NBC report on NY Times' five Pulitzers ignores military analysts report
SUMMARY: Brian Williams reported that "The New York Times led the way with five [Pulitzer Prizes], including awards for breaking news and international reporting" but did not note that the Times' David Barstow won for his reporting on the connection between numerous media military analysts and the Pentagon and defense industries.
On the April 20 edition of NBC's Nightly News, reporting on the awarding of the 2009 Pulitzer Prizes earlier that day, anchor Brian Williams stated that "The New York Times led the way with five, including awards for breaking news and international reporting." But Williams did not note that the Times' David Barstow was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting that day "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." Media Matters for America has repeatedly documented the unwillingness of the major broadcast networks, including NBC, to report on Barstow's April 20, 2008, Times article. Moreover, NBC joined ABC, CBS, CNN, Fox News, and MSNBC in reportedly declining to participate in a segment based on Barstow's article that aired on the April 24, 2008, edition of PBS' NewsHour.
In an April 29 post on his MSNBC.com blog, Williams responded to Barstow's April 20 article, describing NBC News analyst military analyst Barry R. McCaffrey and Wayne Downing, who died in July 2007, as "honest brokers" and writing that McCaffrey and Downing were "warriors-turned-analysts, not lobbyists or politicians":
All I can say is this: these two guys never gave what I considered to be the party line. They were tough, honest critics of the U.S. military effort in Iraq. If you've had any exposure to retired officers of that rank (and we've not had any five-star Generals in the modern era) then you know: these men are passionate patriots. In my dealings with them, they were also honest brokers. I knew full well whenever either man went on a fact-finding mission or went for high-level briefings. They never came back spun, and never attempted a conversion. They are warriors-turned-analysts, not lobbyists or politicians.
Media Matters documented that between January 1, 2002, and May 13, 2008, the military analysts named in Barstow's article collectively appeared or were quoted as experts more than 4,500 times on ABC, ABC News Now, CBS, CBS Radio Network, NBC, CNN, CNN Headline News, Fox News, MSNBC, CNBC, and NPR in segments covering the Iraq war both before and after the invasion, as well as numerous other national security or government policy issues. Five of the analysts named in Barstow's article appeared on NBC:
|
Military analyst |
Networks |
Number of appearances identified by Media Matters |
|
Barry R. McCaffrey |
NBC, MSNBC, CNBC |
642 |
|
Rick Francona |
NBC, MSNBC, CNBC |
296 |
|
Wayne A. Downing |
NBC, MSNBC, CNBC |
270 |
|
Kenneth Allard |
NBC, MSNBC, CNBC |
180 |
|
Montgomery Meigs |
NBC, MSNBC, CNBC |
125 |
Neither the CBS Evening News nor ABC's World News reported on the Pulitzer Prizes during their April 20 broadcasts.
From the April 20 broadcast of NBC's Nightly News with Brian Williams:
WILLIAMS: The Pulitzer Prizes for journalism and the arts were awarded today. The New York Times led the way with five, including awards for breaking news and international reporting. Las Vegas Sun won for the public service category for its reporting on construction-worker deaths in that city. Best commentary went to Eugene Robinson of The Washington Post, who, of course, was an on-air commentator for us on MSNBC all through the election season and continues to be. And the award for best biography went to Jon Meacham, the editor of Newsweek magazine, for his book American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House.
Apparently, this story has been declared off limits by the broadcast media... I guess it's just too embarrassing for them.
I remember when a guest brought it up on an MSNBC show back during the election campaign. The host cut him off and told the guy he'd talk to him about it off the air. I found that strange.
Hey Olbermann and Maddow fans:
Let's see if THEY cover this story-- anyone think they will?
And if they don't-- what does that make them? (i'll answer that one: p-h-o-n-i-e-s.)
Golly, and they thought their ignoring the exposure would make it go away. A toast to the war lobbyists!
I would also note, for the hundredth time, that how we got into the Iraq War has apparently been relegated to the Media Memory Hole.
The lying that led to our invasion of Iraq was a much bigger crime than any of the waterboarding that went on in our secret prisons, yet where is the media focus?
