{"id":20527,"date":"2014-09-13T13:03:03","date_gmt":"2014-09-13T20:03:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=20527"},"modified":"2014-09-13T13:03:03","modified_gmt":"2014-09-13T20:03:03","slug":"wars-r-us-how-the-media-promotes-war-profiteers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=20527","title":{"rendered":"Wars-R-Us: How The Media Promotes War Profiteers"},"content":{"rendered":"

The manic preoccupation of the right-wing media for war is a persistent component of coverage of the Middle East and the rise of ISIL. There is so much sophomoric and useless debate over whether President Obama uses the word “war”<\/em> or not, that the television punditry seem to have abandoned reporting on what’s actually taking place. New Corpse covered this retreat to surface-level theatrics and partisan politics<\/a> last week, but an article by Lee Fang in The Nation brings to light another critical element that is dangerously absent from the media presentation.<\/p>\n

\"Wars-R-Us\"<\/p>\n

Fang’s “Who\u2019s Paying the Pro-War Pundits?”<\/a> reports that the proliferation of former Pentagon and other government officials who comprise much of the commentator class on TV are not disinterested analysts expressing their opinions and showing off their patriotism. In fact, many are self-serving lobbyists and corporate insiders whose war fever will have a direct and positive effect on their bank accounts. For example, Fang cites the frequent appearances of former General Jack Keane, whose advice is invariably supportive of escalating the military conflict. Among Keane’s business interests is the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), a think tank he runs with Fox News contributors Liz Cheney and William Kristol. Fang writes…<\/p>\n

“Left unsaid during his media appearances (and left unmentioned on his congressional witness disclosure form) are Keane\u2019s other gigs: as special adviser to Academi, the contractor formerly known as Blackwater; as a board member to tank and aircraft manufacturer General Dynamics; a ‘venture partner’ to SCP Partners, an investment firm that partners with defense contractors, including XVionics, an ‘operations management decision support system’ company used in Air Force drone training; and as president of his own consulting firm, GSI LLC.<\/p>\n

“To portray Keane as simply a think tank leader and a former military official, as the media have done, obscures a fairly lucrative career in the contracting world. For the General Dynamics role alone, Keane has been paid a six-figure salary in cash and stock options since he joined the firm in 2004; last year, General Dynamics paid him $258,006.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The Nation’s article contains several more disturbing examples of this conflict of interest in armed conflict. The presence of so many people with a profit motive advocating a full-scale, boots-on-the-ground war, is cause for concern. The American people need to be informed when news networks serve up lobbyists and corporate executives from the defense industry, but fail to disclose their affiliations. The question we must ask ourselves is: Are we being seduced into another quagmire in order to line the pockets of the military-industrial-media complex?<\/p>\n

\n

Be Sure To \u201cLIKE\u201d News Corpse On Facebook<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

This is not a war, should not be called a war, and should definitely not become a war. Despite the panicky blatherings of media Chicken Littles, ISIL is not the biggest, most fearsome enemy we’ve ever faced. Al Qaeda had both more fighters and more money. The army of Saddam Hussein was bigger, richer, better armed, and better trained. And much of their wealth, armory, and training came straight from the United States. Remember this when you hear the partisans and profiteers in the media declaring that the fate of the planet rests on defeating this puny brigade of impotent crackpots.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The manic preoccupation of the right-wing media for war is a persistent component of coverage of the Middle East and the rise of ISIL. There is so much sophomoric and useless debate over whether President Obama uses the word “war” or not, that the television punditry seem to have abandoned reporting on what’s actually taking […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20528,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"Wars-R-Us: How The Media Promotes War Profiteers","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1,684,692],"tags":[33,1146],"class_list":["post-20527","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","category-media-bias","category-terrorism","tag-fox-news","tag-terrorism"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/FoxNews\/wars-r-us.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4Ijg-5l5","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":31838,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=31838","url_meta":{"origin":20527,"position":0},"title":"Return Of The Reverse Beetlejuice Doctrine: Say \u2018Radical Islamic Terrorism\u2019 Three Times","author":"Mark NC","date":"6\/13\/2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Radical Islamic Terrorism. Radical Islamic Terrorism. Radical Islamic Terrorism. There, I said it three times. Is it gone yet? In the childish imagination of American conservatives the only reason that terrorism still exists is that President Obama and other Democrats have failed to utter the magical incantation \u201cRadical Islamic Terrorism.\u201d\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"Beetlejuice","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/FoxNews\/beetlejuice-trump.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/FoxNews\/beetlejuice-trump.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/FoxNews\/beetlejuice-trump.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":16213,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=16213","url_meta":{"origin":20527,"position":1},"title":"Racist Tea Party Revolutionaries Kill Cops In Las Vegas: Why Won’t The Media Call It Terrorism?","author":"Mark NC","date":"6\/9\/2014","format":false,"excerpt":"The media has set a precedent for itself in past events that involved tragic political hostilities and murder. Most famously, the conservative press has spent the last two years complaining about whether President Obama called the attacks in Benghazi terrorism. Of course, there is video showing him doing just that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"Jerad Miller","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/FoxNews\/jerad-miller-facebook.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/FoxNews\/jerad-miller-facebook.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/FoxNews\/jerad-miller-facebook.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":7101,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=7101","url_meta":{"origin":20527,"position":2},"title":"Bill O’Reilly Accuses Obama Of Political Terrorism","author":"Mark NC","date":"5\/15\/2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Now that Glenn Beck has left Fox News and slithered off to the obscurity he so richly deserves, Bill O'Reilly is stepping up to fill the role of frothing lunatic that the network has missed since Beck's departure. Monday night's program featured an interview with Frank VanderSloot, a wealthy businessman\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Election"","block_context":{"text":"Election","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=152"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":30152,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=30152","url_meta":{"origin":20527,"position":3},"title":"The Wingnut Reverse Beetlejuice Doctrine: Say ‘Radical Islamic Terrorism’ Three Times","author":"Mark NC","date":"11\/15\/2015","format":false,"excerpt":"The warped philosophy of conservatives in America has long held that the primary reason for the persistence of terrorism is that President Obama and other Democrats are reluctant to utter the phrase \"radical Islamic terrorism.\" They somehow have concluded that those magical words are key to defeating groups like Al\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Election"","block_context":{"text":"Election","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=152"},"img":{"alt_text":"Fox News Beetlejuice","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/FoxNews\/foxnews-beetlejuice.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/FoxNews\/foxnews-beetlejuice.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/FoxNews\/foxnews-beetlejuice.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":19,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=19","url_meta":{"origin":20527,"position":4},"title":"Ashcroft: 0 for 5,000","author":"Mark NC","date":"9\/21\/2004","format":false,"excerpt":"David Cole writes for The Nation that the Justice Department's war on domestic terrorism is pitifully unproductive. 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