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Today's Top News
Gen. McCaffrey Privately Briefs NBC Execs on War with Iran
In 2009, The New York Times‘ David Barstow won the Pulitzer Prize for his two-part series on the use by television networks of retired Generals posing as objective “analysts” at exactly the same time they were participating — unbeknownst to viewers — in a Pentagon propaganda program. Many were also plagued by undisclosed conflicts of interest whereby they had financial stakes in many of the policies they were pushing on-air. One of the prime offenders was Gen. Barry McCaffrey, who was not only a member of the Pentagon’s propaganda program, but also, according to Barstow’s second stand-alone article, had his own “Military-Industrial-Media Complex,” deeply invested in many of the very war policies he pushed and advocated while posing as an NBC “analyst”:
(Photo: Reuters/Eliana Aponte)
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. . . . General McCaffrey has immersed himself in businesses that have grown with the fight against terrorism. . . .
Many retired officers hold a perch in the world of military contracting, but General McCaffrey is among a select few who also command platforms in the news media and as government advisers on military matters. These overlapping roles offer them an array of opportunities to advance policy goals as well as business objectives. But with their business ties left undisclosed, it can be difficult for policy makers and the public to fully understand their interests.
On NBC and in other public forums, General McCaffrey has consistently advocated wartime policies and spending priorities that are in line with his corporate interests. But those interests are not described to NBC’s viewers. He is held out as a dispassionate expert, not someone who helps companies win contracts related to the wars he discusses on television.
Despite Barstow’s Pulitzer, neither Brian Williams nor anyone else at NBC News ever mentioned any of these groundbreaking stories to their viewers (even as Williams reported on other Pulitzer awards that year); the controversy over the Pentagon propaganda program was simply suppressed. And NBC continued to feature those same ex-Generals as “analysts” — including McCaffrey — as though the whole thing never happened.
Apparently, not only does NBC continue to present McCaffrey to its viewers as some sort of objective analyst, but NBC News executives use him as some kind of private consultant and briefer on the news. ...
Read the full article with updates at Salon.com
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49 Comments so far
Show AllNBC may ignore the general's blatant conflicts of interest, but NPR has not - at least, one call-in-show host has not. The general used to be a frequent guest on the Diane Rehm show, but after the stories in the Times, I don't believe he has been on even once.
Apparently some parts of the MSM have some standards after all.
Good to hear.
"Apparently some parts of the MSM have some standards after all." The lone fact that NPR didn't have McCaffrey as a guest, during some, undefined, yet not finished period, doesn't support your conclusion, given the warmongering that goes on unabated with or without McCaffrey. NPR dances to the Israeli pipers' tune.
NPR and the W.P. did a magnificent propaganda duet relating to attacking Iran,from the wings Goebbels was shouting Bravo! Oil concessions almost always involve arms sales.
Corruption in the United States is not limited to their elected officials but is an integral part of the corporate media. McCaffrey is an analyst used by NBC and MNSBC and we haven't heard any of their big name show hosts say a word about this obvious conflict of interest which means they are part of this thoroughly dishonest cover up.
Total Madness: You're right about the deadly intersection between the MSM, the make-war state, and the goal of endless, insatiable profit... however, people ARE waking up as seen in protests in just about every state. With those whose resumes should read, "Champions Depraved Indifference to Human Welfare" at the top of their bona fides now governors of several states, and post office hours being cut, along with library hours, along with necessary social services... your wish to see a massive uprising WILL be granted.
Much of the MSM is owned by business interests that also fund weapons development. The conflict of interest can be found among the list of owners. That, of course, is another very important reason why the media should never have been deregulated to the point where the worst offenders hold the power to so easily manufacture consent.
Interesting how your blanket cover of blame focuses on the foot soldiers, the reporters and journalists rather than the network owners or their well-place MIC enablers. Because, as you noted, the media played the role of drumming up support for wars (on the basis of fixed evidence), they are guilty of criminal behavior. And as is customary in our nation, based on its (theoretical) rule of law, criminals must forfeit ill-begotten property. In my view, with the MSM used to engender wars of aggression (the Supreme Crime, as noted by The Geneva Conventions), the public's air-waves should be returned to them!
Were a judicial body in place--for surely the current Supreme Court would see no legal breach at play (given the character of its "Citizens United" decision)--to act as fair legal arbiter, then the public's capture of this critical resource would mean no politician would any longer become beholden to big money interests. The public, controlling the air waves, would rent out the use of these to the current broadcast corporations while reserving enough air time to present viable candidates with face time to explain their positions to voters. No more "he with the biggest campaign war chest, with which to purchase mostly deceitful negative ads, wins."
