Columnist Criticizes Media Approach That Led to 'Penta-Pundits'

By: E&P Staff Tribune Media Services writer Bob Koehler, in his column today, has an interesting take on the Pentagon's use of military analysts to sell the Iraq War on TV.

Koehler criticized the "Penta-pundits" -- whose less-than-impartial views were exposed last month by The New York Times -- but also said they're not the biggest problem when it comes to the "military-industrial-media complex."

He wrote: "Let's not kid ourselves. The four-star shills on the tube, most of whom, as the Times piece pointed out, represented companies that figured to profit from the war, are not the major problem.

"Their carte blanche appearance as 'analysts' on the networks, which didn't for the most part trouble themselves to look into possible conflicts of interest, are no more than a symptom of a far larger conflict of interest, which inculpates the entire corporate, a.k.a. mainstream, media: They are part of the war economy -- the military-industrial-media complex -- and serve their own interests far better as cooperative members of the team, not skeptical obstructionists who seriously challenge the government's case for war or give airplay or newspaper space to those who do."

Koehler added: "Before there was a quagmire there was a drumbeat, remember? The buildup to the invasion of Iraq was reported with such bias and inaccuracy that both the Times and The Washington Post, in the summer of 2004, more than a year after the devastating shock-and-awe bombing campaign -- well after it was too late to alter history -- published page-one analyses of what, if anything, they had done wrong.

"In the Post story, Watergate icon Bob Woodward said that the newsroom atmosphere at his paper in early 2003 was so gung-ho for the invasion, or at least so seduced by the fear factor, that 'it was risky for journalists to write anything that might look silly' -- by which he meant skeptical --'if weapons were ultimately found in Iraq.' He agonized: 'I think I was part of the groupthink.'"

The complete column can be seen here.