Political Quotes

“My amendment to H.R. 5658 addresses an issue of utmost importance to our Constitution and to the integrity of our government. It will help restore the trust of the American people in their government. In a free and democratic society, our government should never use the public airwaves to propagandize our citizens. Recent media reports have alleged an organized effort by former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and Department of Defense officials to manipulate network news military analysts to promote administration spin on the war in Iraq, even though many of those analysts knew the information not to be accurate. Internal Pentagon documents obtained by the New York Times refer to these military analysts as message force multipliers, surrogates who can be counted on to deliver administration themes and messages to millions of Americans in the form of their own opinions. In fact, one analyst apparently referred to the efforts by the Pentagon as brainwashing. A report conducted by media watchdog Media Matters showed that from January 2002 these military analysts, many of whom have ties to the defense industry, appeared on network and cable news stations nearly 4,500 times.”