Exhibit 857

Behind TV Analysts, Pentagon's Hidden Hand (David Barstow), New York Times, p. A1

Exhibit 857 · News article

Behind TV Analysts, Pentagon's Hidden Hand (David Barstow), New York Times, p. A1

Internal Pentagon documents repeatedly refer to the military analysts as "message force multipliers" or "surrogates" who could be counted on to deliver administration "themes and messages" to millions of Americans "in the form of their own opinions."

Reports that the Pentagon cultivated retired officers who appeared as television and radio analysts, that most had ties to defense contractors, and that the Times obtained about 8,000 pages of e-mail, transcripts and records through a lawsuit. Quotes internal Pentagon documents that called the analysts 'message force multipliers' or 'surrogates.' Triggered the GAO and DOD IG reviews.

Source: The New York Times
Date: 20 April 2008
Quoted from: Article text, page 2 of the web edition (Wayback copy of the 'pagewanted=all' version)
Grade: Reported
Document: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/20/washington/20generals.html
Archived: https://web.archive.org/web/2012/http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/20/washington/20generals.html?pagewanted=all
Accessed: 2026-11-09
Cited by: Findings citing this exhibit

Cited by

Finding POL-7.6: Primary record The Pentagon's retired military analyst outreach ran from 2002 to February 2008. The Department of Defense Inspector General reported in 2011 that it complied with relevant DOD policies, that "a preponderance of evidence indicates that one RMA stopped receiving invitations because he was a critic," and that 43 of the analysts had defense contractor affiliations.