Hey, don't look now, but the CEO of JP Morgan thinks the Iraq War is partly to blame for our current financial crisis.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/04/20/dimon-iraq-war-greed-cont_n_189149.html
Maybe that will get the media's attention, even if 4,000+ dead Americans and 100,000+ dead Iraqis isn't enough reason to look into it. If it threatens our wallets... that pi$$es us off!
If you wished to prioritize the different categories of Journalism that the Pulitzer Prizes are awarded for, you might put Investigative Reporting at the top, as the most important aspect of Journalism, maybe the most important to the American People, for the reason that Investigative Reporting actually mimics (and even does the job of) Law and Law enforcement... isn't that what we usually consider cops and other officials to do, when they're doing their job of getting JUSTICE for the American People?
Isn't that a core function of Law and Government, to conduct Investigations?
Investigative Reporting might be the top aspect of Journalism:
It can be the reason that a political bagmand bribe expediter named jack abrahmoff got put in the public spotlight, and along with him other co-conspirators like Tom DeLay and Bob Ney... that was the 2006 Pulitzer Prize in Journalism for Investigative Reporting, won by three reporters for the Washington Post...
It can be the reason that the American People found out just how much their FDA was infiltrated by lobbyists and other corporate stooges, whose only paid function was to serve the pharmacuetical industry... that was the 2001 Pulitzer Prize in Journalism for Investigative Reporting, won by David Williams of the Los Angeles Times...
It can be the reason that the People of Miami found out how crooked was an election in that city, and actually started an Investigative ball rolling that eventually overturned the results of a mayoral election... that was the 1999 Pulitzer Prize in Journalism for Investigative Reporting, won by the staff of the Miami Herald...
Can Investigative Reporting actually hold a President of the United States accountable, and disclose how that President either authorized the crime of breaking into the Watergate Hotel, or otherwise simply covered up that crime, as was reported by Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein in the pages of the Washington Post?
History has proven to you that Investigative Reporting can do and did that, and did it for the American People.
But I can tell you that the 1973 Pulitzer Prize in Journalism for Investigative Reporting was not won by Woodward and Bernstein for what they did, because the Pulitzer Prize they won that year was for Journalism in the category of PUBLIC SERVICE...
Which tempts me to infer that perhaps that aspect of Journalism, Public Service, holds an even more important function to the American People, than does Investigative Reporting...
Maybe.
But then I catch myself, and realize that in truth, Investigative Reporting is a PUBLIC SERVICE, and cannot be differentiated from Public Service: the award of the 1973 Pulitzer Prize in Public Service to the Investigative Reporting of Woodward and Bernstein, being the proof of that.
PUBLIC SERVICE: That's what David Barstow performed to the American People, when he reported to them that DEFENSE CONTRACTORS and DEFENSE LOBBYISTS were being used by NBC, disguised as "military analysts", selling the American People all the blood death and treasure of IRAQ, and all of it to their own great personal financial profit, to the profit of those "military analysts" who in truth were DEFENSE CONTRACTORS and LOBBYISTS, and all of this done on the Public Airwaves, by NBC.
And that sickening corporate stooge named brian williams, he appears above in the video clip, ignoring all of this, in what can easily be called a severe case of Public DISSERVICE.
It should be a crime.
I guess I should have mentioned that that's what David Barstow was awarded, for the Public Service of his Investigative Reporting on DEFENSE CONTRACTORS and DEFENSE LOBBYISTS disguised as "military analysts" on NBC, selling the American People an invasion and occupation of IRAQ, and selling all the expense and death of IRAQ, and all of it for the many millions and even billions of dollars they personally received to sell IRAQ, as a "broker's fee" or "sales commision" or payola, when in truth they were war profiteers the whole time, they were in truth DEFENSE CONTRACTORS and LOBBYISTS...
I should mention that David Barstow won the Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting, for 2009, for reporting all of this to you, for performing this Public Service...
But you probably knew that without me having to add it here, didn't you?
Well, I was struck again by brian williams insulting and stupid corporate hack face appearing in the screen shot of the video clip, and had to add it anyway, what I'm sure you already knew... because if you were so stupid as to watch NBC News, and believe that chit, then maybe you didn't know that David Barstow won that prize for 2009, right?
I keep hoping, apparently in vain, that somebody will bring the ongoing crime that is the Iraq War into full view, so that the American Public finally realizes how badly we've been screwed.
