For those who still aren't convinced that the MSM is used to manipulate the public...

[DFF]

Watch http://www.zeitgeistmovie.com/ for a real breakdown of what's going on in our world. Granted, it's an amalgam of facts and conspiracy, but there's more of the former than the latter, IMO.

 

[mczerone]

It said Pentagon documents referred to the military analysts as "message force multipliers" or "surrogates" who could be counted on to deliver administration "themes and messages" to millions of Americans "in the form of their own opinions."

Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman defended the Defense Department's work with military analysts, saying they were given only factual information about the war.

"The intent and purpose of this is nothing other than an earnest attempt to inform the American people," he told the Times, adding it was "a bit incredible" to think retired military officers could be "wound up" and used as "puppets of the Defense Department."

So the official defense is (a) they were not given any wrong information to dispel, just a point of view to speak from and (b) the puppets had no strings: though the DoD told them what to say, and how, and arranged for the analysts to be on TV to say it, but they didn't have a gun to their head while being taped.

Notice Whitman's wording: "an earnest attempt to inform the American people" is not the same as attempting to earnestly inform. He says they "truly tried" not that they "tried to be true". And for saying it to be "a bit incredible" for the DoD to use these veterans in this way, he didn't say they weren't doing it.

Sickening.

 

[DealzOnWheelz]

Wow

 

[Broadlighter]

I read the NY Times article, which basically explains how the Pentagon used former military officers with ties to contractors to counteract news that was critical of the war effort coming from MSM's own reporting staff.

It was interesting how they would be briefed by Rumsfeld to all say the same thing in lock step with the Bush Administration. It was pretty carefully calculated to sell the war.

What this tells me is that in spite of it all, We the people hold the real power. We are the ones they want to buy their bullcrap. As long as enough people keep swallowing it, the same policies will continue.