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".
Internal Pentagon documents showed that Defense Department officials referred to the retired officers as "surrogates" or "message force multipliers" who could be counted on to deliver administration "themes and messages" in the form of their own opinions.
This bizarre idea – that web audiences might like to read something relevant and interesting rather than have a brand message forced into their eyes – is anathema to the content marketer.
The campaign, begun in 2002 but suspended after the article's publication, sought to transform the analysts into "surrogates" and "message force multipliers" for the Bush administration, records show.
A Pentagon public relations program that sought to transform high-profile military analysts into "surrogates" and "message force multipliers" for the Bush administration complied with Defense Department regulations and directives, the Pentagon's inspector general has concluded after a two-year investigation.
The inspector general's office at the Defense Department announced on Friday that it would investigate a Pentagon public affairs program that sought to transform retired military officers who work as television and radio analysts into "message force multipliers" who could be counted on to echo Bush administration talking points about Iraq, Afghanistan, Guantánamo and terrorism in general.
It's possible, he wrote, that the feature "reinforces terror's message, forcing you to look at the faces of friends who were never endangered in the first place, reminding you ceaselessly of the dozens of people who could have been in the wrong place, at the wrong time – but were not.
The inspector general's office began investigating the public relations program last year, in response to articles in The New York Times that exposed an extensive and largely hidden Pentagon campaign to transform network military analysts into "surrogates" and "message force multipliers" for the Bush administration.
He added: "We have spent time with those who work tirelessly to raise and address this issue and I want to send a clear and strong message: forced marriage is wrong, is illegal and will not be tolerated".
Then a scary pop-up message forced both of us to trust each other more than we had before.
