Media Still Turning to Discredited 'Experts' for Analysis on Iraq (Consortiumblog)

Media Still Turning to Discredited 'Experts' for Analysis on Iraq

Despite the distastrous consequences that neoconservatives have unleashed with their foreign policy prescriptions for Iraq and the greater Middle East, the American media still gives an extraordinary platform to "experts" and academics from organizations such as the American Enterprise Institute, one of the primary architects of the Iraq War, and the most vocal advocate for George Bush's new plan to escalate the war with a "surge" of 21,500 troops.

One of the media's current favorites is AEI scholar Frederick Kagan, the author of a report which apparently served as the basis for Bush's new strategy of escalation in Iraq. Kagan has been a regular on cable news and radio, and a Google News search with his name turns up over 700 hits in newspapers and other publications. What's extraordinary though is that representatives of AEI are turned to at all, considering their horrendous track record when it comes to foreign policy analysis. In baseball parlance, these intellectuals are batting at best .100.

The scholars at AEI and like-minded organizations provided the intellectual and scholarly rationale for the initial invasion of Iraq and the grander strategy of "reshaping" the Middle East, but as is obvious today, none of their predictions have played out the way they had hoped. Yet, they are still turned to as credible experts on Middle East policy and given a platform for their new policy prescriptions that are just as sure to fail as their past prescriptions.

Paradoxically, leaders of the grassroots antiwar movement -- who have been vindicated every step of the way -- are largely shut out of the media and still treated as if they are somehow less than credible. Leslie Cagan, coordinator of United For Peace and Justice, was interviewed on Democracy Now this morning, but a Google News search for her name only turned up 7 hits, compared to Frederick Kagan's 700. Representatives of the ANSWER Coalition, which organized many of the biggest antiwar demonstrations before the invasion of Iraq, are even more thoroughly excluded from the media debate.

<more>

http://consortiumblog.blogspot.com/2007/01/media-still-turning-to-discredited.html

With his smirky smile he's batting a cool .000 in the prediction biz. Based on his ability to put things together I am always surprised that he doesn't come on TV with his underpants on his head.
And to show how American business is so tied to performance they keep payong Kristol for being so incredibly stupid.
And then there is Tony Blankley. Pukerooni

Just like poor John McCain!

"There is no mistaking the anguish of Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.). Sitting in his Senate office, he is uncharacteristically subdued, his voice at times almost inaudible.

Although the Bush administration this week finally embraced his long-standing call to send more troops to Iraq, McCain believes the way it has handled the war "will go down as one of the worst" mistakes in the history of the American military.

"One of the most frustrating things that's ever happened in my political life," he said, "is watching this train wreck."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/12/AR2007011202220_pf.html

He's shoveling coal too much to see the missing rails ahead. He is a direct collaborationist in the horror, grumbling as he helps those who hold the tyrannical strings to the nomination he will never get.

For this he sacrificed, honor and soul, mind and spirit.

Specific corporate interests control mass media in order to produce public support for a political order that will serve those specific corporate interests.

The techniques used are essentially forms of advertising, and a number of so-called "think-tanks" like AEI should be considered analogous to ad-agencies, designing campaigns like "After my oil-rebate check, the War-in-Iraq will cost me almost nothing! It's too good a deal to pass up!"

Advertisements, of course, are not usually admired for their accuracy -- nor do stations nowadays often cover news detrimental to their sponsors ...