With corruption ruling every facet of our society, the battles are many and so much is at stake. The nuclear war clock may be close to midnight, but the ecological (climate change) clock is beating even faster.
Tom Ridge and Michael (Skeletor) Chertoff our first and second head of the Department of Homeland Security both left their jobs before serving a full term so that they could take advantage of inside information they were able to gain from being the head of homeland security. Both men went into business to supply equipment and services that they new the new department would be purchasing in the not to distant future! Nothing illegal, immoral or unethical about that, is there? BTW, both men still do show up on the boob tube now and than as so called experts on security!
the corporate media is the propaganda wing for the fascist government
this is not rocket science folks
as the corrupt congressman says in sin city - power doesn't come from a gun or a badge - power comes from lies. when you have the people lying for you, saying what they know aint true, you got them by the balls
tv is the lying conduit of amerika
"I am gross and perverted
I'm obsessed 'n deranged
I have existed for years
But very little had changed
I am the tool of the Government
And industry too
For I am destined to rule
And regulate you
I may be vile and pernicious
But you can't look away
I make you think I'm delicious
With the stuff that I say
I am the best you can get
Have you guessed me yet?
I am the slime oozin' out
From your TV set
Frank Zappa - i'm the slime
the networks are dying - rot in hell...
" This is not rocket science". Most Common Dreamers have known this for many years. But alas, we are preaching mostly to the choir here. The majority of Americans are being fed the slime oozin out of their T.V. sets and do not have a clue how they are being brain washed and dumbed down. I said many years ago, that you need to kill your T.V. before it kills you both mentally and physically!
agreed - turned it off a coupla years ago
the 9/11 psyop couldn't have been dine any other way than on tv
where have you gone lucille ball...
"On NBC and in other public forums, General McCaffrey has consistently advocated wartime policies and spending priorities that are in line with his corporate interests. But those interests are not described to NBC’s viewers. He is held out as a dispassionate expert, not someone who helps companies win contracts related to the wars he discusses on television."
Surprise, surprise. Not really, but it's nice when someone does finally tear down the curtain.
America is a bully who can't abide any viable competition. That makes it a coward in my opinion, esp. since we don't even use our dominant position to make the world a better place. Most Democrats care more about the stock market than about war crimes, torture or repression, and today are treating the election as a sporting event instead of as a referendum on issues.
Our military has no honor because it will as easily support a brutal regime or dictatorship (as we did for decades with Iraq and Saddam Hussein) as it will challenge one. There are photos of Navy SEALS and Special Forces posing with the Republican Guards and Iraqi officials in the 80's when they were acting as advisers while Iraq gassed Kurds and Iranians and committed atrocities. Today they want to be called heroes for replacing one dictator with another one simply because they were "following orders" and because the new repressive government is friendlier to US business interests. I'm sick of it.
Can you say MIC?? Too bad we didn't listen to Ike.
According to freepress, "General Electric still has a 49% ownership stake in NBC-Universal." (Comcast evidently owns most of the rest).
New report "The US Defense Industry - Market Opportunities and Entry Strategies, Analyses and Forecasts to 2016"
This report is available for the low, low price of $ 1,250
Learn more about how your company can profit from death!
--------------
- the fight against terrorism -
I say yet yet yet again that we need to Occupy Language!
There is no fight against 'terrorism'. That would mean going after people who have already blown something up. Even according to the official fantasy story, bin Laden and all the 9/11 attackers are dead as a doornail.
The fight is against future terrorism. The struggle is to prevent future terrorism. The name of this insanity is DAFT, the Defense against Future Terrorism.
I say again - stop supporting the official fantasy, stop using THEIR language -
as soon as you do, you have lost the linguistic battle.
It's been over 10 years of this insanity - when will you finally decide that to stop it, you need to try something different? Another 10 years? We don't have that long.
Occupy Language
Stop the DAFT war.
"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."
The content of that quotation can be generalized to the workings of the entire government. It is probably the largest corrupt governmental structure in the world: its corruption replicates like a cancer and penetrates every nook and cranny of the three powers and numerous large scale corporations. The major "news" cartels are an intrinsic component of that web of corruption: they cover up, dissimulate, lie, falsify, censor, misinform, disinform, and manipulate with a view to MAINTAINING a certain political and economic order. Their role is no longer to inform the population at large, but to be full-fledged PARTICIPANTS in the maintenance and furtherance of an economic and military Empire, and its countless criminal activities.
Exactly, Oikos.
