"Message Force Multipliers"

I haven't written a post lately because I've been busy reading, gardening, and working, and national news is just so dispiriting to me. Right-wing pundits are fond of claiming that liberals have no "moral values," but I seem to have a surfeit. As my previous entries indicate, I'm disgusted by our leaders' willingness to scuttle the Geneva Conventions and to stretch and distort the definition of torture. Too many such decisions of the present administration have led to immoral, illiberal, and anti-democratic consequences. Having lowered the bar in governing behavior, will a new administration be capable of raising the bar sufficiently to restore America's standing in the world and to restore trust to the American public?

Yesterday, The New York Times published an investigative report on how the Pentagon successfully countered any negative criticism with well-orchestrated responses from military analysts who were courted by the Pentagon, many of whom also traded on their contacts with Pentagon officials to line their own pockets through military contracts. The link is here: "Behind Military Analysts, the Pentagon's Hidden Hand."

And here are a few discouraging quotes from the article:

• "Internal Pentagon documents repeatedly refer 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.'"
• "Don Meyer, an aide to Ms. Clarke, said a strategic decision was made in 2002 to make the analysts the main focus of the public relations push to construct a case for war. Journalists were secondary....The decision recalled other administration tactics that subverted traditional journalism. Federal agencies, for example, have paid columnists to write favorably about the administration. They have distributed to local TV stations hundreds of fake news segments with fawning accounts of administration accomplishments. The Pentagon itself has made covert payments to Iraqi newspapers to publish coalition propaganda."
• "In interviews, participants described a powerfully seductive environment — the uniformed escorts to Mr. Rumsfeld’s private conference room, the best government china laid out, the embossed name cards, the blizzard of PowerPoints, the solicitations of advice and counsel, the appeals to duty and country, the warm thank you notes from the secretary himself."
• " Like several other analysts, Mr. Eads [retired
  Army lieutenant colonel, Fox analyst, vice-president of government relations for Blackbird Technologies] said he had at times held his tongue on television for fear that “some four-star could call up and say, ‘Kill that contract.’ ” For example, he believed Pentagon officials misled the analysts about the progress of Iraq’s security forces. “I know a snow job when I see one,” he said. He did not share this on TV."
• "Still, even the mildest of criticism could draw a challenge. Several analysts told of fielding telephone calls from displeased defense officials only minutes after being on the air."

And so it goes.