U.S. Government Manipulates Media - So Is Anyone Really Surprised By This?

New York Times on the U.S. Department of Defense co-opting military commentators across all the newsmedia outlets to feed propaganda to the public in a massive, domestically focused Psyops strategy:

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.

[Technorati tags: new york times | iraq war | propaganda | news media]