Senator complains Pentagon grooming TV analysts

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A newspaper report that U.S. military analysts working for television networks were coached by the Pentagon provided "very clear evidence of conflicts of interest" at the Defense Department, a senior U.S. senator said on Tuesday.

Sen. Carl Levin, the Michigan Democrat who chairs the Senate Armed Services Committee, said he was sending Defense Secretary Robert Gates a letter urging him to make "sure access to the media is even, is not selective, they're not picking people for favorable treatment."

The New York Times on Sunday reported that retired senior officers received private briefings, trips and access to classified intelligence to influence their comments about the Iraq war on television networks.

"It's a very, very significant disclosure of the New York Times," Levin told reporters.

The newspaper quoted Robert Bevelacqua, a retired Green Beret and former Fox News analyst, as saying, "It was them (the Bush administration) saying, 'We need to stick our hands up your back and move your mouth for you.'"

A Pentagon spokesman told the Times that the analysts were only given factual information about the war in Iraq.

Levin also complained that some of the analysts were "apparently on the payroll of defense contractors and those defense contractors apparently believe they have special access" to the Pentagon.

(Reporting by Richard Cowan, Editing by Sandra Maler)