Good comment totalmadness. I couldn't agree with you more. According to the late Chalmers Johnson in his last book, 87% of all domestic US manufacturing is defense related. While it was easy for US corporations to move entire textile, machine and technology industries abroad to take advantage of slave labor, US rules and regulations still require 'domestic content' for military contracts based on alleged security risks. This makes sense as America could buy superior weaponry from the likes of Russia for a fraction of the cost thereby eliminating the last vestige of manufacturing in the U.S. Because our consumer obsessed society focuses on shopping deals at 'American' retail outlets while ignoring the origins or environmental consequences of their purchases, we tend to lose focus on what we export (arms, GM foods and Hollywood blockbusters) and what we import (everything else) leaving the average American seeking employment in a very precarious position.
The great thing about the Glenn Greenwald article (and others he has written before) is the fact that he points out that these seditious acts are blatant, in the open and without remorse, yet no public outcry or punishment ever results from these same acts. The corporate behemoth that we ironically refer to as 'our nation' is past the point of worrying about public opinion as the public, with its guaranteed allegiance to the corporate parties, will never veer from the official script. More Americans believe that the moon landing was a hoax than the population who voted for Nader in the last few elections. Most Americans are not aware of the fact that lightning killed more Americans in the last ten years here than terrorists did. 95% of Americans have never read a book after leaving school! The result is the enlightened few represent such a marginal and powerless few, that the corpocracy can run roughshod over us with absolutely no fear of retribution. If the MSM media cared to, they could have experts testify that suicide is good for our health and a hefty amount of people would seriously consider it. You have to give the elite credit for dumbing down the population to a greater extent that any historical predecessor.
Excellent post, Space Cadet; although it's odd that you can so astutely define the sabotage and plunder underway, and still grant homage to the 911 Official Narrative. I guess we all have our blind-spots, cognitive zones where faith occupies the space of reason.
Oh my heavens, this may even implicate, could it be, the hero of many right here - the darling of MSNBC - Rachel Maddow!!! I know, i am being snarky........But i just had to say it.
To be honest, i always assume that anyone in corporate news has been entirely vetted.
If you are so inclined, check out Wikileaks version of Gen. McCaffrey's performance in the First Gulf War.
General Electric is the primary owner of NBC.
General Electric is also the ONLY supplier of nuclear power plants to the US Military.
Microsoft is another primary shareholder of NBC.
Microsoft is the sole supplier of computer programs to the US Military.
NBC is the parent company of the specialty cable channel MSNBC. MSNBC is the employer of Rachel Maddowes et al.
My pertinent question is: How many shares of GE, Microsoft and NBC stock does General McCaffrey hold?
Ummm.... this is old news. Greenwald is just figuring this out now? It was pretty clear throughout 2002 and 2003, these "military analysts" were just cheerleaders for war.
Your snarky comment from a seeming know-it-all is quite unnecessary. And pretending that Greenwald "is just figuring this out now" is simply offensive. Perhaps you like to pretend you're 'above' someone like Greenwald. I think you're less mysterious than you think.
Good call, Greg. No one has worked harder to compile a legal log of government agents and their illegal moves than Greenwald. It takes time to put together a body of evidence that would stand up to both the light of scrutiny AND meet any legal burden of proof. Of course, as Chris Hedges has presciently indicated, we are a post-law nation now. However, when the pendulum swings back away from its right wing extreme, this body of data will possibly grant Greenwald the highest honors in the land.
I've made it a point to cue HONEST members of this forum into a phenomenon that has become routine here. It's seen in the careless manner by which some posters play the role of drive-by character assassins. Their bullets are words meant to diminish the reputation, life work, and motives of important voices on the Left, added to those who represent the Progressive Vanguard.
Why would anyone who cares about true justice cast any aspersion Greenwald's way? Some presume such snarky remarks mostly mirror this idea of the Left's "purity" test, but it may be that imposters are using this device to plant (un)reasonable doubt wherever they can. Progressives believe in freedom, whereas the Right grants itself the right to control what everyone else says, does, and increasingly... is allowed to know, understand, or believe!
Yes let's attack the guy who points out the obvious.
Oh yes. Offended your leftie sensibilities. If you're offended by my simple comment pointing out the fact that this is really old news, then you must have a bloody coronary when confronted with the rabid right.
I don't think I'm "Above" Greenwald... I just find it strange that he's writing about this particular issue now.
Besides, if I wished to attack Greenwald, there's far bigger things to go on about other than this bit of silliness.
What have I done about it?
1. NEVER EVER EVER watch MSM "news".
2. Tell EVERYONE who will listen that it's propaganda
What have you done about it?
that was my first thought, too...we must remember the inherent, mortal dangers of journalism that bristles with integrity, and not unfairly expect too much...
one of the ways the media contribute to a population unable to think is by continually exposing 'problems', even those already 'exposed', without ever proposing 'solutions'...
after a while, you become as good as McKibben, or Engelhardt, or Chomsky, or...
