Reclaim Democracy!: Conflicts of Interest Rampant Among TV Military Analysts

[marmar]

Conflicts of Interest Rampant Among TV Military Analysts

By William J Astore
Published December 10, 2008


Media outlets must develop their own, independent, military analysts, ones not beholden to the military-industrial complex, ones whose very sense of self is not defined, nourished, and sustained by the U.S. military.

In separate exposés in The New York Times (April 20 and November 30), David Barstow showed how major media outlets came to rely on retired generals like Barry McCaffrey for analysis. Predictably, many of these men (they were all men) continued as paid advisors to defense contractors even as they appeared on TV. They also often accepted favors from the Pentagon, to include special, often classified, briefings; overseas junkets; and, most valuable of all, access to the Office of the Secretary of Defense.

But such influence-peddling and collusion are hardly surprising. Relying on high-ranking, retired military officers to serve as frank and disinterested critics is a bit like inviting Paul von Hindenburg, ex-Field Marshal of the German Army, to testify in 1919 on why his army lost World War I. You'll get some interesting testimony -- just don't expect it to be critical or for that matter even true.

So why did the networks hire so many retired colonels and generals? Perhaps they followed a rationale analogous to that used in hiring retired professional athletes to cover sports -- to provide hard-earned, technical commentary, leavened with occasional anecdotes. ........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://reclaimdemocracy.org/articles/2008/military_analysts_conflict.php