There have been numerous books and documentaries detailing this massive raiding of our treasury, but books and documentaries only reach a relatively few people. What we need is a media crusader who will grab us by the lapels and say LOOK! LOOK at the massive propaganda blitz that led us to needlessly invade Iraq...LOOK at the private contractors who syphoned off BILLIONS of tax dollars in that fiasco.
Something tells me that it will never happen.
Excellent post.
It would appear that the profession of Investigative Journalism is on its death bed, put there partly by corporate greed. News people still have a lot of power; they can put the heat on politicians to act on certain issues if they so choose... simply by bringing it to the public's attention. That is why the Founding Fathers put special protection in the Constitution for the Press.
Unfortunately, modern "News" media have become a shadow of what they once were. Newspapers are drowning in red ink, and cable news has become a circus. The three major Networks are still hanging in there, I guess, but their pitiful few hours a week is lost in the cacophony of 24/7 Cable news.
Maybe because his story has been largely ignored by the MSM? I realize that you probably consider the revelation that the Pentagon actively helped deceive the public about going into Iraq as a non-story, but some of us consider it important news.
The NYTimes won 5 prizes....Williams did not mention any of the individual winners from the Times by name. He just said the Times won 5 prizes. If he reported on all 5 winners by name but left Barstow off, you would have a bitch. But he didn't do that. And why he won is irrevelant because he appeared to be reporting on who won....not why they won.
He chose to mention the book about Jackson. It just seems to me that the Pentagon and defense contractors sending out spokesmen to fluff up the phony case for the Iraq war would be a huge story, and worth mentioning. But that's just me.
Just put me down as one of those crazies who is still pi$$ed off about a needless, costly war, and the fact that NOBODY has been held accountable for it or the obscene waste of tax dollars that has accompanied it.
Well, I won't be able to change your mind. But if you hate the wasting of tax dollars, the bailouts and spending nonsense from BO must be killing you too.
Somewhat, but not to the same degree. At least we're not using the money to kill people, and get our people killed for no good reason.
I would like to see an investigation into the investment banking practices that got us into this mess. Sorry, but I don't buy the Republican talking points about this being the fault of poor people getting mortgages.
Maybe they should start with the rating agencies (paid by the banks) who stamped AAA ratings on those toxic assets when they knew full well that they were not AAA.
The rating agencies were a key linchpin in the financial meltdown and should be prosecuted. But lenders (such as INDYMAC) making ninja loans (no income ,no job no assets) started it all. Malking loans without checking qualifications, is truly where the problem started. Perhaps a pulitzer or two could have arisen from the fraud by banks and the rating agencies.
The press' lack of responsibilities is seen in the ignoring of the military analysts dissembling.
This item is here to get it in MMFA's database. That way it can be retrieved at will. Any time it's retrieved, its value can be judged.
Now, now, people. Let's not dwell on the past (or the present). We should all look forward, into the future, not try and settle scores about who committed what crime, who helped start which occupation, who tortured who. That's just vindictive and we need bi-partisanship.
I for one can't think of a better message that the media can send than saying "We will simply not talk about our role in the occupation of Iraq and in supporting the military-industrial complex." That's the spirit that our country needs to move forward, so we can make sure this never happens again.
We have always been at war with East Asia.
More Narcissim on MMFA's part. Just because Brian Williams at NBC did not go into detail on every NYT Pulitzer prize winner, that is supposed to be right wing misinformation.
yeah... sure it is...
ps. Does anyone remember MMFA reporting on Emanuel conferring with James Carville, Paul Begala, and George Stephanopoulos in their failed media/administrative attack on Rush.
I wonder who got the Pulitzer for that story?
That is not a story. That is a delusional fantasy. You have a lot of them.
I'd bet money he heard it on talk radio today!!
*sigh*. You owe me.
More likely a few weeks ago when the whole Obama is picking on Rush story was circulating
Just because Brian Williams at NBC did not go into detail on every NYT Pulitzer prize winner, that is supposed to be right wing misinformation.
Nope-- they went nuts when their favorite columnist got one--- so they set a precedent for detail.
One media outlet did explore Barstow's investigation -- this is a clip from The IFC Media Project... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FFYY8xgWlhU