Reflection on the New York Times Article: "Behind TV Analysts, Pentagon's Hidden Hand"

                In the political cartoon drawn by Josh Hagler to the left, it shows how the Pentagon operated in the summer of 2005 to convince the American people to go Pro-Iraq War. The Pentagon hid behind and puppeteer their military analyst puppets to get the message out.

In the New York Times article “Behind TV Analysts Pentagon’s Hidden Hand,” by investigative reporter David Barstow argues how military analysts are puppets to the pentagon. These military analysts are ventriloquist dolls who are being told what to say in order to gain the support of the people. These analyst “puppets” are motivated by loyalty and money. In a CNN report on this matter in Wolf Blitzer’s Situation Room, He talks to Howard Kurtz about the issue. In further investigation, it was found that some former officers had meetings with Donald Rumsfeld and sought out how they could influence on the subject of the Iraq war. For example, former officer John Garrett wrote to the pentagon “please let me know if you have any specific points you want covered or that you would prefer to downplay.” However I personally agree with the critics in that the pentagon was “lying” us into the war in Iraq. The video I found on this issue can be found at the bottom of this blog. It provides very interesting information on the topic.

In an article that I found from The Huffington Post 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-gareth-porter/the-pentagons-corrupt-soc_b_97598.html 

written by Gareth Porter, he states “not only did the ‘military analysts’ routinely violate basic ethical standards of journalism by accepting trips completely arranged and paid for the administration; they were consciously participating in its strategy to manipulate public opinion by regurgitating the pro-war arguments they were given in top-level official briefings -- which they had to promise to keep secret.” Porter also argues that “the networks should be forced to fire every ‘military analyst’ who has been recruited, accepted all-expenses-paid trips to Iraq, uncritically mouthed the administration talking points while concealing their special relationship or maintained vested financial interests in Pentagon contracts through business relationships with contractors. I completely agree with Porter, to find out that the Pentagon hides behind hired military analysts and tell them what to tell us and lie to the American people to try and win their support is ludicrous.

I found another video on the topic that also provides information about the New York Times and how it “unmasked” the Pentagon. It states how the Pentagon used the analysts as “Media Trojan Horse,” in order to convince Americans to go pro-war. This video can also be found at the bottom of this page. I chose these sources because they support my point in that the use of the media to gain public opinion is wrong. They lied to the people and convinced them to support a war for reasons that that didn't make sense and later proved to be false.

CNN Video with Wolf Blitzer:

http://www.mycatholicvoice.com/media/3H2QYW

2nd Video: