Yesterday, it was announced that David Barstow of The New York Times won a Pulitzer prize for his investigative journalism surrounding the use by the Pentagon of retired military Generals as propagandists to spin the Iraq War to US citizens. Barstow’s work can be seen HERE and HERE.

These articles came out in April and November of 2008, and are, by all accounts, blockbuster scandals that are so big, they virtually could not be ignored. Yet, that is exactly what every single major US broadcast network has done, including NBC, ABC, CBS, FOX, CNN, and MSNBC. Not once has any of these networks run this story on their broadcasts–not one time. Yet, this story, which appeared on the front page of the New York Times (twice!), did spark a Congressional investigation, as well as huge, widespread coverage from independent media sources, including Salon.com, HuffingtonPost.com, MotherJones.com, and scores of other respected and well-read news media outlets.

So why have they ignored it, you ask?

Simple. The major news networks used these retired generals as analysts over and over and OVER again, totaling some 4,500 appearances in all between late 2002 up to the present. The networks presented them as experts (and still do) offering their professional, “independent” opinions based solely on their knowledge and career military experience. Yet never, not even one time, has any of the major news networks revealed that nearly all of these generals:

• Were extensively and repeatedly briefed by the Pentagon and given detailed instructions on how to present the events of the Iraq War, and

• Most of these generals had lucrative financial or employment ties to many defense contractors, with investments and/or consulting fees reaching into the millions of dollars, creating a painfully obvious conflict of interest that should have been brought to the viewers’ attention so they could properly consider what was being said in light of those ties.

So it was no surprise that, when announcing the Pulitzer prize winners yesterday and last night on their evening news programs, not a single anchor mentioned Barstow’s achievements, once again completely refusing to acknowledge this huge scandal which all but destroys the networks’ credibility in terms of reporting news objectively and honestly.

Glenn Greenwald, one of the journalists who’ve been out front on this story since the beginning had this to say about this latest instance of the major media completely refusing to acknowledge this story:

By whom were these “ties to companies” undisclosed and for whom did these deeply conflicted retired generals pose as “analysts”? ABC, CBS, NBC, MSNBC, CNN and Fox — the very companies that have simply suppressed the story from their viewers. They kept completely silent about Barstow’s story even though it sparked Congressional inquiries, vehement objections from the then-leading Democratic presidential candidates, and allegations that the Pentagon program violated legal prohibitions on domestic propaganda programs. The Pentagon’s secret collaboration with these “independent analysts” shaped multiple news stories from each of these outlets on a variety of critical topics. Most amazingly, many of them continue to employ as so-called “independent analysts” the very retired generals at the heart of Barstow’s story, yet still refuse to inform their viewers about any part of this story.

And even now that Barstow yesterday won the Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting — one of the most prestigious awards any news story can win — these revelations still may not be uttered on television, tragically dashing the hope expressed yesterday (rhetorically, I presume) by Media Matters’ Jamison Foser that “maybe now that the story has won a Pulitzer for Barstow, they’ll pay attention.” Instead, it was Atrios’ prediction that was decisively confirmed: “I don’t think a Pulitzer will be enough to give the military analyst story more attention.” Here is what Brian Williams said last night on his NBC News broadcast in reporting on the prestigious awards:

“The Pulitzer Prizes for journalism and the arts were awarded today. The New York Times led the way with five, including awards for breaking news and international reporting. Las Vegas Sun won for the public service category for its reporting on construction worker deaths in that city. Best commentary went to Eugene Robinson of The Washington Post, who of course was an on-air commentator for us on MSNBC all through the election season and continues to be. And the award for best biography went to John Meacham, the editor of Newsweek magazine, for his book “American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House.”

No mention that among the five NYT prizes was one for investigative reporting. Williams did manage to promote the fact that one of the award winners was an MSNBC contributor, but sadly did not find the time to inform his viewers that NBC News’ war reporting and one of Williams’ still-featured premiere “independent analysts,” Gen. Barry McCaffrey, was and continues to be at the heart of the scandal for which Barstow won the Pulitzer. Williams’ refusal to inform his readers about this now-Pulitzer-winning story is particularly notable given his direct personal involvement in the secret, joint attempts by NBC and McCaffrey to contain P.R. damage to NBC from Barstow’s story, compounded by the fact that NBC was on notice of these multiple conflicts as early as April, 2003, when The Nation first reported on them.

Identically, CNN ran an 898-word story on the various Pulitzer winners — describing virtually every winner — but was simply unable to find any space even to mention David Barstow’s name, let alone inform their readers that he won the Prize for uncovering core corruption at the heart of CNN’s coverage of the Iraq War and other military-related matters. No other television news outlet implicated by Barstow’s story mentioned his award, at least as far as I can tell.

The outright refusal of any of these “news organizations” even to mention what Barstow uncovered about the Pentagon’s propaganda program and the way it infected their coverage is one of the most illuminating events revealing how they operate. So transparently corrupt and journalistically disgraceful is their blackout of this story that even Howard Kurtz and Politico — that’s Howard Kurtz and Politico — lambasted them for this concealment. Meaningful criticisms of media stars from media critic (and CNN star) Howie Kurtz is about as rare as prosecutions for politically powerful lawbreakers in America, yet this is what he said about the television media’s suppression of Barstow’s story: “their coverage of this important issue has been pathetic.”

Has there ever been another Pulitzer-Prize-winning story for investigative reporting never to be mentioned on major television — let alone one that was twice featured as the lead story on the front page of The New York Times? To pose the question is to answer it.

For more information on this story, you can find much more analysis from Greenwald HERE HERE and HERE as well as some of the latest comments from Media Matters HERE.

It is all very fascinating reading and very well documented. That’s your Mainstream Media at work. Looking out for you, Joe Q. Citizen. That’s “fair and balanced.”  Uhh, not.

If any of you would like to defend the MSM in this case, I would enjoy hearing your arguments. Personally, I find this repulsive, inexcusable, and entirely destructive on many different levels.