Five weeks after the New York Times exposé of Don Rumsfeld’s domestic “PsyOps” via handpuppet “military analysts,” David Barstow reports that the Pentagon’s Inspector General and the GAO have both launched investigations.
The announcement came a day after the House passed an amendment to the annual military authorization bill that would mandate investigations of the program by both the inspector general’s office and Congress’s investigative arm, the Government Accountability Office.
The G.A.O. said it had already begun looking into the program and would give a legal opinion on whether it violated longstanding prohibitions against spending government money to spread propaganda to audiences in the United States. …
The inspector general’s office said its inquiry would specifically look at whether special access to Pentagon leaders ‘may have given the contractors a competitive advantage.’
TPM’s David Kurtz adds,
Meanwhile, the TV networks have remained largely silent, as their credibility and transparency have been tarnished by the revelations about the program. As Media Matters has documented, the military analysts named in the Times piece appeared or were quoted more than 4,500 times on broadcast networks, cable news channels, and NPR. One minute they were giving ostensibly objective analysis, the next they were fawning over Rummy in private as “the leader.”
Go get the bastids — all of ‘em.
So the Corporate Media, who failed us by propping up the administration’s spin in the run up to and first years of the war, fails us again by ignoring this big story about the Pentagon using taxpayers’ money on hand-puppet General Officers to sell a war that has been a disaster.
Helloooooo, Big Media: Ignoring this story makes it worse, not better.
ld
True, but we won’t get far looking for profiles in courage or accountability there, little dog.
Is the line between being duped and being duplicitous black or white?!?!
Huh?
Let me spell it out. While I don’t beleive “big media” was a modern day W. R. Hearst, I do think that their silence on this story speaks loudly. That is, they (the media) were more duplicitous in airing the military talking heads (fully knowing where their ulterior loyalties lie) than they (big media again) were merely duped by these retired colonels and generals. They do not investigate/report for fear that you might discern the difference between the two.
Ah, much clearer, thanks.