Sen. John Kerry has launched a petition drive asking that the General Accounting Office investigate the Pentagon's role in producing retired military experts to spread favorable press coverage of the Bush administration's prosecution of the Iraq war.

The major TV news outlets have done little if any coverage of this story - which broke two weeks ago - either out of embarrassment or self-preservation. Under federal law, it is illegal for the government to spread propaganda within the borders of the U.S.

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.