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Editor's Note:
Well, we certainly did get the email last week. We reprinted
an expose of how pro-Israeli groups are infiltrating the
online Wikipedia space to rewrite history favorable to
Israel. Actual emails from the organizer of the initiative
was made available.
It is difficult to understand why so many people objected
to us making this information available. But if you missed
it, here is the link to the story:
Pro-Israeli Group Manipulating Wikipedia
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Military Propaganda Pushed Me off TV- by Jeff Cohen
In the fall of 2002, week after week in debates televised
on MSNBC, I argued vigorously against invading Iraq. I
used every possible argument that might sway mainstream
viewers - no real threat, cost, instability. But as the
war neared, my debates were terminated.
In my 2006 book ""Cable News Confidential," I explained
why I lost my airtime:
There was no room for me after MSNBC launched "Countdown:
Iraq" - a daily one-hour show that seemed more keen on
glamorizing a potential war than scrutinizing or debating
it. "Countdown: Iraq" featured retired colonels and
generals, sometimes resembling boys with war toys as they
used props, maps and glitzy graphics to spin invasion
scenarios. They reminded me of pumped-up ex-football
players doing pre-game analysis and diagramming plays.
It was excruciating to be sidelined at MSNBC, watching
so many non-debates in which myth and misinformation
were served up unchallenged.
It was bad enough to be silenced. Much worse to see that
these ex-generals - many working for military corporations
- were never in debates, nor asked a tough question by an
anchor. (I wasn't allowed on MSNBC unless balanced by at
least one truculent right-winger.)
Except for the brazenness and scope of the Pentagon spin
program, I wasn't shocked by the recent New York Times
report exposing how the Pentagon junketed and coached
the retired military brass into being "message-force
multipliers" and "surrogates" for Donald Rumsfeld's lethal
propaganda.
The biggest villain here is not Rumsfeld or the Pentagon.
It's the TV networks. In the land of the First Amendment,
it was their choice to shut down debate and journalism.
No government agency forced MSNBC to repeatedly feature
the hawkish generals unopposed. Or fire Phil Donahue. Or
smear weapons expert Scott Ritter. Or blacklist former
Attorney General Ramsey Clark. It was top NBC/MSNBC execs,
not the feds, who imposed a quota system on the Donahue
staff requiring two pro-war guests if we booked one antiwar
advocate - affirmative action for hawks.
I'm all for a Congressional investigation into the
Pentagon's Iraq propaganda operation - which included an
active-duty general exhorting ex-military-turned-paid-
pundits that "the strategic target remains our population."
But I'm also for keeping the focus and onus on CNN, FOX,
NBC, ABC, CBS, even NPR - who were partners in the
Pentagon's mission of "information dominance." And for
us to see that American TV news remains so corrupt today
that it has hardly mentioned the Times story on the
Pentagon's pundits, which was based on 8,000 pages of
internal Pentagon documents acquired by a successful
Times lawsuit.
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It's important to remember that at the same time corporate
TV outlets voluntarily abandoned journalistic ethics in
the run-up to Iraq, independent media boomed in audience
by making totally different journalistic choices. Programs
like "Democracy Now!" featured genuine experts on Iraq who
- what a shock! - got the facts right. Independent blogs
and web sites, propelled by war skepticism, began to soar.
As for the major TV networks, they were not hoodwinked
by a Pentagon propaganda scheme. They were willingly
complicit, and have been for decades. As FAIR's director,
I began questioning top news executives years ago about
their over-reliance on non-debate segments featuring
former military brass. After the 1991 Gulf war, CNN and
other networks realized that their use of ex-generals had
helped the Pentagon dazzle and disinform the public about
the conduct of the war.
CNN actually had me debate the issue of ex-military on TV
with a retired US Army colonel. Military analysts aren't
used to debates, and this one got heated:
ME: You would never dream of covering the environment by
bringing on expert after expert after expert who had all
retired from environmental organizations after 20 or 30
years and were still loyal to those groups. You would never
discuss the workplace or workers by bringing on expert
after expert after expert who'd been in the labor movement
and retired in good standing after 30 years.... When it
comes to war and foreign policy, you bring on all the
retired generals, retired secretaries of state.
THE COLONEL (irritably): What do you want, a tax auditor
to come in and talk about military strategy?
ME: You hit it on the nail, Colonel. What you need besides
the generals and the admirals who can talk about how
missiles and bombs are dispatched, you need other experts.
You need experts in human rights, you need medical experts,
you need relief experts who know what it's like to talk
about bombs falling on people.
Before the debate ended, I expressed my doubts that
corporate media would ever quit their addiction to
unreliable military sources: "There's this ritual,
it's a familiar pattern, a routine, where mainstream
journalists, after the last war or intervention, say,
'Boy, we got manipulated. We were taken. But next time,
we're going to be more skeptical.' And then when the next
time comes, it's the same reporters interviewing the same
experts, who buy the distortions from the Pentagon."
A few years later, during the brutal US-NATO bombing of
Serbia, Amy Goodman of "Democracy Now!" interviewed CNN
vice president and anchor Frank Sesno:
GOODMAN: If you support the practice of putting ex-military
men, generals, on the payroll to share their opinion during
a time of war, would you also support putting peace
activists on the payroll to give a different opinion in
times of war, to be sitting there with the military
generals, talking about why they feel that war is not
appropriate?
SESNO: We bring the generals in because of their expertise
in a particular area. We call them analysts. We don't bring
them in as advocates.
It's clear: War experts are neutral analysts; peace experts
are advocates. Even when the Pentagon helps select and prep
the network's military analysts. Shortly after the Iraq
invasion, CNN's news chief Eason Jordan acknowledged on-air
that he'd run the names of potential analysts by the
Pentagon: "We got a big thumbs-up on all of them. That was
important."
Of all the excruciating moments for me - after having been
terminated by MSNBC along with Phil Donahue and others -
the worst was watching retired Gen. Barry McCaffrey, NBC's
top military analyst, repeatedly blustering for war on
Iraq. Undisclosed to viewers, the general was a member
(along with Lieberman, McCain, Kristol and Perle) of the
pro-invasion "Committee for the Liberation of Iraq."
A leading figure in the Pentagon's pundit corps, no one
spewed more nonsense in such an authoritative voice than
McCaffrey - for example, on the top-notch advanced planning
for securing Iraq: "I just got an update briefing from
Secretary Rumsfeld and his team on what's the aftermath
of the fighting. And I was astonished at the complexity
and dedication with which they've gone about thinking
through this."
After the invasion began, McCaffrey crowed on MSNBC:
"Thank God for the Abrams tank and the Bradley fighting
vehicle."
No federal agency forced NBC and MSNBC to put McCaffrey
on the air unopposed. No federal agency prevented those
networks from telling viewers that the general sat on
the boards of several military contactors, including
one that made millions for doing God's work on the Abrams
and Bradley.
Genuine separation of press and state is one reason
growing numbers of Americans are choosing independent
media over corporate media.
And independent media don't run embarrassing promos of
the kind NBC was proudly airing in 2003:
"Showdown Iraq," and only NBC News has the experts.
Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf, allied commander during the
Gulf War. Gen. Barry McCaffrey, the most decorated
four-star general in the Army. Gen. Wayne Downing,
former special operations commander and White House
adviser. Ambassador Richard Butler and former UN
weapons inspector David Kay. Nobody has seen Iraq
like they have. The experts. The best information
from America's most-watched news organization, NBC
News.
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Jeff Cohen is the founding director of the Park Center for
Independent Media at Ithaca College. He founded the media
watch group FAIR in 1986.
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