Newspeak
A troubling NY Times article exposes an effort by the Pentagon to shape the media narrative using a bevy of “military analysts” whom they control:
To the public, these men are members of a familiar fraternity, presented tens of thousands of times on television and radio as “military analysts” whose long service has equipped them to give authoritative and unfettered judgments about the most pressing issues of the post-Sept. 11 world.
Hidden behind that appearance of objectivity, though, is a Pentagon information apparatus that has used those analysts in a campaign to generate favorable news coverage of the administration’s wartime performance, an examination by The New York Times has found.
The effort, which began with the buildup to the Iraq war and continues to this day, has sought to exploit ideological and military allegiances, and also a powerful financial dynamic: Most of the analysts have ties to military contractors vested in the very war policies they are asked to assess on air.
Glenn Greenwald has a detailed and deeply troubling analysis of the Pentagon’s document dump regarding the “military analysis program.”
UPDATE 1:
Greenwald reprises the story again today with extensive evidence of a planned, illegal, domestic propaganda effort.
UPDATE 2:
A detailed legal analysis of this domestic propaganda.
