FCC Probes 'Embedded' Analysts

By John Eggerton -- Broadcasting & Cable, 5/11/2008 8:00:00 PM

FCC Chairman Kevin Martin says the commission is looking into complaints about the Department of Defense's program to provide talking points to former military officers used by TV networks as analysts on the Iraq war.

House Energy & Commerce Committee chairman John Dingell (D-Mich.) and others called for an investigation after The New York Times broke the story about the embedded analysts.

Dingell wants to know whether the news outlets that used the analysts violated the FCC's sponsorship-identification rules by not informing viewers of the analysts' ties to the White House or various companies that do business with the Defense Department.

Last week, in a statement, the Society of Professional Journalists said, "The Pentagon's practice of co-opting military analysts should end," to be replaced by "honest, open dialogue."

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