Recently the New York Times released a detailed article about the government’s efforts to use Big Media to mislead the American people concerning the war in Iraq. The article describes how the Donald Rumsfeld et. al. paid over 75 retired military generals to present Pentagon talking points as their own opinion on Fox News, CNN, ABC, NBC, etc. In addition to this being against our nation’s laws concerning free press and propaganda, many of these “analysts” have rather lucrative connections with military contracting firms.
A great video summary of the scandal has been done by Free Press, a non-partisan advocacy group that focuses on reform in news media.
I believe that it is important that our elected officials hear from us about this issue. With the congress continually giving the administrative branch more and more unconstitutional powers, I do not believe that this trend will stop unless our elected officials hear from their constituency. Go to senate.gov to find your senator’s email address, and send them a letter. Feel free to copy the one I sent, which is posted below. Just make sure to substitute my name for your own.
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Dear Senator,
On April 20th the New York Times published the result of two years of research, an article describing in detail a program created by Donald Rumsfeld and Victoria Clarke, in which the administration purposely mislead the American public in regards to the progress of the war in Iraq (see link #1). Under this program, the pentagon hired over 75 retired generals to reiterate Pentagon talking points, without citing sources. This willful omission lead the general public to believe that these “analysts” were expressing their own viewpoint. According to national law, for the Pentagon to use these analysts as messengers without any ethical disclosure is illegal (see link #2). In addition, many of these former generals are ether lobbyists for, or heads of large military contractor firms, which is certainly in violation of several laws regarding conflicts of interest.
In countries with repressive governments, one of the tools these governments use to control the populous is a carefully controlled media. This is exactly why freedom of the press is a part of the First Amendment, and yet the mainstream media has been almost completely silent on the issue. I ask that you to do your part to see that truth and justice prevails, and support a congressional investigation into this Pentagon program.
Sincerely,
Douglass Clem
Link #1: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/20/washington/20generals.html
Link #2: http://www.prwatch.org/node/7261
