NBC has huge ethical problems, and they are being exposed..

[annabanana]

Media Matters sent out a message last night that details recent GLARING lapses in the journalistic rule of disclosure. From my inbox:

Last week, NBC's Nightly News aired a segment with retired Gen. Barry McCaffrey discussing "Afghan security forces." You'd think that McCaffrey's work for a defense contractor slated to receive hundreds of millions of dollars from the State Department to train a group that is a component of the Afghan security forces would have at least merited a mention -- perhaps even on-screen text noting his involvement?

You'd be wrong:

In a report on the war in Afghanistan, NBC's Nightly News included a clip of retired Gen. Barry R. McCaffrey discussing "Afghan security forces." But neither NBC News nor McCaffrey disclosed during the report that he is a member of the board of directors of DynCorp International, which has been awarded a $317.4 million contract with the State Department to "provide at least 580 civilian police advisers to advise, train, and mentor the Afghanistan National Police and the Ministry of Interior." According to the State Department, the "Afghan National Police" are one of two components of the "Afghanistan National Security Forces."

Of course, anyone who watches NBC and MSNBC shouldn't be surprised.

Back in April, The New York Times published an explosive report detailing the hidden relationship among numerous media military analysts, the Pentagon, and defense contractors. Following suit, Media Matters released an exhaustive report which found that since January 1, 2002, McCaffrey and others named in the Times report appeared or were quoted more than 4,500 times by news outlets, including more than 600 appearances by McCaffrey alone on NBC, MSNBC, and CNBC.

http://mediamatters.org/items/200812050016?f=h_top

Media Matters goes on to give the details of serious problems in some Andrea Mitchell and Chris Jansing pieces with Sens. John Breaux and Trent Lott about off-shore drilling (i.e. that they had just formed a company that is financially vested in offshore drilling) - Guess which side of the debate THAT came down on?
http://mediamatters.org/items/200807020005?lid=789320&rid=18637607

And don't get me started on Tweety's feelers on running for Senate himself!

There is SO MUCH that is wrong here. Glen Greenwald has addressed it recently, and has been in dialog with NBC, which is refusing to address it publicly.. . .at all.
http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/12/01/mccaffrey/index.html

As much as I love Keith & Rachel, and as big a kick as I get out of Tweety. . There are issues here that NBC clearly can't ignore much longer.

[Captain Hilts]

1. I actually like McCaffrey. He takes the grunts' view on things...

[annabanana]

2. The fact that he's using the airwaves to do PR for his firm

is an issue that needs to be addressed, regardless.

[peacetalksforall]

8. It's not about his personality.

[Bucky]

13. Huey Long looked out for the little guy. He was still a crook.

If you don't believe in upholding ethical standards on people whose views we support, you don't believe in upholding ethical standards. McCaffrey's ignoring obvious conflicts of interest in his media work is well documented. He needs to be held to account.

[SpiralHawk]

3. NBC massively fudged the Sarah Palin - turkey massacre video, too

I saw them run a clip of her interview, and they had blurred out the background so that you could not see the man throttling the turkeys in the back.

If you had seen other, accurate versions of the video, then you knew what was going on while Homelander Palin prattled her propaganda, but otherwise all you could see was a vague blur.

I thought it was the most egregious, 1984ism mindf*ck propaganda distortion of year -- NBC massively fudging the truth to decieve American viewers and to support a rising Homelander demagogue.

Ptooooey on NBC and their anti-American disregard for truth.

[rocktivity]

4. You forgot to mention that NBC is OWNED by a defense contractor.

:headbang:
rocknation{/b]

[LiberalFighter]

5. General McCaffrey is a less than honorable person.

Check out "Allegations of misconduct during the Gulf War" at Wikipedia.

Also, McCaffrey was a paid advocate for defense companies as well as part of the Bush administration's shaping public opinion of the war.

[The_Commonist]

10. He was also Clinton's "Drug Czar"

Or more specifically the "Director of the National Drug Control Policy."

An interesting guy, but certainly not without his hypocrisies and conflicts of interest.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barry_McCaffrey

[MasonJar]

6. NBC must know about these allegations in print and has chosen to

ignore them. But at least they give us Keith and Rachel, which is more than I can say about the other networks.

[JohnyCanuck]

7. This is how they have earned themselves the name "media whores." n/t

[UpInArms]

9. GE is a major owner of NBC isn't it? Wasn't that Jack Welch's bag o' tricks?

pravda pttoooey!

[Octafish]

11. War Inc. needs an advocate. So, they created the Mighty Wurlitzer...

[Shakespeare]

12. Glenn Greenwald (on Salon) has been all over this, too.

Be sure and read his blog posts on it as well.