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Will Networks Ignore Military Analyst Report?
The NY Times' David Barstow follows up on his April investigation of network military analysts, and their relationships to the Pentagon and contractors, with a 5,100-word, front-page look at Gen. Barry McCaffrey.
Barstow writes:
Through seven years of war an exclusive club has quietly flourished at the intersection of network news and wartime commerce. Its members, mostly retired generals, have had a foot in both camps as influential network military analysts and defense industry rainmakers. It is a deeply opaque world, a place of privileged access to senior government officials, where war commentary can fit hand in glove with undisclosed commercial interests and network executives are sometimes oblivious to possible conflicts of interest.Few illustrate the submerged complexities of this world better than Barry McCaffrey.
McCaffrey, an NBC analyst and op-ed writer, has consulted for military contractor Defense Solutions; was on the "advisory council" of Veritas Capital (a large firm acquiring contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan); and chairman of Global Linguist, a company working on a $4.6 billion government contract to supply translators. Such deals for contracts, of course, are contingent on the war continuing.
As Barstow writes:
In the fall of 2006, that was hardly a sure thing. With casualties rising, the nation's discontent had been laid bare by the November elections. Then, in December, the Iraq Study Group recommended withdrawing all combat brigades by early 2008.
That month, in a flurry of appearances for NBC, General McCaffrey repeatedly ridiculed this recommendation, warning that it would turn Iraq into "Pol Pot's Cambodia."
The United States, he said, should keep at least 100,000 troops in Iraq for many years. He disputed depictions of an isolated and deluded White House. After meeting with the president and vice president on Dec. 11 in the Oval Office, he went on television and described them as "very sober-minded."
General McCaffrey was hardly alone in criticizing the Iraq Study Group, and in his e-mail messages to The Times he said his objections reflected his judgment that it was folly to leave American trainers behind with no combat force protection. But in none of those appearances did NBC disclose General McCaffrey's ties to Global Linguist.
NBC executives asserted that the general's relationships with military contractors are indirectly disclosed through NBC's Web site, where General McCaffrey's biography now features a link to his consulting firm's Web site. That site, they said, lists General McCaffrey's clients.
While the general's Web site lists his board memberships, it does not name his clients, nor does it mention Veritas Capital, by one measure the second-largest military contractor in Iraq and Afghanistan, after KBR. In any event, Mr. Capus, the NBC News president, said he was unaware of General McCaffrey's connection to the translation contract. Mr. Capus declined to comment on whether this information should have been disclosed.
The fact that Capus declined to comment on this seeming conflict isn't surprising, especially when looking back at the network response following Barstow's first investigation. Members of Congress, including Rep. Rosa DeLauro and Rep. John Dingell, reached out to Capus and the network chiefs at the time with little success. At the same time, Sens. John Kerry and Russ Feingold began pushing for an investigation by the Government Accountability Office.
In May, Politico reported on such congressional efforts and how the news networks - which could be expected to play up a deeply reported, NYT front-page story - largely ignored it. Sen. Kerry described the network silence to Politico as "deafening."
Specifically, what effect will this piece have on NBC and McCaffrey? As opposed to an NBC correspondent - like, say, David Gregory - McCaffrey doesn't have to disclose his commercial deals. But with nearly 1,000 appearances on NBC networks, McCaffrey isn't an just occasional talking head. He's been one of the most visible personalities when it comes to analysis of the Iraq war. It's worth looking at whether NBC makes clear to viewers on the air, and not only through its website, how McCaffrey profits from the war dragging on.
Besides PBS, the networks don't have an independent editor, or ombudsman, writing on what airs. (CBS shuttered its "Public Eye" blog). However, 10 days after the first Barstow report, "NBC Nightly News" anchor Brian Williams defended McCaffrey on his blog. But in light of this more detailed report, will Williams again defend the military analyst as being an independent voice?
17 Comments so far
Show AllDr. Paul Joseph Goebbels, leader of the Nazi Party's propaganda unit, applauds!
