Nineteen former military officers have received Letters of Inquiry from the Federal Communications Commission regarding allegations that they received favors from the Pentagon to spin the war on Iraq. Letters went out to five TV networks as well. The disclosure comes from FCC Commission Jonathan Adelstein, who revealed the move on Tuesday.

"I'm glad we are looking into these allegations that there was a possible attempt to deceive the American people concerning one of the most controversial issues facing the country today," Adelstein said in a statement. "We have an obligation to pursue this investigation, and to conclude it quickly."

In April of this year, two Capitol Hill Democrats responded to a New York Times exposé by requesting an FCC investigation of a Department of Defense-coordinated media blitz. The Times report revealed how then Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld recruited dozens of former military officers to become TV news show cheerleaders for the war in Iraq.



Courtesy New York Times

Publicly promoted as "objective analysts," the Times article revealed that many of these retirees consulted for military contractors that profit from the ongoing conflict. They also had access to regular Pentagon briefings—so long as they hewed to the Rumsfeld line on key issues such as Guantanamo prison, weapons of mass destruction, and the overall success of the occupation.

In May, House Energy Committee Chair John Dingell (D-MI) and House Agriculture Subcommittee chair Rosa L. DeLauro (D-CT) sent FCC Chair Kevin Martin a letter asking for an investigation of the campaign. "The American people should never be subject to a covert propaganda campaign but rather should be clearly notified of who is sponsoring what they are watching," they wrote.

The Reps invoked a section of the Communications Act that, in their letter's own words, "prohibits those involved with preparing program matter intended for broadcast from accepting valuable consideration for, including particular matter in, a program without disclosure."

The FCC interprets the law this way: "When anyone provides or promises to provide money, services or other valuable consideration to someone to include program matter in a broadcast, that fact must be disclosed in advance of the broadcast, ultimately to the station over which the matter is to be aired."

Martin said the FCC would look into the matter shortly after the Dingell/DeLauro letter. Broadcasting & Cable reported on Monday that the FCC was continuing to pursue the inquiry. Adelstein made his announcement a day later.

He has been pushing hard to move the probe along. In June, Adelstein spoke at a conference urging the agency to "conclude this investigation quickly." He also criticized the length of an earlier inquiry into the Department of Education's decision to pay conservative commentator Armstrong Williams $245,000 to promote President Bush's "No Child Left Behind Act" over television and radio. That investigation took two and a half years. The FCC ultimately cited Williams and proposed fines against several broadcasting groups that aired Williams' commentaries for breaking the Commission's sponsorship identification rules.

"The good news is that in the end, we finally declared the obvious: [Williams] violated the law," Adelstein said. "This investigation need not, and should not, take that long. There is no excuse for delay."