{"id":874,"date":"2008-04-21T16:20:05","date_gmt":"2008-04-21T23:20:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=874"},"modified":"2008-12-02T00:35:37","modified_gmt":"2008-12-02T08:35:37","slug":"mind-war-the-pentagons-propaganda-assault-on-america","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=874","title":{"rendered":"Mind War – The Pentagon’s Propaganda Assault On America"},"content":{"rendered":"

“World War Three will be a guerrilla information war with no division between military and civilian participation.”<\/span> ~ Marshall McLuhan, 1968<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"SpinCom\"The New York Times has now documented the sad prescience of McCluhan. In an in-depth examination<\/a> of supposedly independent, retired military analysts, the Times’ David Barstow has uncovered what may be the most brazen attempt at propaganda ever initiated.<\/p>\n

“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.”<\/span><\/p>\n

“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.”<\/span><\/p>\n

“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.”<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It should come as no surprise that the Bush administration would manipulate the press to shape public opinion. The press, of course, are their willing accomplices. Rupert Murdoch of Fox News even admitted it publicly<\/a>. And the Pentagon has been caught doing the same in Iraq. The Associated Press reported that the U.S. military secretly paid Iraqi newspapers<\/a> to publish stories intended to portray operations there in a positive light.<\/p>\n

But the scale of this program, the fact that it was directed at Americans, and the added wrinkle of financial corruption and greed at the expense of thousands of lives, is thoroughly without precedent. The article reveals that there was deliberate intent on the part of the government to define what constituted news and to replace the analysis of independent journalists with that of hand-picked and conflict-laden Pentagon mouthpieces. It was further disclosed that many of these spokespersons provided commentary they knew was false in order to protect either their access to the media or their profits. These former military officers clearly were not protecting their troops.<\/p>\n

“It was them saying, ‘We need to stick our hands up your back and move your mouth for you,’<\/em> ” Robert S. Bevelacqua, a retired Green Beret and former Fox News analyst, said.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

That’s just one of the more than 150 retired officers participating in this program, most of whom worked for – you guessed it – Fox News. One Fox News crony, Paul E. Vallely, called it a “MindWar”<\/em> – using network TV and radio to “strengthen our national will to victory.”<\/em> Another analyst, General Conway, confessed that “The strategic target remains our [the American] population.”<\/em> He went on to callously trivialize the loss of U.S. troops as incidental to winning in the court of public opinion and, he might as well have added, in the marketplace of war profiteering.<\/p>\n

The scope of deceit and greed that this program encompasses is mind boggling. Read the whole story<\/a> at the New York Times. Then visit FreePress<\/a> where they are collecting signatures to urge Congress to further investigate this breach of the public trust.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“World War Three will be a guerrilla information war with no division between military and civilian participation.” ~ Marshall McLuhan, 1968 The New York Times has now documented the sad prescience of McCluhan. In an in-depth examination of supposedly independent, retired military analysts, the Times’ David Barstow has uncovered what may be the most brazen […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"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_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1,8,13],"tags":[277,33,276,79,30,281],"class_list":["post-874","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","category-propaganda","category-scandalous","tag-david-barstow","tag-fox-news","tag-marshall-mcluhan","tag-new-york-times","tag-rupert-murdoch","tag-spincom"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4Ijg-e6","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1264,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=1264","url_meta":{"origin":874,"position":0},"title":"Why We Need A Blogosphere","author":"Mark NC","date":"5\/9\/2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Television news was a great idea. Just think of it: A box that sits in your living room and brings you important information from around the block or around the world. Sounds too good to be true. And apparently it is. Whatever value television adds to the distribution of news\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Censorship"","block_context":{"text":"Censorship","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=56"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1274,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=1274","url_meta":{"origin":874,"position":1},"title":"SPINCOM: Still A Deafening Silence","author":"Mark NC","date":"5\/20\/2009","format":false,"excerpt":"A couple of weeks ago, I posted this story on David Barstow, the author of Message Machine for the New York Times. Yesterday, the New York Press Club awarded Barstow it's Golden Keyboard Award. Barstow had previously won a Pulitzer for the story. Message Machine described how the Pentagon in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Censorship"","block_context":{"text":"Censorship","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=56"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1331,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=1331","url_meta":{"origin":874,"position":2},"title":"Emmy News: Nominations – PBS 41 \/ Fox News 0","author":"Mark NC","date":"7\/14\/2009","format":false,"excerpt":"The Emmy nominations for News and Documentaries were released today by the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. PBS scored the lion's share with 41 nominations, including two more for Bill Moyers, who has won more than 30 Emmys already. CBS was a distant second with 23. One notable name\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Censorship"","block_context":{"text":"Censorship","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=56"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1084,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=1084","url_meta":{"origin":874,"position":3},"title":"The FCC Probes Pentagon Propaganda Program – Finally","author":"Mark NC","date":"10\/9\/2008","format":false,"excerpt":"\"World War Three will be a guerrilla information war with no division between military and civilian participation.\" ~ Marshall McLuhan, 1968 The FCC is finally beginning to take some action on perhaps the most egregious propaganda assault ever directed at the American people by their own government. From the International\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":29899,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=29899","url_meta":{"origin":874,"position":4},"title":"Fox News Propagandist Caught And Arrested, Charged With Fraud","author":"Mark NC","date":"10\/15\/2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Wayne Simmons has been a frequent guest on Fox News for many years, providing what they said was expert analysis of intelligence and military issues from an experienced professional. Fox often relied on his commentary to inform their audience about serious national security issues as they arose in the news.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"Fox News","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/foxnews-simmons-busted.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/foxnews-simmons-busted.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/foxnews-simmons-busted.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1254,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=1254","url_meta":{"origin":874,"position":5},"title":"News Blights: The SPINCOM Edition","author":"Mark NC","date":"4\/27\/2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Item 1: The Fox Network has announced that it will not carry President Obama's press conference on Wednesday, the 100th day of his presidency. ABC, CBS, and NBC have all committed to carrying it. Note that this is the Fox broadcast entertainment network, not the cable news channel, which has\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/874","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=874"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/874\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=874"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=874"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=874"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}