Norman Solomon and Jeff Cohen have announced their latest "P.U.-litzer Prizes" for "stinkiest media performances of the year." Winners of the uncoveted award include:

• Michael Gordon of the New York Times, who previously used unnamed official sources to promote the invasion of Iraq with wildly inaccurate reports of Iraqi weapons programs, and used similar unnamed sources in 2007 to make a case for war with Iran.
• Chris Matthews of MSNBC's Hardball, for his fawning praise of U.S. presidential candidate Fred Thompson's "sex appeal" and "star quality."
• CBS correspondent Jeff Greenfield, for falsely claiming that Americans don't want government-funded healthcare.
• CNN's Lou Dobbs, for falsifying U.S. disease statistics to support his claim that illegal immigrants were bringing "once eradicated diseases" into the country.

"For US Army soldiers entering basic training at Fort Jackson Army base in Columbia, South Carolina, accepting Jesus Christ as their personal savior appears to be as much a part of the nine-week regimen as the vigorous physical and mental exercises the troops must endure," writes Jason Leopold. "At a time when the United States is encouraging greater religious freedom in Muslim nations, soldiers on the battlefield have told disturbing stories of being force-fed fundamentalist Christianity by highly controversial, apocalyptic 'End Times' evangelists, who have infiltrated US military installations throughout the world with the blessing of high-level officials at the Pentagon. Proselytizing among military personnel has been conducted openly, in violation of the basic tenets of the United States Constitution."

The war in Iraq is notable, observes Michael Massing, for the number of "books by soldiers" that have "appeared while the fighting was still going on -- accounts written not just by generals like Tommy Franks but also by lieutenants, sergeants, reservists, and privates. Such works have been largely ignored by the mass media, which is too bad, for they provide a grunt's-eye view of the war that is often far richer, and rawer, than anything available in our newspapers or on TV." Massing reviews a number of them, including Paul Reickhoff's ''Chasing Ghosts'' and Nathaniel Fick's ''One Bullet Away.'' Their first-hand accounts, Massing writes, provide a vivid reminder that "war is about killing." As Fick puts it, combat "nearly unhinged me." Worst of all were the "blanket accolades and thanks from people 'for what you guys did over there.' Thanks for what, I wanted to ask -- shooting kids, cowering in terror behind a berm, dropping artillery on people's homes?"

As a paid corporate lobbyist, U.S. presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani helped Purdue Pharma defend its illegal activities to promote the drug Oxycontin, according to New York Times reporters Barry Meier and Eric Lipton. "As a celebrity, Mr. Giuliani helped the company win several public relations battles, playing a role in an effort by Purdue to persuade an influential Pennsylvania congressman, Curt Weldon, not to blame it for OxyContin abuse," they write. "Despite these efforts, Purdue suffered a crushing defeat in May ... when the company and three top executives pleaded guilty to criminal charges. ... Together, they paid $634.5 million in fines and payments. After years of denial and a high-profile public relations campaign, the company was forced to admit that it had misled doctors and patients."