My Take | Why do so many US intelligence chiefs become media pundits?
- Retiring from being in charge of intelligence, counter-intelligence and counterterrorism to working as mainstream news commentators, this has become an established career path in the US; now you can rest assured of the objectivity and independence of the world’s greatest democratic free press
Several angry readers have blasted me for even questioning the professionalism and objectivity of mainstream Western, especially American, journalism. Whatever faults and flaws such journalism suffers from, I quote from one hate fan, “it’s a damn sight better than the state-controlled and state-manipulated news media in China”.
Maybe she is right. But at least we all know media outlets in China are either owned or controlled and monitored by state authorities. It may be argued, and I do argue, it’s far more insidious when news outlets claim to be independent and objective when they are not.
Consider the following list. You be the judge.
John Brennan, former director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and chief counterterrorism adviser to then US president Barack Obama, has been a senior national security and intelligence analyst for NBC News and MSNBC since 2018.
James Clapper, former director of national intelligence, has been a national security analyst for CNN since 2017.