Pentagon propaganda

It is a little over a week since David Barstow reported in the New York Times on a Pentagon propaganda operation to persuade the American people to support the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the prison operation at Guantanamo, by secretly briefing retired senior military officers, who were recipients of Pentagon favors as employees of military contractors, who were then planted as paid consultants at major news organizations. This sort of government propaganda is illegal in the United States, precisely because it corrupts democratic decision making before it even starts.

Yesterday the Pentagon announced it was ending the propaganda program.

David Barstow, "MESSAGE MACHINE; Behind TV Analysts, Pentagon's Hidden Hand," New York Times, April 20, 2008.

"Pentagon Suspends Military Analysts Program," Huffington Post, April 28, 2008. (image from Huffington Post)