Pentagon Pundits, Media Reform and Talking Back to Bill O'Reilly

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As Paul Schmelzer wrote on the Minnesota Independent website, "There were two National Conferences on Media Reform in Minneapolis over the weekend: the one I attended and the one Bill O'Reilly, Juan Williams and Fox News talking head Mary Catherine Ham didn't."

O'Reilly's show tried to manufacture controversy about the conference, which I and others from the Center for Media and Democracy attended. But before addressing that, how about some real news on a genuinely controversial issue?

During Sunday's closing plenary, FCC Commissioner and fake news foe Jonathan Adelstein pledged to push for multiple thorough investigations of the Pentagon military analyst program. So far, the Pentagon's Inspector General and the Government Accountability Office (GAO), the investigative arm of Congress, have launched inquiries into the Defense Department's secret cultivation of military pundits. But those investigations aren't enough.

Real Accountability Starts with Real Investigations
Judging by the GAO's past decisions on government-funded video news releases -- which it ruled were illegal propaganda unless their source were made clear -- the GAO's investigation will likely be vigorous, rooted in historical and legal precedent ... and ignored by the Bush Administration.

http://www.prwatch.org/node/7429