Press and Psy Ops to merge at NATO Afghan HQ: sources --Psy Ops includes so-called "black operations," or outright deception. 29 Nov 2008 The U.S. general commanding NATO forces in Afghanistan has ordered a merger of the office that releases news with "Psy Ops," which deals with propaganda, a move that goes against the alliance's policy, three officials said. The move has worried Washington's European NATO allies -- Germany has already threatened to pull out of media operations in Afghanistan -- and the officials said it could undermine the credibility of information released to the public. U.S. General David McKiernan, the commander of 50,000 troops in NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), ordered the combination of the Public Affairs Office (PAO), Information Operations and Psy Ops (Psychological Operations) from December 1, said a NATO official with detailed knowledge of the move. "This will totally undermine the credibility of the information released to the press and the public," said the official, who declined to be named.
http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSTRE4AS0ZV20081129
in time, sooner than most think, these folks will have to account for their actions.. after all , most of us get only 75 or so spins around the sun before we meet our maker.
-herb
consume to live, NOT live to consume
How long will it be before the internet is compromised and the official bloggers will be rewriting and updating the news hourly? And, of course it will be called the 'liberal' network. This will probably mean that we will have to pull ourselves away from our computers and begin talking to each other, most likely in whispers to create a new information highway underground. Sounds far fetched, but then who would have thought that all major media outlets would be so completely compromised in such a short period of time, but it was. Great job too, as most of us bought into a lot of the 'breaking news.'
I miss Native Son's input on these topics. He as I are both Vietnam era Vets and the shared experience made the changes in our lives. Gen. McCaffrey is typical of career military in general and General Officers in particular. In the officer corps, of all branches, any rank higher than Capt is political in nature and the results of performances are open to interpretation.
Gen McCaffrey made his career serving in the Vietnam era and the US has suffered that failure and continues to do so. He has espoused the continued involvement of the US in the 'War on Drugs" and that has made the Vietnam failure pale in comparison as well as made the US border with Mexico a war zone, from East to West. A simple review of his performance in the capacity of the leader on the "war on drugs", which is and has been a miserable failure would in any other society render his opinion worthless.
Gen McCaffrey has very little input that has proved to be worthy of consideration, unless of course, your ambition is to continue to fail. The fact that he continues to receive the attention that he does is most likely as to make the point that the United States is in serious need of an overhaul in the mental makeup of the leadership. Mr. Obama so far does not show much change, and this is most likely a serious preview of the failure(s) ahead of all of us.
Unlike Native Son, I love this country, and it breaks my heart to see it going in the direction it has for what seems a long time now.
Humbaba ,
Thanks for the link to the article you noted or quoted from. It's an important piece of news, but no surprise. After all, deception is mostly what we've had since ... no, not since 9-11, but starting earlier; however, it's certainly been intense and constant since 9-11. Nonetheless, it's good to see actual reporting from a news media on the U.S. war propaganda, now.
And, I believe, that this means that the U.S. is [losing] the war in Afghanistan; that it's this sort of sign. Otherwise, why would there be more emphasis placed by the U.S. military on war propaganda for deception now, with the Public Affairs Office to work with the Info. and Psy Ops (black ops)? Or is this relationship not new at all, so the Reuters report is about people believing that what's not new is new.
Is there nothing really new in terms of what Reuters is reporting and what's really happened is that the European members of NATO in Afghanistan have "simply" been kept in the dark about this reality all along; is this a possibile reality?
Like with the above article by Michael Calderone, it's been clear and reported for quite a long time, already, that U.S. msm "news" media have been polluting the airwaves with the use of propaganda from U.S. military officials, former, and possibly some present ones. But the article seems to indicate that the NYT's writer, David Barstow, has only relatively recently focused on this reality; when many attentive critics have been reporting on this sort of msm "news" propaganda for a long time now.
Either way, whatever the answers to such questions are, it's surely good that the fact that the deception propaganda is part of the U.S. strategy against ... the world of us is being finally reported. We just shouldn't be deceived into believing that this reality hasn't been long reported and obvious enough, though.
CMDC (Center for Moral Disease Control) ALERT
Re: PORTFOLIO HYGIENE
FORTUNE$ OF WAR?
LIKE $TINK ON WHAT HAPPENS. . .
http://flickr.com/photos/30213629@N07/2829658118/in/pool-828437@N25
Mr. McCaffrey, how does it feel to have the blood of your compatriots on your hands?
Anyway, don't spend all your "ill-gotten gains" in one place.
Gen McCaffrey is the same Drug Czar (by the way why do use such a idiotic title) that said the America is winning the War on Drugs.
As long as winning is an increase in supply, availablity and prices 10x lower than before drug prohibition then yes America is winning the War on Drugs. One more tasty little tidbit... America spends 3 times as much to incarcerate than it does to educate nationwide.
Yep We're winning!!
