We might be in an age of social media, but cable news channels like Fox News, MSNBC, and CNN still have enormous influence in shaping mainstream narratives about war and U.S. foreign policy.
Therefore, it’s alarming that numerous “experts” that news channels bring on to explain war and conflict are actually — unbeknownst to news viewers — themselves cogs within the military-industrial complex, financially benefiting from weapons sales and war-making, even as they pose as impartial analysts. Moreover, news outlets tout the former government or military position of these “experts” as the basis for their expertise, all while leaving out their more recent and current positions where they profit from war.
This post profiles several of these talking war heads who have appeared on cable news or in major newspapers over the past several weeks, advocating hawkish positions around Israel’s war on Gaza and U.S. support for it, all while their connections to war profiteering — as board members of weapons companies, as corporate defense consultants, and directors of think tanks funded by weapons’ companies — go entirely undisclosed.
Unsurprisingly, the message of these “analysts” almost always comes down to one conclusion: a support for continued war and militarism.
This post builds upon earlier work by LittleSis that examined conflicts of interest of news analysts who war-mongered — inciting fear, spreading disinformation, supporting military intervention — around Syria and Iran all while failing to disclose their personal financial ties to defense companies. Indeed, many of those talking war heads we identified from the past decade are the exact same people appearing on major network news shows today supporting Israeli military escalation, backed by the U.S., on the people of Gaza. This post also builds upon vital reporting on these conflicts from The Lever and other outlets.
Below are some noteworthy “experts” with significant – yet typically undisclosed – ties to the military-industrial complex.
Jack Keane, a former Chief of Staff and Vice Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army, has appeared on Fox News in recent weeks, where he is introduced only as “Fox News senior strategic analyst and retired four-star general” and “Chairman of the Institute of the Study of War.”
In his news appearances, Keane has unabashedly called for more weapons sales to Israel. In October he told Fox viewers:
“Whatever the Israelis want, we should be giving them. I know they’ve asked for more interceptors to shoot down rockets and missiles. They want more bombs, obviously, for their fighter aircrafts. They want more offensive missiles for their fire aircraft. Whatever they need we should give them… Let’s give them what they need to win this war, period.”
Keane has also pushed back against any notion of a ceasefire. “We’re going to have to give Israel our backing because there will be calls, as soon as casualties start to mount, for a ceasefire,” he said. “That is not what the Israeli government is about.” He also told viewers to expect an Israeli operation that’s “going to take weeks and possibly months” and “is going to require some patience.”
Keane has also fear-mongered around Iran, claiming that it’s “calling the shots in Gaza,” and that he hopes the U.S. has privately told “the Iranians” that “we will come full throttle if they expand this war, that all of their proxies will be liable as a result of their expansion of the war.” He also pushes for U.S. involvement, saying that if Iran fires missiles toward Israel, “they may ask the United States to assist, and I don’t imagine any president could ever say no to that.”
But what’s not disclosed in Keane’s appearances as an “analyst” are his multiple personal ties to weapons companies.
Keane raked in millions in cash and stock payments serving on the Board of Directors of General Dynamics, the sixth-biggest defense corporation, from 2004 to 2018, which has long sold weapons to Israel.
According to the watchdog site Investigate, General Dynamics’ weapons “have repeatedly been used against Palestinian civilians, resulting in numerous casualties as well as mass destruction of homes and civilian infrastructure, including hospitals, schools, and water and electric systems.”
Moreover, according to investigative reporter Lee Fang, Keane also worked as a special adviser to Academi (previously known as the military contractor Blackwater), and has served as a “venture partner” with an investment firm called SCP Partners that works with defense contractors, including a company called........