It's a mad mad mad mad Bush administration scandal

Anyone reading this?

Evil geniuses, they are.

i never even realized that ppl took ex military brass on tv srsly.

what i meant here is that i thot ppl realized the probable unavoidable conflict of interest

I guess...but this goes way beyond a mere conflict of interest. The piece shows that all of the major networks have--since late 2002--depended upon a group of supposedly independent 'analysts' for assessment of military matters. It wasn't just that these analysts work in for consultancies and lobbyists who could benefit financially from the war effort (fucking bad enough), it's that they were government stooges--part of a well-organized, continuing plan to 'psyop' the American public into supporting the war.

"With a majority of Americans calling the war a mistake despite all administration attempts to sway public opinion, the Pentagon has focused in the last couple of years on cultivating in particular military analysts frequently seen and heard in conservative news outlets, records and interviews show.

Some of these analysts were on the mission to Cuba on June 24, 2005 — the first of six such Guantánamo trips — which was designed to mobilize analysts against the growing perception of Guantánamo as an international symbol of inhumane treatment. On the flight to Cuba, for much of the day at Guantánamo and on the flight home that night, Pentagon officials briefed the 10 or so analysts on their key messages — how much had been spent improving the facility, the abuse endured by guards, the extensive rights afforded detainees.

The results came quickly. The analysts went on TV and radio, decrying Amnesty International, criticizing calls to close the facility and asserting that all detainees were treated humanely."

pretty obvious from the beginning what those dudes were doing, but good that it's documented

I'll stop quoting after this, but this is just nuts:

"Many also shared with Mr. Bush’s national security team a belief that pessimistic war coverage broke the nation’s will to win in Vietnam, and there was a mutual resolve not to let that happen with this war.

This was a major theme, for example, with Paul E. Vallely, a Fox News analyst from 2001 to 2007. A retired Army general who had specialized in psychological warfare, Mr. Vallely co-authored a paper in 1980 that accused American news organizations of failing to defend the nation from “enemy” propaganda during Vietnam.

“We lost the war — not because we were outfought, but because we were out Psyoped,” he wrote. He urged a radically new approach to psychological operations in future wars — taking aim at not just foreign adversaries but domestic audiences, too. He called his approach “MindWar” — using network TV and radio to “strengthen our national will to victory.”

When they said 'hearts and minds', they weren't kidding...

"The patient didn't die because we botched the operation, removed both his lungs and reconnected his esophagus to his heart. He died because we just didn't show sufficient will to raise him from the dead."