the coverage of both the war in Iraq and the greater "War on Terror" by coaching the analysts that many media outlets use as paid military experts. The DoD used access to information to influence the viewpoints of the analysts. Also, the analysts often had business ties to military contractors, ties that were generally not made known to the public... and often not to the media outlets themselves. From Reuters via MSNBC:

Many U.S. military analysts used as commentators on Iraq by television networks have been groomed by the Pentagon, leaving some feeling they were manipulated to report favorably on the Bush administration, The New York Times said in Sunday editions.

A Times report examining ties between the Bush administration and former senior officers who acted as paid TV analysts said they got private briefings, trips and access to classified intelligence meant to influence their comments.

"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," the newspaper said.

Many of the commentators also have ties to military contractors who are vested in U.S. war efforts, but those business links are seldom disclosed to viewers, and sometimes not even to the networks on which they appear, the newspaper said.

Now, as is often the case, the media is probably a willing participant in all of this, all too happy to look the other way in the pursuit of feeding the 24-hour news beast. That doesn't make this any less an assault on the public by our officials, however.

20 April 2008