Recently, information appeared in the New York Times that the administration in the days leading up to the Iraq war and continuing today courted analysts for the specific purpose of deceiving the American public.

From the New York Times Article.

Analysts have been wooed in hundreds of private briefings with senior military leaders, including officials with significant influence over contracting and budget matters, records show. They have been taken on tours of Iraq and given access to classified intelligence. They have been briefed by officials from the White House, State Department and Justice Department, including Mr. Cheney, Alberto R. Gonzales and Stephen J. Hadley.
In turn, members of this group have echoed administration talking points, sometimes even when they suspected the information was false or inflated. Some analysts acknowledge they suppressed doubts because they feared jeopardizing their access.
A few expressed regret for participating in what they regarded as an effort to dupe the American public with propaganda dressed as independent military analysis.
“It was them saying, ‘We need to stick our hands up your back and move your mouth for you,’ ” Robert S. Bevelacqua, a retired Green Beret and former Fox News analyst, said.

Some of these analysts sat on the boards of defense contracting corporations. No conflict of interest THERE. In the weeks since the New York Times article, I have waited for mainstream media to do further investigation or even report the Times findings. Very little exposure…nobody is talking about this.

Article about the lack of MSM coverage from the Huffington Post:

The last ten days have been among the most shameful in the history of American journalism.
On April 20th, the New York Times published its expose of the Bush administration’s use of Pentagon-approved, prepped, and financially-enriched “military analysts” to appear on TV to help sell the invasion of Iraq, and then put a positive spin on the occupation — even as conditions on the ground deteriorated.
It was a powerful illustration of the Bush administration’s commitment to propaganda and disinformation. But it was also a damning indictment of the mainstream media’s complicity in the wholesale deception of the American public on the single most important decision a country can make — the decision to go to war.

Without free and unbiased news coverage, the American people can’t hope to make informed decisions. We are told what to believe by corporate owned news outlets which are fed their info from administration puppetmasters.

The FCC is out of anyone’s control as they recently demonstrated with their decision to relax market share guidelines.

From Stop Big Media Blog:

Last month at the National Conference for Media Reform, a coalition of more than a dozen civil rights, consumer and media groups released six studies dismantling Big Media’s case for consolidation.

They received a form letter from the FCC as its only response.

So, there you are, sports fans. Consolidate media into corporate owned giants. Regulate them with a bureaucracy that is unregulated and fails to protect the interest of the American public. Hire analysts with financial and/or access to power needs…trot those analysts out as expert talking heads that will say what you want said….and what have you concocted?

A real fine tool for dismantling Democracy.

Get loud, Hippie Peoples!

Menopausal Mick