Common Dreams reporter Glenn Greenwald deserves the credit for bringing this to our attention. Some of you may be familiar with the New York Times journalist David Barstow. If you're not aware, you should know that he wrote articles, which exposed how the Pentagon had co-opted former Military personnel who now work in the Media. The people co-opted by the military were working in major media companies, such as NBC, CBS, MSNBC, CNN and Fox in 2008. This NYTimes journalist won the Pulitzer because he exposed that these companies had, in several ways, contributed to the war's endless progression and justification. In other words, Barstow showed how the Pentagon used their former employees' positions in the mainstream TV media to advance Bush's agenda. Here's one of Barstow's pieces that won the Pulitzer: Link. Notably, Glenn Greenwald points out that this week, Brian Williams at NBC News would not acknowledge the media's involvement or how Barstow's Pulitzer had reported on Williams' own company (NBC). And more details follow below the fold...
What we get from Glenn's description of these events is some good analysis (woohoo! analysis of the media!) about what the Pulitzer means for Barstow (our winner of the prize) and how Brian Williams omitted TV Media's involvement. I'll try not to parrot this too much since my goal is to give some reflections too, and if anyone wants to see a related diary about this, check out srkp23's diary, which has the "first story" from December '08. So from Glenn's article on CommonDreams.org, he helps us to see what The Pulitzer Committee wrote on Barstow and how the Mainstream Media, like the fact that Brian Williams continues to omit his own company's involvement. But first, about Barstow...
Awarded to David Barstow of The New York Times for his tenacious reporting that revealed how some retired generals, working as radio and television analysts, had been co-opted by the Pentagon to make its case for the war in Iraq, and how many of them also had undisclosed ties to companies that benefited from policies they defended.
Glenn then goes on to show the importance of these articles, and he nicely draws attention to the fact that NONE of the major TV media companies mentioned above have spoken AT ALL about why Barstow won this his Pulitzer this week. Brian Williams was the big one this week, who said NOTHING about what Barstow's article really meant or addressed. Williams had merely mentioned that the NYTimes won, but never said why - thus continuing the Media's silence on their involvement in Bush's Pentagon. Nevertheless, the big picture here is that Barstow is finally being recognized, and that he helped us to recognize the media's complicity in the government's over-involvement in the MSM. Glenn then writes on CNN, who also did little to expose the Media's involvement:
Identically, CNN ran an 898-word story on the various Pulitzer winners -- describing virtually every winner -- but was simply unable to find any space even to mention David Barstow's name, let alone inform their readers that he won the Prize for uncovering core corruption at the heart of CNN's coverage of the Iraq War and other military-related matters. No other television news outlet implicated by Barstow's story mentioned his award, at least as far as I can tell.
Now, even though I don't always put much stock in the New York Times, I have to say BRAVO to their Journalist David Barstow for exposing the Pentagon's sinister plans to control the media's work. Also, I have to give a big "JEERS" to Brian Williams for not covering the bigger implication in his announcement of the Pulitzers on his program this week. In any case, it's great to know that Barstow is actually being recognized for his work. All to often, the good reporters don't get the credit.
My question remains though - Will the TV people who were co-opted by the Pentagon ever get in trouble? Or have the already gotten in trouble, whether legally or at their jobs? Anyone know? Somehow I doubt it - perhaps that's just my pessimism speaking, but I'm glad at least that Barstow blew the lid. I'm just hoping that some of you can pass this story along and share it since the Mainstream Media isn't doing jacksh-t to cover the story or bring this injustice to light. About Brian Williams and NBC, Glenn also recently added an update to his article, writing this:
Williams' behavior has long been disgraceful on this issue, almost certainly due to the fact that some of the "analysts" most directly implicated by Barstow's story are Williams' favored sources and friends.
Williams's favored sources? Interesting. Thank you, Glenn for pointing this out. So Williams is buddy-buddy with Pentagon-tainted media sources? This is rather sad because I usually like NBC. So anyway, if you're interested in expressing some of your disatisfaction with Mainstream Media, you could start there (among several others). Consider writing NBC's Brian Williams at his Web Form.
Other thoughts? Comments? Outrages? How about a poll?