Propaganda War: The silence is deafening

After last Sunday's blockbuster New York Times report on the propaganda program run out of the Pentagon for more than five years:

To the public, these men are members of a familiar fraternity, presented tens of thousands of times on television and radio as "military analysts" whose long service has equipped them to give authoritative and unfettered judgments about the most pressing issues of the post-Sept. 11 world.

Hidden behind that appearance of objectivity, though, is a Pentagon information apparatus that has used those analysts in a campaign to generate favorable news coverage of the administration’s wartime performance...

...represent[ing] more than 150 military contractors either as lobbyists, senior executives, board members or consultants.

...let's follow-up with a look at the coverage this propaganda for profit scandal has received.

• Questions by the White House press corps:  None
• Frontpage coverage in major newspapers:  None
• Discussion on T.V. talk shows:  None
• Questions to Defense Secretary Gates:  One

Gates response?

I suppose in a flip sort of way I could say, the good-news side is there are now so many it doesn't really matter.  If there were still just a handful out there they might actually have some real influence.

Gates claimed to have read the article, but apparently he missed the part where a Pentagon official said:

We were able to click on every single station and every one of our folks were up there delivering our message. You’d look at them and say, ‘This is working.’

It's not surprising that the traditional media chooses to ignore this story given that they are the willing accomplices of the White House.