75 retired officers were coached by government and military officials to push Iraq war in our news

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2008/apr2008/med-a25.shtml

On April 20, the New York Times published a lengthy article by investigative reporter David Barstow detailing the US Defense Department’s extensive and ongoing program of manipulating news coverage of the Iraq war. The article provides a glimpse into the intimate connections between the government, military and mass media and the means by which they have attempted to package and sell a neo-colonial war to the US population.

Barstow writes that the record indicates a “symbiotic relationship where the usual dividing lines between government and journalism have been obliterated.” Essentially, the US mass media has allowed itself to become little more than a propaganda instrument of American militarism.

According to the April 20 piece, more than 75 retired officers have been coached by government and military officials to ‘spin’ the news about Iraq—or simply lie—on countless network and cable channel news programs and talk shows over the course of the past five years or more. Fox News has led the way in presenting these individuals to the public, but NBC, CNN, CBS and ABC have followed suit.

The military analysts have not simply propagandized for ideological reasons; in many cases, they work for defense contractors and are “in the business of helping companies win military contracts.”

The existence of such a program, worthy of Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels, will come as no surprise to anyone who has observed the increasing resort to anti-democratic and illegal methods by the White House and the Pentagon.

[jwirr]

1. They would not have had to train anyone if they had allowed the

Media to cover the war in the same way they did Vietnam. Of course, we would have already been out of there years ago it that were the case.

[L. Coyote]

2. "$96M Propaganda Project" = Consider the expenditures in Iraq, to take over every media outlet.

A huge pile of money was expended to control info in Iraq.
If you exercise absolute media monopoly in the area in the first instance, you can really control the story.

More here, details, "Pentagon Iraqi Media Project = $96M Propaganda Project"

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x980363#981426

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BUSH's LIES: "federal agencies spent $1.6 billion on what some Democrats called 'spin' "

Bush administration propaganda and disinformation
From SourceWatch - http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Bush_administration_propaganda_and_disinformation

The Bush administration "spent $1.4 billion in taxpayer dollars on 137 contracts with advertising agencies over the past two-and-a-half years, according to a Government Accountability Office report released by House Democrats" on February 13, 2006,

[KaptBunnyPants]

3. It was obvious at the time that they were passing on information on behalf of the government.

Of course, those who said so were called tin foil hatters.

[truedelphi]

4. A book called "Toxic Sludge Is Good For You" came out

Way back in the mid nineties.

In addition to dealing with how the big CHemical and Big Pharma companies used PR to their advantage, it had several crucial pages detailing this exact thing of the military embedding itself with reporters.

Yet for some reason it is only now - after the NYT has helped (via Judy Miller) to sell us this awful war, and Bush and his cohorts have stripped just about every penny of our economy into the pockets of the rich, that we hear about it.

Wonder why that is??

[killbotfactory]

5. Whoops!

Honest mistake. I'm sure they'll avoid these type of mistakes in the future. No harm, no foul. Water under the bridge.

:sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: