A free press for a free people, or a military-industrial-media complex?:

To the public, these men are members of a familiar fraternity, presented tens of thousands of times on television and radio as "military analysts" whose long service has equipped them to give authoritative and unfettered judgments about the most pressing issues of the post-Sept. 11 world.

Hidden behind that appearance of objectivity, though, is a Pentagon information apparatus that has used those analysts in a campaign to generate favorable news coverage of the administration’s wartime performance...The effort, which began with the buildup to the Iraq war and continues to this day, has sought to exploit ideological and military allegiances, and also a powerful financial dynamic: Most of the analysts have ties to military contractors vested in the very war policies they are asked to assess on air.

Those business relationships are hardly ever disclosed to the viewers, and sometimes not even to the networks themselves...

...[M]embers of this group have echoed administration talking points, sometimes even when they suspected the information was false or inflated. Some analysts acknowledge they suppressed doubts because they feared jeopardizing their access.

A few expressed regret for participating in what they regarded as an effort to dupe the American public with propaganda dressed as independent military analysis.

Comments

[RBM]

So what are the in/direct connections G'boro has to the military-industrial complex ?

I grew up in the midst of it. SDC was Father's employer till after my high school graduation. Then he got a civil service position in essentially the same job he had as a SDC employee. That was as a systems analyst at SAC.

I've also served one hitch at peacetime on the FPS-85.

Maybe 5 years ago the US had the best standing military money could buy. Now, I suspect, not so much.

[RBM]

Having had a chance to check out the eleven page link, I'd have to say that 'm-i-m complex' fits quite well according to the article.

Welcome to Media in the 21st Century. Edward Bernays, for one, would be proud !

[RBM]

Pat Lang's first hand experience as a consultant:

I asked some awkward questions and was not invited again.