Sock Puppets.

Anytime someone says something on TV, remember: whoever asked them to speak already knew what they were going to say and why they were going to say it. This is just up at the Times, and it’s probably going to cause a stir.

The Times successfully sued the Defense Department to gain access to 8,000 pages of e-mail messages, transcripts and records describing years of private briefings, trips to Iraq and Guantánamo and an extensive Pentagon talking points operation.

These records reveal a symbiotic relationship where the usual dividing lines between government and journalism have been obliterated.

Internal Pentagon documents repeatedly refer to the military analysts as “message force multipliers” or “surrogates” who could be counted on to deliver administration “themes and messages” to millions of Americans “in the form of their own opinions.”

I’m not going to have time to read this all tonight, but my prediction is that everyone is going to read this and realize that this conflict of interests is exactly what someone should have asked about years ago.