Pundits

Media's Military Analysts Involved in "Psyops on Steroids"

by Diane Farsetta — April 21, 2008 - 10:46am

In early 2002, as "detailed planning for a possible Iraq invasion" began, then-Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs Victoria Clarke launched the Pentagon military analyst program as "the main focus of

Main Source: 
New York Times, April 20, 2008

Time To Pay for Payola Pundit Armstrong Williams

by Diane Farsetta — October 19, 2007 - 6:40pm
  • Topics: Pundits, Video News Releases, Fake TV News, Media, Propaganda, Public Relations, U.S. Government

    • Perhaps, in the case of Armstrong Williams, the third time will be the charm.

    The first two official investigations failed to hold anyone accountable for what can only be described as a textbook case of government propaganda. The results of the third investigation, by the Federal Communications Commission, were announced recently (PDF file). The FCC found Williams and two media companies to be at fault, issuing a citation against Williams and proposing fines of $40,000 against Sonshine Family Television and $36,000 against Sinclair Broadcast Group.

    Alexis Debat: One Well-Connected Faker

    by Diane Farsetta — October 4, 2007 - 12:56pm

    Over the past month, former ABC News consultant / reporter and self-described "terrorism analyst" Alexis Debat has been exposed for "having published fake interviews with Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Alan Greenspan,

    Main Source: 
    Mother Jones, October 2, 2007

    The Pro-War Lobby's Latest Addition is Freedom's Watch

    by John Stauber — August 22, 2007 - 7:27pm
  • Topics: Right Wing, Iraq, Front Groups, Pundits, Terrorism, Lobbying, Politics, Propaganda, War / Peace

    • The business of pro-war propaganda is booming as "Freedom's Watch" joins Vets for Freedom, Move America Forward and other pro-war advocates for a stepped up war in Iraq in line with the Bush/Cheney Global War on Terror.

    Ari Fleischer, former White House PR flack who jumped ship into the private sector shortly after the 2003 US invasion, is the public face and a founding board member of Freedom's Watch, which is being rolled out this week with emotional advertisements featuring wounded veterans imploring Americans to keep the money flowing for the occupation.

    One such advertisement is up on YouTube. Once again the war in Iraq is being falsely linked to and justified by the terror attacks of 9/11, one of the Bush Administration's Big Lies that was was used to mislead America into war. In the Freedom's Watch advertisment on YouTube a war vet with prosthetic legs beseeches:

    The Great Global Sceptic Swindle

    by Bob Burton — July 15, 2007 - 2:38am

    Martin Durkin, the director of the global warming sceptic film, The Great Global Warming Swindle, concedes that a graph he used of temperatures over the last thousand years ignores data from the last twenty years. In Durkin's film the endpoint of the graph, produced by a British academic back in the 1980's, is labelled "now".

    Main Source: 
    Reuters, July 13, 2007

    A Black Day for Yellow Journalism

    by Sheldon Rampton — July 13, 2007 - 3:42pm
  • Topics: Right Wing, Pundits, Corporations, Media, Think Tanks

    • Former media mogul Conrad Black has been convicted by a Chicago jury of three counts of mail fraud and one count of obstruction of justice and could face up to 35 years in prison for looting his former company, Hollinger International, of tens of millions of dollars.

    Before his downfall, Black was a smaller-scale version of Fox-TV owner Rupert Murdoch, building a media empire that he used to inject his right-wing views into U.S., Canadian, British and Australian politics. He pumped money into the pockets of the neoconservative pundits who helped sell the war in Iraq and gave them prominent voice in his own newspapers.

    Supply Side Pundits

    by Bob Burton — July 2, 2007 - 9:59pm

    Karl Grossman, a professor of journalism at the State University of New York and host of the nationally aired TV program Enviro Close-Up, recounts that the "overwhelming majority" of the pitches he and his producer receive are from "conservative public relations companies promoting conservative guests." Grossman observes that "in terms of volume and intensity, there's nothing comparable from the progressive world.

    Main Source: 
    Extra! September/October 2006

    Michael Evans, A General in God's Army

    by John Stauber — June 14, 2007 - 8:10am

    Bill Berkowitz reports on the rise of Michael D. Evans: "In recent appearances on two U.S. cable news networks, he was slinging and zinging -- the well-rehearsed pitchman for the Biblical 'End Times' was dead certain that 'Iran is going to have to be attacked' before 2008.

    Main Source: 
    IPS, June 13, 2007
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