Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Glenn Greenwald vs. the corporate war machine, or How Brian Williams gets his news

Salon's Glenn Greenwald published a scathing indictment this morning of NBC News, and its on-air promotion of retired General Barry McCaffrey as a neutral commentator in the rush to war with Iran. McCaffrey is neither neutral nor objective as he has promoted the rush to war in private meetings with NBC executives (Greenwald links to the General's Power Point) and has vested personal financial interests in the war industry.

It's amazing to me how a military official so adroit at public relations and war profiteering could simultaneously be so dumb as to not return phone calls from Greenwald before publication of this report. You may not have heard of Greenwald, but somebody in McCaffrey's position certainly should have. After the fact, NBC's only recourse is a dishonest news release attacking Greenwald, charging inaccuracies in his report but failing to list them, boasting of the editorial input of officials without a conflict of interest, but failing also to name those.

I suggest reading the linked Greenwald article above for a better understanding of how the concept of "unavoidable war" is sold, by drum beat, to the American people.

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Quote of the day: Mullah Santorum, on higher education...

President Obama once said he wants everybody in America to go to college. What a snob. There are good, decent men and women who go out and work hard every day and put their skills to test that aren't taught by some liberal college professor to try to indoctrinate them. Oh, I understand why he wants you to go to college. He wants to remake you in his image."

Already suspicious of the man, I had been wondering exactly which books Santorum wanted to burn. Now we know: all of them.

posted by CM @ 6:16 PM

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