Think Tank

Here's a fascinating little list of people to bring on the air for a news report:

James Dobbins from the RAND Corporation
Bruce Hoffman, from the RAND Corporation
Ryan Henry from the Department of Defense
James Townsend from the Department of Defense
Michael Rubin of the American Enterprise Institute and the Pentagon.

These are the "experts" that Jackie Northam trots out for a piece that is supposedly going to offer listeners out here in the "absorption field" a critique of the US counter-terrorism strategy. The story is introduced by Liane Hansen saying, "The Bush Administration has made combating terrorism one of its highest priorities..." and conlcudes by noting that our biggest problem is a lack of a success in the "propaganda battle"!

I wondered if this story broke some kind of a record for how many Pentagon hacks NPR can squeeze into a single news segment; it surely came close. It's sad that NPR can dip into these "think tanks" and pass it off as informed analysis.

Flush!