Comment Mirror, Mirror...Who's the Ugliest (Score 1) 361
I finally had a chance to read the full NY Times article from the other day on the Pentagon's public relations offensive.
It got me thinking, who comes out looking the ugliest? Is it:
a) The Bush Administration officials who deliberately traded access for favorable spin, and were more concerned with shaping public opinion than owning up to the truth of their failed war strategy?
b) The analysts themselves, decorated retired officers who put their vanity and business interests ahead of the public's right to know the truth--not to mention the lives of their active duty colleagues?
c) The networks and other media outlets who allowed anyone with a few stars and bars to spout propaganda without investigating possible conflicts of interest or questioning the source of the "inside information" being revealed.
I vote c.
This adminstration has certainly gone way overboard in its willingness to treat the truth as a mere inconvenience and resort to questionable tactics. But in general, public officials act in a political world, and we can expect any president and administration to do their utmost to build public support for their policies. As a former advocate myself (albiet for campaign finance reform, not war) I can even kind of admire DoD public relations chief Torie Clark for her astuteness in recognizing that military analysts were the most effective vehicles for her boss' message.
Many of the analysts probably believed most of what they were spouting (call it ideological blinders, an inability to see a naked emperor...). There's no excuse for those who recognized the disconnect and were willing to trade their integrity for the bright lights of TV and the dull glow of lucrative contracts for their favor-seeking clients. But, they're just a set of flawed individuals.
The biggest concern to me is the breakdown of a system of free press that is supposed to inform the public through independent reporting. In not conducting the most basic conflict-of-interest checks, the networks fundamentally abdicated their responsibilities to the public.
Perhaps we should remind them more regularly that they rent our public airwaves from the public for the whopping price of $0 in exchange for the directive to operate in the public interest. Take action by signing Progressive Future's Petition for an Open Media.
