The New York Times yesterday published an expose' of how the Bush administration manipulated the trust America has in the media and the trust the media has in its analysts.

What this investigation shows is the following:

*    The Pentagon and Donald Rumsfeld recruited former military officials to be their mouthpieces in the media but under the guise of being independent experts;
*    These military analysts were fed talking points by the administration but were not to reveal their relationship with the administration;
*    Many of these analysts were involved with securing military contracts for themselves or others, and benefitted from the increased access - and conversely were intimidated into not straying from the talking points for fear of losing contracts;
*    The development of this propaganda machine began before 9/11 and was utilized to generate support for attacking Iraq and is now being used to make Iran the new boogieman;
*    Former Attorney General Gonzales also used the propaganda machine to justify the use of warrantless wiretapping.

This story is breaking and we expect many more details to emerge. But there are several points to be made here. First, it was wrong for the administration to use the carrot and stick of military contracts to deceive the American public. Second, it was wrong for the administration to betray the trust of the American public by trotting out spokespeople under the guise of being independent. And third, it was wrong for the news networks to not look into the conflicts of interest of their supposed independent analysts.

We encourage Congress to investigate this matter further so the public can understand exactly what happened here. If it is shown that the administration tied government contracts to political support in a public forum, heads should roll.

I saw the movie Stop-Loss over the weekend and it blew me away. The term refers to what happens to a soldier after he/she has put in the contracted time and then is still sent back to war for more tours of duty. This is happening, presumably, because the Bush administration does not want to begin a draft. So in order to maintain troop levels, the same courageous men and women are being sent back, whether they want to or not.

These people signed up to serve their country, showing their honor with their actions. Are we serving them by dragging them back into combat after years of good service? The Vietnam War became unpopular enough for people to stand up and speak out. Family members, friends, and acquaintances were being sent overseas, making the war closer to home for more people. For the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, fewer families and communities of people are being directly affected by the tragedies of war, keeping the reality of these wars and their unconstitutionality just out of sight.

With the majority of the media that we consume consolidated into just a few hands (over 50 in 1983 and 5 right now), only a handful of people decide what we see, hear, and read about the war, perpetuating this problem of no information. If our local paper, TV station, magazines and even state level papers were independently controlled, just think of the diverse perspectives we would have access to!

I don't want to read the same stuff that everyone in the country is reading. How are we to inform ourselves as responsible citizens if most of the media have exactly the same content?

These soldiers deserve to be heard. We owe it to them to learn of their sacrifice.

Tell the FCC you want diverse media, instead of corporate media. Tell your Congressmen to stop the FCC from allowing more consolidation.

You would have to be dead on our the moon to not have heard about the appalling living conditions and Byzantine red tape that dogs wounded veterans at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

Two weeks ago, a two-part series in the Washington Post documented the plight of soldiers harmed in battle who, after discharge as inpatients, find themselves in a medical limbo, living in buildings plagued by mold, peeling paint and rodents, and waiting endlessly for medical appointments and for government paperwork that will help them get their lives back in order.  The series provoked huge coverage from other media outlets and prompted House hearings, and caused the firings of the top brass at the Medical Center, leading to the resignation of the Secretary of the Army.

The series has been hailed as a testament to the power of a free press.  And it does demonstrate what happens when a powerful newspaper like The Washington Post takes on an issue.