The New York Times enterprise story on how media networks have been exploited by military analysts currying favor with the government received, um, no attention from the media.

Well, okay, a analysis of media coverage found two mentions of the story, and both were during the April 24 edition of PBS’ NewsHour.

So how come nobody has picked up what was arguably one of the biggest exposes of White House blunders?

Because the type of people that would pick up the story would’ve had to admit guilt. The cable news networks – all of them – invited armed service veterans on air to discuss the Bush administration’s military strategy, and in fact held many of them on their payroll, without knowing they were actually in bed with the White House.

(By delivering Bush’s talking points and countering negative reports about Iraq, Afghanistan, or anything else, the military experts received lucrative access to key officials and information, which they could then take to the defense industry contractors they also worked for.)

The same goes for scores of newspapers, who opened up their op-ed pages to what were essentially White House agents operating under the guise of unbiased, though pro-military, experts.