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April 28, 2008

"Military Propaganda Pushed Me Off TV"

Jeff Cohen:

In the fall of 2002, week after week, I argued vigorously against invading Iraq in debates televised on MSNBC. I used every possible argument that might sway mainstream viewers — no real threat, cost, instability. But as the war neared, my debates were terminated.

In my 2006 book Cable News Confidential, I explained why I lost my airtime:

There was no room for me after MSNBC launched Countdown: Iraq — a daily one-hour show that seemed more keen on glamorizing a potential war than scrutinizing or debating it. Countdown: Iraq featured retired colonels and generals, sometimes resembling boys with war toys as they used props, maps and glitzy graphics to spin invasion scenarios. They reminded me of pumped-up ex-football players doing pre-game analysis and diagramming plays. It was excruciating to be sidelined at MSNBC, watching so many non-debates in which myth and misinformation were served up unchallenged.

It was bad enough to be silenced. Much worse to see that these ex-generals — many working for military corporations — were never in debates, nor asked a tough question by an anchor. (I wasn’t allowed on MSNBC unless balanced by at least one truculent right-winger.)

Except for the brazenness and scope of the Pentagon spin program, I wasn’t shocked by the recent New York Times report exposing how the Pentagon junketed and coached the retired military brass into being “message-force multipliers” and “surrogates” for Donald Rumsfeld’s lethal propaganda.

The biggest villain here is not Rumsfeld or the Pentagon. It’s the TV networks. In the land of the First Amendment, it was their choice to shut down debate and journalism.

No government agency forced MSNBC to repeatedly feature the hawkish generals unopposed. Or fire Phil Donahue. Or smear weapons expert Scott Ritter...

The rest.

—Jonathan Schwarz

Posted at April 28, 2008 04:39 PM
Comments

For Americans, war is sport. The majority cheers on 'the troops' just as if they were cheering on 'their team' at the superbowl. This is the social price from sanitized warfare waged against comparatively defenseless people on the other side of the planet at no risk to the homeland.

Posted by: Turkey Turkey Turkey at April 28, 2008 04:59 PM

TTT - huh. It's almost like they've been trained for years via war metaphors in their sports commentary to have that mentality.

Posted by: saurabh at April 29, 2008 01:02 AM

Is not G.E., owner of NBC, one of the largest defense contractors in the world? Could there possibly be something amiss here?

You cain't make no lucre on the First Amendment.

Posted by: cavjam at April 29, 2008 03:12 AM

I heard on NPR that Tariq Aziz (sp?), Saddam's spokesperson before the invasion, is going on trial in Iraq on some trumped up charge.

Of course his real crime was speaking more truth than our own MSM did.

Posted by: Bilfred at April 29, 2008 05:23 PM