Variety, May 6, 2008
By Daniel Kimmel

Two top lawmakers have asked the Federal Communications Commission to investigate the Pentagon's use of retired military officers as "surrogates" on television news.

In a letter sent Tuesday to FCC chairman Kevin J. Martin, Reps. John Dingell (D-Mich.) and Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) requested that the commission "determine whether the news networks or the analysts violated the Communications Act of 1934 and Federal Communications Commission rules -- specifically, the sponsorship identification requirements," they said.

Recently, the New York Times disclosed the existence of the Pentagon's so-called surrogates program, which provided secret briefings and information to retired military officers with ties to the network news ops at ABC, NBC, CBS and cable news nets Fox and CNN. The officers often appeared in newscasts as independent analysts offering assessments -- usually favorable -- of U.S. strategic operations in Iraq. The program has been suspended pending a review.

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