"Is there any point to which you would wish to draw my attention?"
"To the curious incident of the dog in the night-time."
"The dog did nothing in the night-time."
"That was the curious incident," remarked Sherlock Holmes.
to paraphrase:
"Is there any point to which you would wish to draw my attention?"
"To the curious incident of the author and the long article."
"The author said nothing in the long article."
"That was the curious incident," remarked Sherlock Holmes.
Articles are often more notable for what they don't say than what they do...
Timely reminder from Glenn Greenwald once again. Precisely because this was silenced before, I do hope that this leads to regular update reminders. The slickeriness of the theater set pieces loosely referred to 'primaries' should remind us that one of tropes slid in on the banana peel of politics is that democracy is the right to the voter franchise. Though true, it its barely the tip of the iceberg - and a message reminder being found in alternative media around the world these days.
"On January 12, 2012, McCaffrey presented a seminar to roughly 20 NBC executives and producers... his presentation, and in it, he all but predicts war with Iran within the next 90 days: one that is likely to be started by them."
-- 90 days from January 12th equals around April 10th... By then the Iranian Oil Bourse, slated to begin on March 20th, will be in full swing, that is, if other attempts to stop it haven't worked. Russia, China and India (and others) will officially be buying Iranian oil in non-US dollars, and there will be no reason for these countries to have to buy US dollars anymore to purchase oil. This will weaken the dollar and threaten US world-wide hegemony. The U.S. will say that Iran started it, for all of the usual BS reasons (nuclear weapons, terrorism, blocking the straits... I'm sure they already have the "Gulf of Tonkin" reason planned out in its entirety). But in reality the Iranian Oil Bourse will be the reason the US will attack Iran.
These mid-east wars of aggression by the US will someday become known for what they really are... "The petro-dollar wars."
Take the time to understand what the petro dollar is really about and share it with your friends. http://ftmdaily.com/preparing-for-the-collapse-of-the-petrodollar-system/
Chinese fortune say: You one smart cookie, Eric Blair.
Excellent Post. I agree with Sioux Rose. I posted a similar post on Jim Hightowers article today. Thanks for the link, Eric. Paul
And here I thought that all retired generals had seen the error of their ways and spent the rest of their lives promoting peace and harmony. These guys make a career of death and destruction. That they would continue to justify, promote, and profit from war is not the least bit surprising. Gee can't we all just get along?
Multimillionaire Brian Williams follows in the footsteps of multimillionaire Tom Brokaw who became Jack Welch's bitch when General Electric bought the NBC fraction of "our airwaves". ///////// "We can't let that whole generation and a whole segment of the population just slide away out to the Internet and retrieve what information it wants without being in on it." - Tom Brokaw
PS: Readers might do well to continue reading Greenwald's article and his "updates" on it. NBC is angry but basically defenseless, and they know it. NBC must be assuming that the vast majority get their "news" from mainstream TV and not from the likes of Greenwald.
Gene Therapy: I agree!
Here's Glen Greenwald's "Update II" from the Salon article -- Glenn ruffled a few feathers with the article published today! It's well worth the time!
UPDATE II:
The Huffington Post has an article with this headline — “NBC News Fires Back At Glenn Greenwald’s McCaffrey Report” — which publishes the full statement issued by NBC in response to this story. Let’s examine it piece by piece, beginning with the first line:
The Salon piece is a woefully inaccurate, ignorant, insulting depiction of our editorial process.
That’s quite an ambitious set of accusations to prove. I’m looking forward to reading about all of the “woefully inaccurate” and “ignorant” aspects of my article (I’ll agree with the adjective “insulting,” though that’s simply the by-product of my describing NBC’s conduct). I will note that after a link to this article was sent by Salon to NBC spokesperson Lauren Kapp, she replied by email and complained about only one claimed inaccuracy: the inconsequential inclusion of the word “board” in her quote, which was immediately corrected (“She said: ‘We regularly host editorial board meetings with our editorial board staff’”). If the piece were rife with substantive inaccuracies, one would have expected her to identify them, or at least one; but perhaps they’re in NBC’s newest response. It continues:
Mr. Greenwald has stumbled upon a defining journalistic and organizational tool that differentiates us as a global news organization: our longstanding tradition of editorial board meetings with leading analysts and news makers. He chose to write the piece while not personally having one conversation with anyone from this news organization, so to critique how we do our reporting is quite ironic.
