News: The Pentagon's dirty media war.

Journalists were (and still are) embedded in the US military forces in Iraq. But it was also the other way round: the Pentagon proves to be far more embedded in the US media than the public was to know.

How one thing lead to another: In spring 2006, several retired US generals started to speak up against the -then- US Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld's handling of the Iraq war, calling for his resignation. In a desperate counteroffensive, the Pentagon called in the support of its "media embedded army" of military retirees hired by the US media as "analysts". This was done in such a flagrant way ignoring any sense for honesty and decency, that a number of the so-called analysts spoke up and opened up an even bigger can of worms:
They revealed just how much the Pentagon had a grip on the media, where retirees eating out of the Rumsfeld's hand repeatedly used US government issued talking points as their own "expert" opinion, adding direct credibility to misinformation the Pentagon was spreading. (Full article)

You have to see this New York Times video, which baffled me.

This all reminds me of what I wrote in this post: "Even if you feel helpless in the power of people whose un-true intentions are obvious to you, trust that bad luck will turn against them, one day..."

Picture courtesy New York Times