The Ministry of Misinformation.

[The Backlash Cometh]

Was that the name of the organization that the Bush Administration was trying to intentionally set up, using the excuse that they wanted to confuse our foreign enemies?

I do know that the idea quickly died on the vine when it was received negatively, but do you think the Bush Administration just went covert with it?

And to what extent were the paid pundits part of a conspiracy to misinform? Are the two tied together?

[WritingIsMyReligion]

1. I dunno, but it really sounds like something straight from the pages of

1984.

:scared:

[The Backlash Cometh]

2. Yep. That was one of the criticisms.

[atommom]

3. Just like The Ministry of Truth, or MiniTrue.

[WritingIsMyReligion]

4. Yes, exactly. n/t

[leftofthedial]

5. they went ahead with it

It is called MSNBC, CNN, Faux, NBC, ABC, AP, UPI, Clear Channel, Sinclair

[unpossibles]

7. The Heritage Foundation

and many of the other tentacles of right-wing disinformation disguised as non-partisan think tanks. They've been around for some time, actually, and so far everything has gone according to plan. Well, except for all of the indictments coming.

[No Exit]

6. Here's your answer

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x2161010

[The Backlash Cometh]

8. I just found that thread and came back to cross-link the threads.

You beat me to it.

[The Backlash Cometh]

9. HOLY SHIT! I just read the whole thing. Listen to this:

The Future: The OGC, the Roadmap and 'Strategic Fusion' Perception management (the art of propaganda, misdirection and lies, if you will) is no longer discreetly hidden away in some dark wing of the intelligence or defense establishments: It has become firmly enshrined right down the hall from the Oval Office.

The Office of Global Communications (OGC) is centered in the White House. If there is a Ministry of Propaganda in the Bush administration, the OGC is it. As Gardiner notes: "The White House is at the center of the strategic communications process."

The OGC has two components: One committee deals with conducting the perception of the war on terrorism while a second committee concentrates on "more general" propaganda projects.

According to the Times of London, the exact dispensation of the OGC's $200 million operating budget is largely a mystery. It is known that the OGC spent $250,000 on its military pressroom in Doha.

[muriel_volestrangler]

10. So it use to be the "Office of Strategic Influence"

I love the contrast between the CNN and BBC stories about it:

New Pentagon office to spearhead information war

The Pentagon has established a new Office of Strategic Influence to market America's war on terrorism outside the United States, a Defense Department official said Tuesday.

The office will set up policies for information operations and warfare that will then be carried out by military specialists to "influence the hearts and minds of the opposition," the official said, adding that Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has yet to approve any plans for new information operations.
...
Although "information deception" -- deliberately spreading false or misleading information -- is a part of information warfare policy and doctrine, the Pentagon has no specific plans to undertake deceptive operations using the international news media, the official said.

He noted that deliberate misinformation could undermine U.S. credibility abroad. However, any deception effort is likely to be covert, he said.

http://archives.cnn.com/2002/US/02/19/gen.strategic.influence/

Pentagon plans propaganda war

The Pentagon is toying with the idea of black propaganda.

As part of George Bush's war on terrorism, the military is thinking of planting propaganda and misleading stories in the international media.

A new department has been set up inside the Pentagon with the Orwellian title of the Office of Strategic Influence.
...
The Pentagon is forbidden from spreading black propaganda in the American media, but there is nothing to stop an American newspaper picking up a story carried abroad.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/1830500.stm

On edit: reading the article more fully, I see that they dumped that name in favour of "Office of Global Communications".