From Glenn: The claim that I did not “personally have one conservation” with anyone from NBC is disingenuous in the extreme. I worked on the reporting for this article with my Salon colleague Jefferson Morley. In addition to doing the work to write this, I took responsibility to try to get comment from Gen. McCaffrey’s office, while Jeff worked on getting comment from NBC. All of his communications with NBC were in the form of emails between him and Kapp, all of which were sent to me as they took place. I worked with him on the follow-up questions, and I quoted or otherwise included the entirety of Kapp’s responses to Jeff’s questions in this article. NBC knows all of this yet tries to imply, deceitfully, that I did not get its input in writing this. Then:
We listen to and value the views of retired Four-Star General Barry McCaffrey. He presented his thoughts on Iran in a recent editorial board meeting at NBC News. As have several senior officials from countries throughout the Middle East that represent vastly different world views. In similar sessions, we have received the views of current and former US government officials. We have been afforded the views of Israeli and other foreign governmental officials. We have heard from non-governmental organizations, respected journalists and opinion leaders.
NBC “listens to and values the views of” Gen. McCaffrey despite his ample conflicts of interest and other undisclosed commercial activities which David Barstow won a Pulitzer Prize for documenting, and in this case, those views are absurdly alarmist and fear-mongering. Without identifying from whom else they heard, it’s impossible to assess the validity of NBC’s claim that they invite to their editorial meetings those with “vastly different world views” when it comes to Iran, but suffice to say, both Kapp’s original response (which I quoted in the original article) and this latest one from NBC make clear that it is composed largely of government and military officials and the supporting Foreign Policy Community venues which exist to support them. That’s why it’s utterly unsurprising that NBC has produced junk propagandistic war-drum-beating like this about the Iranian Threat.
Note that NBC does not claim that any part of my discussion of its involvement in the Pentagon propaganda program — including the suppression by Brian Williams and the rest of its news division of all discussion of that huge story — is inaccurate. Nor does it dispute any of the facts I conveyed about McCaffrey. Indeed, despite its opening flurry of accusations, NBC does not even purport to identify a single inaccuracy in any thing I reported. Replies like this one — that are long on screeching invective and short on any identified inaccuracies — do more to bolster the validity of the original article than anything else could.
Some issues need to be kept after continuously and this is one of them: Greenwald's article is excellent and necessary.
Furthermore, it does cause at least some stirs at NBC, and apparently exposes NBC even more for what it truly is, namely a propaganda mouthpiece of the Evil Empire.
You cannot break through cognitive dissonance with facts or logic. The US American public has their heads lodged solidly up their collective asses
Greenwald doesn't get it yet ! They, the corporations, control the tv news. Nothing is too unethical or illegal to be practiced by the corporate, governmental, military industrial complex. They have taken over and in my opinion, nothing short of a bloody revolution will change that in the near term. My recommendation is not a bloody revolution but to build an alternative life and wait for the old one to collapse of it's own corruption. It does no good whatsoever to continue writing about it. It only gives Greenwald a paycheck.
Stone, i have a very strong feeling that Greenwald most assuredly 'gets it'. But, that's just my own take, of course.
It seems to me that being a lawyer, Greenwald subscribes to the concept of trying to change the system from within via the courts. I find this to be naive.
The one thing that Greenwald does well is to untangle the legal garbage and explain to us plebs the meaning of the court's decisions.
I"m not sure who's supposed to be worse than the SS and other Nazi war criminal who ended up on the US intelligence payrolll after real patriotic but not anti Russian Americans ended up purged by a Democratic oongress while a Democratic president did nothing to stop it. Harry Truman! Now that was another big mistake the Democrats made. Maybe somebody in this forum is ever so obscurely trying to put the picture together. Truman started the Cold War. Anti Russian bias in many top US military brass was greater than their common sense. Thus we get the mess we're currently in.. Alexis de Toucville once said the USA and Russia have quite a lot in common We need to see that not all this hot air about the "10 feet tall Russians" leaping tall buildings, geting through our air power, nuclear weapons, and all other defenses to snatch us out of our beds and "make us love Communism." That Frenchman wrote what is, and has always been a classic in history, political analysis, and theory. We need more of that and less anti Russian BS and lies.
McCaffery was infamous for ordering his troops to attack with full fire power fleeing iraqi soldiers on the highway who were fleeing any way they could, offering no resistance whatsoever..
McCaffety is a particularly reprehensible war profiteering hawk who has a history of banging the war drums and being completely wrong but still speaks like the voice of authority.
the killed were in the thousands or tens of thousands... this guy is a mass murderer worse than any german s.s. general of the second world war...