Reflection, Barstow Article

Carly Goeller

The Government has an influence over every choice we make. This is a very broad and somewhat inconclusive statement. But when you think about it, our lives may be free, but they really are guided by the structural framework of our government when you sit down and think and think about it. Pertaining to our Media, which is supposed to be a forum where the government can portray themselves, what type of control does the government have? In his article Behind T.V analysts, the pentagons hidden hand, David Barstow addresses this issue. Barstow’s attention is primarily focused on the people we see on T.V, the very broadcasters and analysts we are receiving out news from. Effective in that, if you are going to investigate something, you might as well start from the primary source of our information, those broadcasting it. Upon reading this article I have always trusted the broadcasters I have seen on T.V, but to be quite frank, this article changed my perspective. This made me think of the events following September 11^th, where there was a public up roar against president bush and his decision to go to war. Based on supposed allegations President Bush decided to wage war against the Middle East, because the public never saw any concrete evidence public arousal was at an all time high, this is when I believe the “Behind T.V analysts, The Pentagons Hidden Hand” comes into play. The Government in turn, in an effort to persuade the public opinion, news organizations started using military analysts to support our government and their attempts at reclaiming a proactive stance at the time.  Effective in that of the Authoritative principal, which is the principal that in which people believe and accept what people say purely based upon their distinction. If someone was an ex president, or a retired prominent General, if they told me that area 51 was real than I would believe them, that is essentially what the Government is trying to do here. This is what Barstow says takes place behind the scenes in our media, this article says that the pentagon and our defense programs influence these military analysts and tell them what to say in an effort to obtain public appeal. Now even though this in any other situation may be very conniving and misleading, I do not find it justifiably categorized as that in this situation. Because as a country, we were attacked and we should have responded. But of course that is just my biased opinion and may be influenced by my own personal political view and may not be credible. But in my own words I think it was crucial to regain public approval at the time, because for all of the very brave men and women who fight and risk their lives its is imperative to have a disposition of support, and this cannot be obtained with out public approval. These men and women volunteer their lives, on their own accord, fighting for a belief they feel to be just, so it is our moral obligation to support them. So however misleading the “pentagons hidden hand may be” I have no problem with it.

With regards to my own personal research on this issue, Barstow’s article really sparked my curiosity. I found the following…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ABx4fG1ZJL4&feature=related

“We were sent to Iraq on false premise, how can you ever follow a chain of command that is willing to send you to war based on lies” This is an exact quote from the retired veteran himself. I found it incredibly befitting to the topic of the medias portrayal of the war and the prospect of false information given by the government pertaining to the war.

http://www.politicalcartoons.com/cartoon/2862a49d-66c7-476d-9b35-8115c4831caa.html

I liked this political cartoon because it really shows you how the media decides to share its information. How someone like Justin Beiber is getting more media attention than Osama Bin Ladin. This is troubling because the Public should be more informed about what is going, as discussed in week 5.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EhpKmQCCwB8

This is a clip or Barak Obama explaining his disposition towards the war in iraq. This is an example of the government using the media as an affective forum.

http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2008/05/10/analysts

Another source i found dealt with the exact issue discussed by David Barstow. This article talks about how the military analyst programs are controlled news coverage