"Good evening, I'm respected, four-star general (insert name here) to tell you that we are making significant progress in Iraq"

In a long, detailed and well-researched article in this morning's New York Times, David Barstow makes clear what many of us have felt in our gut for years - the military analysts, mostly retired high-ranking military officers, who showed up on talk shows, and op-ed pages in support of the war in Iraq, were reading from a script written by the Pentagon. Most of these retired officers were simultaneously working as consultants to military vendors hoping to procure large war goods contracts from the Pentagon.

In a cozy, perverse daisy chain of cronyism, the Pentagon rewarded these "analysts" (who the Pentagon called, "message force multipliers) their support of Pentagon causes, by giving them access to leaders who could help guarantee contracts for clients of these on-air war cheerleaders.

Most networks and print media outlets allowed these analysts to propagandize without checking their credentials. Another argument about the failure of the press to deliver accuracy to their readers and viewers.

As a child of the sixties, who learned that trusting the government, the military or the press was a mistake, I can only say, "Sing that chorus one more time General Petraeus."

FCC Majority Uses Legal Subterfuge to Push for Total Elimination of Cross-Ownership Ban

The FCC consists of five members. Two are Democrats. Three Republicans. The commission voted along party lines to allow The Tribune Company to bypass, at least temporarily, the injunctions against cross-ownership, to sell the newspaper to real estate titan Sam Zell.

Minority dissenter Democrat Michael Copps suggested the headline used in this blog as an explanation of what happened.

Who will own the news?

We're quickly becoming franchise nation. Whether it's Subway, Target, Starbucks or Olive Garden, our once interesting, diverse and sometimes quirky human and commercial landscape is fast becoming homogenized.

It's happened with the media too. Here in Connecticut, long-time readers will tell you about their devotion to hometown papers in New Britain, Bristol and New Haven, until, they were devoured by a media conglomerate, stripped of their assets, and left to become shadows of their former selves. Yes, newspapers are in trouble, but corporate ownership and decimation of newsrooms is not the answer.

And now the FCC is proposing after long deliberation, to give the conglomerates another break, allowing them to own newspapers, radio stations and TV stations in the same cities. Local TV and radio are bad enough without having to worry about the board of directors in Dubuque.

I'm totally against this new ruling, though I worry a little less now that the internet has allowed interested citizens to find news in places other than the usual places. However, speaking from the viewpoint of a citizen activist in Middletown, I can attest that boards and councils are more likely to do what they please, out of public view, if there is not a vigorous press guarding against improprieties.

I think the answer lies in the rise of citizen websites which take the place of local newspapers. Still, it's important to protest the potential ruling to the FCC and your elected representatives.