(Updated: Originally published November 3, 2006)
Talk about press intimidation and outright lies and fabrications!
"Pentagon Widens Its Battle to Shape News of Iraq War" by DAVID S. CLOUD and THOM SHANKER
WASHINGTON, Nov. 2 — The Pentagon is reorganizing its public affairs operation in an attempt to influence news coverage, amid internal frustration at the tone and substance of reporting on Iraq and on Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld.
The expanded office, which was first described by department officials in an informal press briefing on Monday, features a “rapid response unit” to react to news reports. It is also stepping up efforts to arrange appearances by department officials on talk radio and cable television, and to recruit “surrogates” who are not on the department’s payroll to defend its policies.
I thought Bush was called on the "covert propaganda" already via Armstrong Williams?
All effin' bread-and-circuses!
Same effin' propaganda continues, and always has! Nothing new here!
Officials involved say the new effort, which was conceived by Assistant Secretary of Defense Dorrance Smith, is not primarily a response to negative coverage but rather is aimed at more aggressively challenging articles and broadcasts deemed inaccurate and at making better use of podcasts, blogs and other new outlets.
“This is about the Department of Defense keeping the American people better informed about the nature of its operations, its activities, and its policies,” said Bryan Whitman, a Pentagon spokesman. “We would have to do this even if we were not nation at war.”
Yeah, it's known as inculcation and mind-control of a population through propaganda!
But officials have also begun responding within minutes to live television reports, calling reporters and producers to challenge their accuracy.... Though some of the techniques have been employed at the Pentagon for years, the new plan expands and formalizes their use.
In so doing, the Pentagon is adopting tactics more often associated with a political campaign, rather than the military, according to current and former officials familiar with the plan.
Oh, so the god-damned Pentagon and generals can wage a political campaign in the media about Iraq, but heaven help a grunt who even bleats a hint of unhappiness about the war!
Among those hired recently is Erin Healy, a former White House press spokeswoman, who has been brought on as a consultant to improve the department’s booking of radio and television appearances, according to Ms. Healy and Mr. Whitman. She began working for President Bush during his first campaign, in 2000, she said.
Mr. Smith is a former ABC News television producer who also worked in Baghdad as a media adviser to the Coalition Provisional Authority.
Flacks for Bush!
But let's hear from the queen fellator of Rumsfeld, CNN correspondent Barbara Starr:
Barbara Starr, a veteran Pentagon correspondent for CNN, said she was surprised last month to be challenged by press officers within minutes after completing a report on a Baghdad briefing where the military’s top spokesman called the results of recent security operations “disheartening.” Ms. Starr said she had called it a “stunning development” on the air.
“They objected to the tone during my live shot,” she said. “My view is that if a general says things are disheartening, that is news.”
So when is Barbara going to be labeled an "enemy combatant," or in Lynne Cheney's words, "a conveyor of terrorist propaganda?"
Is she worried at all, or is the MSM adversarial a FOOLEY?
Starr is still in the same position, one year later!
Initial plans and goals for the new public affairs organizations were spelled out in documents dated in August, including a set of slides for Mr. Smith to use in briefing Mr. Rumsfeld on the proposed operation.
As described by a Defense Department official who had access to the briefing slides, four new public affairs groups were to be organized, with a roster of about 27 people, including political appointees and contractors.
Mr. Rumsfeld has long been critical of the government’s efforts to respond to information disseminated by people sympathetic to Al Qaeda and other terrorist groups, who make use of the Internet and other technology networks and, as Mr. Rumsfeld often says, are not bound by rules of accuracy.
Is that the height of gall, or what? Rumsfeld lecturing us on accuracy!
From the UNREPENTANT, UNAPOLOGETIC, INHUMAN MONSTER THAT TOLD LIES, DISTRIBUTED PROPAGANDA, and CARRIES OUT FALSE-FLAG OPERATIONS to JUMPSTART THEIR INSANE WORLD DOMINATION PLANS!
I'm not sympathetic to "Al-CIA-Duh."
My sympathies lie with myself and the entire human race that is under the odious subjugation of these megalomaniacal mass-murderers!
But they were all up front about 9/11, right?
