Open Editorialization = Propaganda

Private Military Contractors Writing the News? The Pentagon's Propaganda at Its Worst

Friday 17 October 2008

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by: Liliana Segura, AlterNet

A newsstand in Baghdad. The Department of Defense will pay private contractors $300 million over the next three years to produce media for Iraqi outlets. (Photo: Joao Silva / The New York Times)

Less than a week after the Washington Post reported that the Department of Defense will pay private contractors $300 million over the next three years to "produce news stories, entertainment programs and public service advertisements for the Iraqi media in an effort to 'engage and inspire' the local population to support U.S. objectives and the Iraqi government," Virginia Sen. Jim Webb wrote a strongly worded letter to Defense Secretary Robert Gates. "I have serious reservations about the need for this expenditure in today's political and economic environment," he wrote. "Consequently, I am asking that you put these contracts on hold until the Armed Services Committee and the next administration can review the entire issue of U.S. propaganda efforts inside Iraq."

Emphasis mine!

Where can I get a piece of the THREE HUNDRED MILLION DOLLAR pork pie? For writing 'feel-good' rhetoric to convince the Iraqi's that they are doing well???

...the declaration of the "War on Terror" itself. It's a project the Bush administration has always approached as a PR campaign as much as a military one.

Tell that to the brave young men and women who are actually on the ground.

Selling the War to Americans

Perhaps one of the Bush administration's most egregious PR undertakings in the war on Iraq was revealed this spring, when the New York Times blew the lid off the Pentagon's military analyst program, in which more than 75 retired military officials were recruited to spout pro-war rhetoric on major networks in the run-up to the invasion of Iraq.

Is this really the price of Petroleum Politics???? Wouldn't we be better served by supporting American social programs that have recently been gutted by our OUR economic downturn???

Why do I even have to ask questions like these?

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I am going to vote for Barack Obama.
I am William "Papa" Meloney and I endorse this message.