The Bush approach to freedom of the press has often really meant his freedom to bribe the press. Showing little respect for the role of an independent media, he attracted the scorn of critics for releasing video “news releases” designed to look like a TV news format. It paid large amounts of money to three columnists to promote administration policies. Then some blogger bozo whose pseudonym was Jeff Gannon lofted softball questions to the President during press conferences — all using an administration-granted press pass.
Then, the US sets up propaganda media stations — Radio Sawa, Hi magazine, and Al-Hurra TV — throughout the Middle East. Their missions are explicit — make the US look good.
Now, the LA Times first reported on the use of the Armstrong Williams tactic with the Iraqi press. The government paid Iraqi media to accept articles it wrote. The Information Operations Task Force in Baghdad “bought an Iraqi newspaper and took over a radio station to put out pro-U.S. messages.”
Though the General Accounting Office ruled the Williams’ payments as illegal covert propaganda, the government sees little problem with doing it in Iraq. Lt. Col. Barry Johnson, a military spokesman in Iraq, defended the program: it is “an important part of countering misinformation in the news by insurgents.” Right, the insurgents have the billion dollar media industry and thousands of professional PR propagandists. Those insurgents are just too media saavy!!
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