Third Party Technique

Five Questions, Five Doses of Spin

by Bob Burton — November 23, 2009 - 4:21am

The Lansing State Journal is the latest in a long line of media outlets to provide a pro-nuclear platform to former Greenpeace activist turned corporate PR consultant, Patrick Moore, without disclosing his consultancy with the Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI).

Main Source: 
Lansing State Journal (Michigan), November 23, 2009

Old Consultant Welcomes New Sucker

by Bob Burton — November 6, 2009 - 4:30am

The Philadelphia Inquirer is the latest news outlet to fail to disclose the fact that Patrick Moore, a former Greenpeace activist turned PR consultant, is on the nuclear industry payroll.

Main Source: 
Philadelphia Inquirer, November 5, 2009

The Nuclear Sponsorship That Keeps on Giving

by Bob Burton — October 12, 2009 - 8:01pm

Former Greenpeace activist turned industry PR consultant, Patrick Moore, regularly appears as an opinion columnist or interviewee in news outlets around the world.

Main Source: 
Statesman-Journal.com (Oregon), October 12, 2009

Making War Spin McChrystal Clear

by Diane Farsetta — September 29, 2009 - 1:55pm

General Stanley A. McChrystal, the top U.S. military and NATO commander in Afghanistan, wants to change strategic communications goals there from a "struggle for the 'hearts and minds' of the Afghan population to one of giving them 'trust and confidence'" in their government and their future. He also wants to focus on exposing insurgents' "flagrant contravention of the principles of the Koran," which is already a talking point for U.S.

Main Source: 
Washington Post, September 27, 2009

Increasing Scrutiny for Online Marketing

by Diane Farsetta — August 12, 2009 - 11:01am

The National Advertising Review Council (NARC), a "coalition of advertising organizations" that recommends standards for industry self-regulation, issued its first rulings dealing with blog promotions. NARC faulted two companies for "posting 'reviews' of dietary supplements, but not disclosing that they actually own the products," or that the reviewers were paid.

Main Source: 
PC Magazine, August 11, 2009

Pentagon Propaganda Gets a Pass

by Diane Farsetta — July 23, 2009 - 7:25am
  • Topics: Pundits, Third Party Technique, Propaganda, U.S. Government, War / Peace

    • Is there a difference between covert propaganda and secretive campaigns to shape public opinion on controversial issues? The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) apparently thinks that there is.

    The GAO recently ruled that the Pentagon pundit program did not break the law against taxpayer-funded domestic propaganda. The program involved some 75 retired military officers who serve as frequent media commentators. From 2002 to 2008, the Pentagon set up meetings between the pundits and high-level Department of Defense (DOD) officials. The Pentagon's PR staff not only gave the pundits talking points, but helped them draft opinion columns and gave them feedback on their media appearances. The Pentagon also paid for the pundits to travel overseas, following carefully-scripted itineraries designed to highlight successes in Iraq and humane measures at the Guantanamo Bay detention center.

    The French Disconnection

    by Bob Burton — July 13, 2009 - 6:16am

    Once again Patrick Moore, a former Greenpeace activist, has been promoting nuclear power as a solution to global warming without disclosing that he is a consultant to the Nuclear Energy Institute's

    Main Source: 
    TheStar.com (Toronto, Canada), July 9, 2009

    Pentagon Rejects Its Own Pundit Program Whitewash

    by Diane Farsetta — May 6, 2009 - 4:04pm
  • Topics: Pundits, Third Party Technique, Propaganda, U.S. Government, War / Peace

    • The continuing saga of the Pentagon pundit program just keeps getting curiouser and curiouser, as Alice in Wonderland might say.

    From 2002 to 2008, the Defense Department secretly cultivated more than 70 retired military officers who frequently serve as media commentators. Initially, the goal was to use them as "message force multipliers," to bolster the Bush administration's Iraq War sell job. That went so well that the covert program to shape U.S. public opinion -- an illegal effort, by any reasonable reading of the law -- was expanded to spin everything from then-Defense Secretary Rumsfeld's job performance to U.S. military operations in Afghanistan to the Guantanamo Bay detention center to warrantless wiretapping.

    In April 2008, shortly after the New York Times first reported on the Pentagon's pundits -- an in-depth exposé that recently won the Times' David Barstow his second Pulitzer Prize -- the Pentagon suspended the program. In January 2009, the Defense Department Inspector General's office released a report claiming "there was an 'insufficient basis' to conclude that the program had violated laws." Representative Paul Hodes, one of the program's many Congressional critics, called the Inspector General's report "a whitewash."

    Now, it seems as though the Pentagon agrees.

    Pentagon Pundit Expose Gets the Pulitzer

    by Diane Farsetta — April 20, 2009 - 3:43pm
  • Topics: Journalism, Third Party Technique, Propaganda, U.S. Government, War / Peace

    • It was a shocking revelation. Exactly one year ago today, the New York Times published an in-depth account of the Pentagon military analyst program, a covert effort to cultivate pundits who are retired military officers as the Bush administration's "message force multipliers." The elaborate -- and presumably costly -- program flourished at the nexus of government war propaganda; the private interests of the officer-pundits, many of whom also worked as lobbyists or consultants for military contractors; and major news organizations that didn't ask tough questions about U.S. military operations while failing to screen their paid commentators for even the most glaring conflicts of interest.

    The story was huge, but it wasn't easy to break. It took two years for reporter David Barstow and others at the Times to pry the relevant documents from the Pentagon. Seven months later, Barstow helped us further understand how the U.S. "military-industrial-media complex" works, with another front-page exposé on one spectacularly conflicted Pentagon pundit, Barry McCaffrey.

    On April 20, David Barstow received the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting, for his work on the Pentagon pundit story.

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