Media Matters: Networks again refuse to go on the record about NY Times' military analyst exposé

[babylonsister]

Networks again refuse to go on the record about NY Times' military analyst exposé


Summary: ABC, CBS, and NBC have still not reported on any of their news programs The New York Times' revelations about the hidden ties between media military analysts and the Pentagon. Further, the major broadcast networks and cable news networks all reportedly declined to discuss the issue for an NPR report; the networks similarly reportedly declined to participate in an April 24 PBS NewsHour segment on the issue.

Continuing their silence, the major broadcast networks and cable news networks all reportedly declined to discuss the April 20 New York Times front-page article on the hidden ties between media military analysts and the Pentagon on the record with NPR media correspondent David Folkenflik. Further, according to a search* of transcripts available in the Nexis database, the broadcast networks -- ABC, CBS, and NBC -- still had not reported on the revelations in the Times story on any of their news programs through May 1. According to the Project for Excellence in Journalism's (PEJ) News Coverage Index, there were "only two related stories in the week of April 21-27, both of them in the April 24 PBS NewsHour broadcast." As Media Matters for America previously noted, the three major broadcast networks -- ABC, CBS, and NBC -- and the three major cable news networks -- CNN, Fox News, and MSNBC -- all reportedly declined to participate in a segment on the April 24 edition of PBS' NewsHour about "the role of military analysts on TV and in the Pentagon."

In a May 1 segment on NPR's All Things Considered, Folkenflik reported that "the New York Times story has stirred discomfort within network news divisions already bruised by the media's failure to challenge the administration before the invasion over claims Iraq had weapons of mass destruction" and that "ews executives and consultants wouldn't comment for this story, but privately say their on-air comments were honestly held beliefs," an assertion disputed by several of the analysts quoted in the Times article. Folkenflik also quoted former CBS News president Andrew Heyward blaming the Pentagon: "There was a deliberate attempt to deceive the public by having analysts whose real allegiance was to the Pentagon and who apparently were given at least special access for that allegiance, were presented as analysts whose allegiance was to the networks and therefore to the public."

Folkenflik further reported that NPR managing editor Brian Duffy said, "We're reviewing our commentators agreement to basically tighten up the language on that so that we are asking more rigorous questions about anyone that we're paying as a consultant."

more...

http://mediamatters.org/items/200805020010?f=h_top

[Mabus]

1. Incredible. Just incredible

yet, so believable and not unexpected.

K&R

[Indenturedebtor]

2. They're all traitors to the Constitution

One of the great coups of the pukes has been to get the phrase "It's just a document" into the public consciousness. Opens the door to all sorts of fascist and treasonous acts.

Hang em says I!

[Echo In Light]

3. And many of them are fully aware of the connotations and consequences

[Subdivisions]

4. There's been some discussion here and elswhere about the fate

of newspapers in this electronic age. I'll tell you what will get me to turn off the TV "news" (though I find I am able to stomach less and less of it) and pick up the newspaper again and that's if the newspapers would give me real journalism and truth. That NYT article was a step in the right direction and the broadcast "news" media ignoring the report only feeds the fire of contempt I hold for them.

I only continue to watch broadcast "news" in a "know thine enemy" context anymore, waiting to see what they have up there sleeves next.

[chill_wind]

5. Washington has blood on its hands. We're asking them to admit their own complicity.

It's never going to happen.

[chill_wind]

6. Interesting exercise...google "CNN + Military PsyOps" n/t

[malaise]

7. They knew and they've been caught

News my ass. You expect them to condemn themselves. Fuck M$M the enablers.

Expect them to invite them again -new ones - in jackets and ties to hide the military connection.

add.