The Summit: Pentagon Propaganda Operations

[toymachines]

I wrote this for next weeks Summit publication for the Grossmont College Newspaper:

by toymachines
08 Dec, 2005

Last week it was made public that the Pentagon had been paying Iraqi Newspapers to print U.S. propaganda pieces disguised as articles written by true journalists.

The country's top military commander said Friday that a Pentagon propaganda program was part of an effort to "get the truth out" in Iraq. This unsettling Orwellian legitimization of propaganda was echoed by numerous U.S. politicians and pundits throughout the airwaves. The crime, they said, was that these propaganda operations were exposed. Typical of this administration and its supporters, the fault lies in getting caught.

The U.S. command is investigating whether "the process may be functioning in a manner different than is intended or appropriate." The concern of most people is the fact that the stories weren't identified as having been paid for by the U.S. military.

This is just another example of the disregard for free press that is inherent in Neo-Con controlled America. Recently, two British memos have surfaced which describe Bush-Blaire conversations in which Bush suggested that they should blow up the Al Jazeera news station, the largest Middle Eastern media organization. One memo could be explained away as joking (albeit a sick joke), but two are hard to refute.

Political analysts such as Pat Buchanan argued fervently in favor of the propaganda efforts, “our guys over there have got every right to have good news put into the media and get to the people of Iraq, even if it's got to be planted or bought.”

Democracy is fostered best in an environment conducive to freedom, honesty, and civil liberties. This secret planting of false or exaggerated stories does not promote the free flow of information. It is used as a means of influencing individual thought, and seriously destroys any credibility the U.S. has left in the Middle East, and the world. It is undermining our military’s daunting task of building a democracy in Iraq.

Worse yet, these planted articles often “blow back.” They are picked up by the press as if they were true, further weakening our “free press” in the U.S.

It seems that this administration has always been open about their uses of propaganda, or at least they haven’t been hiding it well. In the run-up to the war they hired a consulting firm to handle the public selling of the war. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld even attempted to create a special propaganda bureau called the Office of Strategic Influence, but he had to close it down amid reports it was putting out false information in an effort to sway public opinion. This 21st Century "war of ideas" is being waged against the people of the U.S.

Last spring it was exposed that the administration was paying conservative pundit Armstrong Williams hundreds of thousands of dollars to promote Bush’s “No Child Left Behind” program on his radio show, without disclosing the payment. Other schemes like this have been reported on since. This is outright propaganda in our midst. It makes one wonder how many times we have been deceived for the good of democracy in this time of war.

Matters of propaganda and torture are being defended by our leaders, as though they were crucial to democracy. Legendary journalist, Joseph Pulitzer, said that "our republic and its press will rise and fall together.” It is as if history and the wise words of every philosopher and political scientist on matters of freedom, liberty, and democracy have been ignored by our leaders, the media, and the people. What is it going to take to "wake" this country up, if we as a Nation and as a people aren't already outraged enough to protest en masse in the streets?

[jbfam4]

1. great article

thanks for posting this.

[Alonzo Fyfe]

2. Payola

Actually, what struck me with respect to this practice is its similarity to the "payola" scandle in the recording industry in the 1950s.

The "payola" scandle involved recording companies paying disk jockeys to slip their songs into the station's normal air time, in exchange for payments. There was nothing wrong with a station accepting money to play songs. They simply had to report that this was "sponsored air time."

What we seem to have here is a "payola" scandle with respect to the Iraq press.

It would seem that one of the things we want in Iraq is a free press, not a corrupt press. By involving itself in this payola-like scandle, the American military is contributing to the corruption of the Iraqi press. It is helping to establish a culture that is comfortable with bribing reporters to cover particular stories in particular ways.

The question then comes up: Is this practice consistent with our stated mission objectives in Iraq?

Alonzo Fyfe
Atheist Ethicist Blog

[grasswire]

3. remember....

...as Amy Goodman pointed out on MSNBC, one by-product of this planting of stories is the "blow-back" to the American press, when the stories are picked up here as if they were truthfully written by Iraqi journos.

This blow-back was developed to an art form during the Clinton impeachment years, when rumors and lies were planted in overseas news venues and then quoted here by the Washington Times, FOX News and other right-wing news outlets. Hillary Clinton called the process the Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy, you'll recall.