Pundits

Jed Babbin: The Pentagon's Most Prolific Pundit

by Daniel Haack — August 19, 2008 - 1:35pm
  • Topics: Pundits, Ethics, Propaganda, U.S. Government, War / Peace

    • The morning of June 20, 2006, an email message circulated amongst U.S. Defense Department officials.

    "Jed Babbin, one of our military analysts, is hosting the Michael Medved nationally syndicated radio show this afternoon. He would like to see if General [George W.] Casey would be available for a phone interview," the Pentagon staffer wrote. "This would be a softball interview and the show is 8th or 9th in the nation."

    Why would the Pentagon help set up a radio interview? And how did they know that the interview would be "softball"?

    From early 2002 to April 2008, the Defense Department offered talking points, organized trips to places such as Iraq and Guantanamo Bay, and gave private briefings to a legion of retired military officers working as media pundits. The Pentagon's military analyst program, a covert effort to promote a positive image of the Bush administration's wartime performance, was a multi-level campaign involving quite a few colorful characters.

    Flipping through the over 8,000 pages of documents released in connection with the program, one Pentagon pundit arguably steals the spotlight: Jed Babbin.

    Has Fake News Become the Real News?

    by Anne Landman — August 18, 2008 - 5:16pm

    An article in the New York Times asks whether Jon Stewart of Comedy Central's Daily Show has become the most trusted man in America, pointing out that his fake news

    Main Source: 
    New York Times, August 15, 2008

    The Pentagon's Pundits

    In early 2002, the Pentagon began cultivating retired military officers who frequently serve as media commentators, so that they would help make the case for invading Iraq.

    Featured Participatory Project: Probing the Pentagon Pundit Documents

    by Diane Farsetta — August 12, 2008 - 5:42pm

    Remember the New York Times expose on the Pentagon's use of retired military officers who frequently appear as "military analysts" on television and radio news shows? The program was launched in 2002 to help sell the Iraq war, but soon expanded to other controversial issues.

    Main Source: 
    SourceWatch, August 12, 2008

    Netroots Nation Convenes in Austin, True Blue and On Message

    by John Stauber — July 17, 2008 - 11:04am
  • Topics: Left Wing, Citizen Journalism, Activism, Internet, Pundits, Politics, War / Peace

    • Netroots Nation, the annual conference for thousands of liberal bloggers, Democratic Party activists and liberal advocacy organizations is underway today, July 17, and through the weekend in Austin, Texas. In the decade since then-First Lady Hillary Clinton railed against the "vast Right Wing conspiracy," Democratic liberals have woven their own with dozens of new think tanks, lobby groups, funders like the Democracy Alliance and George Soros, scores of consultants and hundreds of millions of dollars raised and spent to grease the wheels of collaboration, all designed this year to win the White House and solidify control of the Congress.

    Liberal bloggers are notorious dissenters and critics of mainstream Democratic policies, but there won't be much of that on formal display in Austin, nothing like the "Coffee with the Troops" which injected an unscheduled discussion of the Iraq War into last year's conference in Chicago. Potentially controversial issues including Dennis Kucinich's call for impeachment of President Bush, or the failure of the Democratic Congress to stop funding the war in Iraq, are off the official agenda at Netroots Nation.

    The White House Exploited Lynch and Tillman to Market Their Wars

    by Bob Burton — July 16, 2008 - 6:32am

    A U.S. House of Representatives committee has released a report investigating the White House's media management efforts over the death from friendly fire of Army Ranger Pat Tillman and the rescue from an Iraqi hospital of Private Jessica Lynch.

    Main Source: 
    United States House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, July 14, 2008 (Pdf)

    Analyze This: Cable News Gets Loose with Its Labels

    by Daniel Haack — June 30, 2008 - 2:13pm

    Daniel Libit of The Politico reports that "among the things that the proliferation of TV cable news has wrought is slackened standards for what constitutes a political strategist," a term which has lost its meaning now that it is "used as a catchall tag for a whole host of people with varied -- and often peripheral -- backgrounds in electoral politics." Jane Fleming Kleeb, a so-called "Democratic strategist" --

    Main Source: 
    The Politico, June 24, 2008

    Alhurra Controversies Grow

    by Diane Farsetta — June 26, 2008 - 2:15pm

    The U.S. government-funded Arabic news channel Alhurra "paid former Bush and Clinton administration officials, lobbyists and high-profile Washington journalists tens of thousands of dollars in U.S.

    Main Source: 
    ProPublica.org, June 24, 2008

    Pentagon Pundits, Media Reform and Talking Back to Bill O'Reilly

    by Diane Farsetta — June 10, 2008 - 1:21pm
  • Topics: Activism, Pundits, Video News Releases, Democracy, Ethics, Media, Propaganda, U.S. Government

    • As Paul Schmelzer wrote on the Minnesota Independent website, "There were two National Conferences on Media Reform in Minneapolis over the weekend: the one I attended and the one Bill O'Reilly, Juan Williams and Fox News talking head Mary Catherine Ham didn't."

    O'Reilly's show tried to manufacture controversy about the conference, which I and others from the Center for Media and Democracy attended. But before addressing that, how about some real news on a genuinely controversial issue?

    During Sunday's closing plenary, FCC Commissioner and fake news foe Jonathan Adelstein pledged to push for multiple thorough investigations of the Pentagon military analyst program. So far, the Pentagon's Inspector General and the Government Accountability Office (GAO), the investigative arm of Congress, have launched inquiries into the Defense Department's secret cultivation of military pundits. But those investigations aren't enough.

    Congress Orders Investigation into Pentagon Pundit Scandal

    by Sheldon Rampton — May 28, 2008 - 9:09am
  • Topics: Iraq, Pundits, U.S. Congress, Media, Propaganda, U.S. Government

    • "I believe it is absolutely critical that a public investigation happen that is transparent to this body as well as to the American people," said Rep. Paul Hodes, explaining his decision to sponsor the amendment. "Congress cannot allow an Administration to manipulate the public on false propaganda on matters of war and national security."

    By a voice vote, the U.S. Congress passed an amendment last week to the Defense Authorization Act for FY2009, forbidding the U.S. Department of Defense to engage in "propaganda purposes within the United States not otherwise specifically authorized by law."

    Probably more important is that the amendment requires an investigation by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) to study and report back to Congress on "the extent to which the Department of Defense has violated the prohibition on propaganda" already established in previous laws passed by Congress.

    The amendment was prompted by an April 20 report in the New York Times exposing the Pentagon military analyst program through which the Pentagon lobbied for war by cultivating former military officers who became regulars on Fox News, CNN and the broadcast networks. As Diane Farsetta and Sheldon Rampton have argued previously, the Pentagon pundit program broke existing laws which forbid government officials from engaging in "publicity or propaganda purposes within the United States not heretofore authorized by the Congress."

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