THE NOISE MACHINE AT WORK

I've noted before that U.S. military officers have been appearing on wingnut radio shows recently and via Glenn Greenwald, I learned that this is part of a military plan to shore up political support for the Iraq War. Ken Silverstein has written in Harper's (here & here) that the DOD's Office of Public Affairs is behind this push.

Two relevant excerpts from Silverstein's articles:

This project seeks to bypass the traditional media and work directly with talk radio and bloggers, mostly those with a heavily conservative tilt. The unit, which one source says was originally called “Surrogates Operation” but was later rechristened “Communications Outreach,” also reportedly provides talking points and briefings to retired military officials who now support the administration in appearances as media pundits.

The Surrogates unit arranges regular conference calls during which senior Pentagon officials brief retired military officials, civilian defense and national security analysts, pundits, and bloggers. A few moderates are invited to take part, but the list of participants skews far, far to the right. The Pentagon essentially feeds participants the talking points, bullet points, and stories it wants told.