As reporter Sebastian Jones points out (see this and this), former Congressman Richard Gephardt runs a lobbying firm representing giant insurance and pharmaceutical companies. Retired General Barry McCaffrey sits on the board of a giant defense contractor, DynCorp, and lobbies for war. And many other "pundits" interviewed by the mainstream news are really high-level lobbyists for giant companies, pushing their agendas.

And yet they are treated as "independent experts" by the media. Indeed - 2 years after Jones asked the large networks why they don't have a disclaimer on the screen beneath the pundits' names saying who they really work for - nothing has been done. The corporate media are acting like virtual "escort services" for the powerful, selling access - for a price - to viewers and to powerful government officials, instead of actually investigating and reporting on what those in power are actually doing.

This is happens all over the world, even in Canada

From the Washington Blog:

http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2010/02/mainstream-media-refuses-to-disclose.html