Thanks for the Reuter´s article........More Propaganda makes as much sense as "Continuity over Change".........DOD has a 300 million dollar propaganda budget for Iraq......That 300 million is to convince the 85% of Iraqis who want the U.S. out of Iraq that we did a great job of limiting Iraqi deaths to only 1.2 million and making only 4 million Iraqis homeless plus destroying their country at the same time was good for them.
General McCaffrey is no different than Rahm Emanuel, when they left government service, they made millions because of their political contacts.....Henry Kissinger has been the best at it.....Accumulating wealth is more important than human life to those people.
What a sin !
There is a piece missing. Why do the MSM keep putting these compromised warmongers forward and silencing any voice that speaks for peace? Because there are only a handful of media corporations now controlling 90% of our media--each owning a pages-long list of magazines, newspapers, radio stations, TV stations, music production and book publishers...each with ties to the others..and most importantly, each part of a corporate empire with other interests as well as "entertainment." For example, GE owns one of these networks, and is heavily invested in weapons manufacturing, and nuclear power. It is not in the corporate interest for GE's news outlets to express anything but the endless warmongering that will help the bottom line of the entire corporate behemoth. Hundreds of thousands of people may die as a result, and millions of children suffer the anguish of parents dying, of maimed limbs, of hunger and disease and refugee life--but so what? A corporation is not capable of caring, and never will. It is not any kind of person, but is a machine. Giving power to these monstrous machines was madness, and we must find a way to reverse it.
The self-enriching generals' psy-ops continue and they are more effective than ever. What American TV viewer is not now complicit? Who can rise above the Black Box propaganda? Who will not reap what has been sown?
Those who can be made to believe absurdities can be made to commit atrocities. Voltaire
NBC should stick to its silent guns. Period. No need riling up the American public when the General is so "on our side."
For why shouldn't the Good General McCaffrey profit personally, even thorough deceit, when he's promoting a war that puts patriotic Americans to work building weapons and killing infidels? A war that alienates useless, Godless allies that don't understand that we're doing The Lord's work, work that will guarantee us access to cheap oil and so boost our economy?
If McCaffrey wins, America wins. And who cares about the losers? They're only infidels who God wants us to put out of their misery, anyway.
Win-win, I say!
GaryA
McCaffrey got his propaganda experience as Drug Czar.
Prime blame for these tragic blunders in Iraq lies not with Bush; nor the war profiteers and oil cartels who put him there; nor the Supreme Court who betrayed their honer by planted him there; nor even the congress for defaulting their duties by allowing this outrage.
Instead blame lies with the apathetic and unlearned voters who helped this zealot and his gang steal the elections, and then stood by and tolerated this ill conceived war and multiple crimes against our environment.
The military has too much power. Those on active duty and those retired. It is absolutely essential that the networks stop using "experts" who are on the dole from this or any other war. But what else is new, as they benefit from a nervous and battle worn public who tunes in to see when the world is coming to an end. I say turn off the TV now!
We hold are military in high esteem, because they are men of honer, not liars and war profiteers.
These military traitors with money and power to shut down their opponents get away with murder.
But we believe what they say, because their word means more than ours.
Intellectuals in this country , that really run this country have no Patriotic voice when it comes to opposing the opinion of a General.
What the hell is going on, I blame the Major Media Networks, they our not reporting real news in the best interests of Americans.They are part of the War propaganda machine, and have been since day one.
Their broadcast licenses need to be pulled for acts of treason.
Here is a man of military honor, there are plenty, but this mans story is what I have come to expect from honorable military men.
Major General Smedley D. Butler USMC, retired in the late 1920s, distinguished War hero was approached by a group of very wealthy bankers and Corporate owners during the time of the first stock market crash.
They were going to pay him 5000000 dollars to organize retired vets to over throw our government. It was going to be a Fascist Coup.
He played along and then turned them into congress.
The story was buried in committee hearings and the traitors walked.
Major General Smedley D. Butler USMC, protected our country and our constitution from Domestic enemies.
This story is why we should be able to trust our high ranking military officials.
Until I see evidence that our military is trying to honor their oaths to protect the constitution.I will keep expressing my opinions, because quite frankly my opinions carry more weight, I am not a WAR Profiteer.
BornFreeMen
The "Military Analyst" Commentator Song:
(to the tune of "Bringing in the sheep")
"RAKIN' IN THE DOUGH,
RAKIN' IN THE DOUGH.
WHILE WE'RE COMMENTATIN',
RAKIN' IN THE DOUGH...."
(LOL)