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The Pentagon Seeks To Influence Opinion. Duh. Meanwhile, CNN Bashes Bush. Double Duh.

Written By mista sense on Sunday, April 20, 2008 | 4:06 PM










I just watched CNN's Rick Sanchez tease his coverage of the David Barstow reports today, concerning the Pentagon's efforts to influence the news media, especially military analysts. Sanchez raised a conspiratorial eyebrow, and told the viewers that the NYT story was "huge."

Well, The Cable Gamer is a slow reader, and so it took me a while to finish he piece. And yes, the article is huge, all right, if Barstow's work is measured by its length--some 7700 words--or the prominence it got in the Times: front page, above the fold (the photo above is taken from the NYT website).

But the article looks pretty small if it's measured by actual news content. I admit to being somewhat mystified by why the Times gave it such prominence, because all the piece said was the Defense Department is trying hard to influence coverage, and perceptions of the war--no accusations of governmental illegality, for example. Well, isn't that what the government is supposed to do? Try to win the war within the law? And of course every war, these days, has a strong media component. As Winston Churchill said of World War Two, victory for the good guys must be encased in a bodyguard of lies.

If the Times doesn't like the Iraq war, the paper is free to try to change the voters' minds about the war (and don't worry, the Times has been hard at work on that mission for a long time now). But in the meantime, George W. Bush, having been re-elected by the votes in 2004, on a finish-the-job platform, ought to be allowed to fight the war as he sees fit.

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