{"id":91,"date":"2005-12-01T04:34:17","date_gmt":"2005-12-01T11:34:17","guid":{"rendered":"\/?p=91"},"modified":"2007-05-11T12:37:02","modified_gmt":"2007-05-11T19:37:02","slug":"iraq-gets-a-dose-of-us-style-propaganda","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=91","title":{"rendered":"Iraq Gets A Dose Of U.S. Style Propaganda"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Los Angeles Times is reporting that the U.S. military is secretly paying Iraqi newspapers<\/a> to publish stories intended to portray operations there in a positive light. The stories are not disclosed to the local media as having been written by American troops. This is a valuable lesson in clandestine propaganda that the U. S. is offering, even as they publicly promote their efforts to train Iraqis in basic journalism, including a workshop titled “The Role of Press in a Democratic Society.” I would guess that the first day of class would be a lecture warning the students to, “Do as we say, not as we do.”<\/p>\n

The irony is stretched even further with the knowledge that just yesterday, Defense Secretary Don Rumsfeld held a press conference<\/a> where he said about Iraq…<\/p>\n

“The country is — has a free media, and they can — it’s a relief valve. They could have hundred-plus papers.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This breaking news about Iraq’s free media<\/em> comes from the same great free press advocate that appeared before the American Society of Newspaper Editors<\/a> in April of last year to say that…<\/p>\n

…the United States was founded “on the notion that an unchecked government is a major obstacle to human freedom.” and that American leaders must be “challenged, internally through the complex constitutional system of checks and balances, and externally by a free and energetic press.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Then, the next month, he famously declared<\/a> that…<\/p>\n

… “I’ve stopped reading newspapers…You’ve got to keep your sanity somehow. I’m a survivor.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

That was in response to the media coverage of the release of the Abu Ghraib prison abuse photos.<\/p>\n

What a shining example of consistency and integrity. The behavior of this Secretary of Defense makes the disclosure of the planted stories in Iraqi newspapers somewhat less than surprising. And this cabinet department is not alone as a producer of propaganda. Both the Education and Health and Human Services Departments have been found to be engaging in unlawful propaganda here at home. This must be what Bush means when he says he wants to export American democracy to the rest of the world.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Los Angeles Times is reporting that the U.S. military is secretly paying Iraqi newspapers to publish stories intended to portray operations there in a positive light. The stories are not disclosed to the local media as having been written by American troops. This is a valuable lesson in clandestine propaganda that the U. S. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1,8,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-91","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","category-propaganda","category-scandalous"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4Ijg-1t","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":240,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=240","url_meta":{"origin":91,"position":0},"title":"Propaganda Is Its Own Reward","author":"Mark NC","date":"9\/27\/2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Last year, a PR firm called the Lincoln Group, was hired by the Pentagon to bribe Iraqi newspapers to carry pre-packaged stories that put the U.S. and the war effort in a positive light. But two unrelated articles published today demonstrate that their effort was less than successful, and for\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":221,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=221","url_meta":{"origin":91,"position":1},"title":"The $20 Million Dollar TV Guide","author":"Mark NC","date":"9\/2\/2006","format":false,"excerpt":"America must be sleeping better tonight knowing that their government is ever vigilant of threats from unflattering news reports. An administration obsessed with perceptions is soliciting bids for a contract to monitor media reports about the war in Iraq. This $20 million dollar initiative will: \"provide continuous monitoring and near-real-time\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":874,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=874","url_meta":{"origin":91,"position":2},"title":"Mind War – The Pentagon’s Propaganda Assault On America","author":"Mark NC","date":"4\/21\/2008","format":false,"excerpt":"\"World War Three will be a guerrilla information war with no division between military and civilian participation.\" ~ Marshall McLuhan, 1968 The New York Times has now documented the sad prescience of McCluhan. In an in-depth examination of supposedly independent, retired military analysts, the Times' David Barstow has uncovered what\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":481,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=481","url_meta":{"origin":91,"position":3},"title":"71% Of Americans Hate America","author":"Mark NC","date":"6\/22\/2007","format":false,"excerpt":"A few days ago Gallup released a poll showing Congressional approval ratings at an all-time low of 24%. The media ate it up and flooded the zone with stories about the collapse of support for Democrats and their legislative agenda. They juxtaposed this message with another poll showing that the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1381,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=1381","url_meta":{"origin":91,"position":4},"title":"The Pentagon Approved Press Corps","author":"Mark NC","date":"8\/27\/2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Stars and Stripes is reporting a disturbing initiative emanating from the Pentagon's communications office: \"As more journalists seek permission to accompany U.S. forces engaged in escalating military operations in Afghanistan, many of them could be screened by a controversial Washington-based public relations firm contracted by the Pentagon to determine whether\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":601,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=601","url_meta":{"origin":91,"position":5},"title":"Tony Snow Celebrates Iraq","author":"Mark NC","date":"9\/13\/2007","format":false,"excerpt":"White House press secretary Tony Snow appeared on The O'Reilly Factor yesterday to discuss, amongst other things, the war in Iraq and the magical progress being achieved by General David Petraeus, whom Snow described as, \"the author of a plan that succeeded.\" Prior to introducing Snow, O'Reilly delivered his Talking\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=91"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=91"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=91"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=91"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}