From: "Rich Gauszka" 

Oh - so you're saying the White House concern is pretence? Business as usual?


"Mark"  wrote in message
news:438fa0df$1{at}w3.nls.net...
> Of course they are Rich, gimme a break -- they have to put the best face
> on it now that the press has made a big deal out of nothing.  the outrage at al Jazeera airing the terrorists propaganda? Propaganda
> that includes severed heads...>
>
>
> "Rich Gauszka"  wrote in message
> news:438f9bbd{at}w3.nls.net...
>> Well John Warner and the White House seem to be upset. Did they join the
>> wasteland of western media?
>>
>> "We're very concerned about the reports. We are seeking more
information
>> from the Pentagon," said White House spokesman Scott McClellan.
>>
>>
>>
>> "Gary Britt"  wrote in message
>> news:438f2843$1{at}w3.nls.net...
>>>I would be upset if they weren't doing this.  In a country where the
>>>number
>>> of media liars are exponentially larger than the majority liars of the
>>> media
>>> in this country, it is absolutely a great idea to try and counter all
>>> that
>>> disinformation that is being PAID for by the anti-USA elements in the
>>> region.
>>>
>>> This is really a non-story of all non-stories.  Except in the baron
>>> wasteland of the minds of western media.
>>>
>>> Gary
>>>
>>> "Rich Gauszka"  wrote in message
>>> news:438e93f5$1{at}w3.nls.net...
>>>> Since the Bushies can't seem to get the Iraqi equivalent
of dupes like
>>>> FoxNews to spread their feelgood  propaganda in Iraq they've had to
>>>> resort
>>>> to good ol American capitalism - bribes and payola
>>>>
>>>> http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/01/politics/01propag
>>>>
anda.html?hp&ex=1133499600&en=3af8aaf9fa1cb0bc&ei=5094&partner=homepage
>>>>
>>>> WASHINGTON, Nov. 30 - Titled "The Sands Are Blowing
Toward a Democratic
>>>> Iraq," an article written this week for publication
in the Iraqi press
>>>> was
>>>> scornful of outsiders' pessimism about the country's future.
>>>>
>>>> "Western press and frequently those self-styled
'objective' observers
>>>> of
>>>> Iraq are often critics of how we, the people of Iraq, are proceeding
>>>> down
>>>> the path in determining what is best for our nation,"
the article
>>>> began.
>>>> Quoting the Prophet Muhammad, it pleaded for unity and nonviolence
>>>>
>>>> But far from being the heartfelt opinion of an Iraqi writer, as its
>>> language
>>>> implied, the article was prepared by the United States
military as part
>>>> of
>>> a
>>>> multimillion-dollar covert campaign to plant paid propaganda in the
>>>> Iraqi
>>>> news media and pay friendly Iraqi journalists monthly stipends,
>>>> military
>>>> contractors and officials said.
>>>>
>>>> The article was one of several in a storyboard, the
military's term for
>>>> a
>>>> list of articles, that was delivered Tuesday to the Lincoln Group, a
>>>> Washington-based public relations firm paid by the
Pentagon, documents
>>> from
>>>> the Pentagon show. The contractor's job is to translate the articles
>>>> into
>>>> Arabic and submit them to Iraqi newspapers or advertising agencies
>>>> without
>>>> revealing the Pentagon's role. Documents show that the
intended target
>>>> of
>>>> the article on a democratic Iraq was Azzaman, a leading independent
>>>> newspaper, but it is not known whether it was published there or
>>>> anywhere
>>>> else.
>>>>
>>>> Even as the State Department and the United States Agency for
>>> International
>>>> Development pay contractors millions of dollars to help train
>>>> journalists
>>>> and promote a professional and independent Iraqi media,
the Pentagon is
>>>> paying millions more to the Lincoln Group for work that appears to
>>>> violate
>>>> fundamental principles of Western journalism.
>>>>
>>>> In addition to paying newspapers to print government propaganda,
>>>> Lincoln
>>> has
>>>> paid about a dozen Iraqi journalists each several hundred dollars a
>>>> month,
>>> a
>>>> person who had been told of the transactions said. Those journalists
>>>> were
>>>> chosen because their past coverage had not been antagonistic to the
>>>> United
>>>> States, said the person, who is being granted anonymity because of
>>>> fears
>>> for
>>>> the safety of those involved. In addition, the military storyboards
>>>> have
>>> in
>>>> some cases copied verbatim text from copyrighted publications and
>>>> passed
>>> it
>>>> on to be printed in the Iraqi press without attribution,
documents and
>>>> interviews indicated.
>>>>
>>>> In many cases, the material prepared by the military was given to
>>>> advertising agencies for placement, and at least some of
the material
>>>> ran
>>>> with an advertising label. But the American authorship and financing
>>>> were
>>>> not revealed.
>>>>
>>>> Military spokesmen in Washington and Baghdad said
Wednesday that they
>>>> had
>>> no
>>>> information on the contract. In an interview from Baghdad
on Nov. 18,
>>>> Lt.
>>>> Col. Steven A. Boylan, a military spokesman, said the Pentagon's
>>>> contract
>>>> with the Lincoln Group was an attempt to "try to get
stories out to
>>>> publications that normally don't have access to those kind
of stories."
>>> The
>>>> military's top commanders, including Gen. Peter Pace, the
chairman of
>>>> the
>>>> joint chiefs of staff, did not know about the Lincoln Group contract
>>>> until
>>>> Wednesday, when it was first described by The Los Angeles
Times, said a
>>>> senior military official who was not authorized to speak publicly.
>>>>
>>>> Pentagon officials said General Pace and other top officials were
>>> disturbed
>>>> by the reported details of the propaganda campaign and demanded
>>> explanations
>>>> from senior officers in Iraq, the official said.
>>>>
>>>> When asked about the article Wednesday night on the ABC News program
>>>> "Nightline," General Pace said, "I would be
concerned about anything
>>>> that
>>>> would be detrimental to the proper growth of democracy."
>>>>
>>>> Others seemed to share the sentiment. "I think it's
absolutely wrong
>>>> for
>>> the
>>>> government to do this," said Patrick Butler, vice
president of the
>>>> International Center for Journalists in Washington, which conducts
>>>> ethics
>>>> training for journalists from countries without a history of
>>>> independent
>>>> news media. "Ethically, it's indefensible."
>>>>
>>>> Mr. Butler, who spoke from a conference in Wisconsin with Arab
>>> journalists,
>>>> said the American government paid for many programs that
taught foreign
>>>> journalists not to accept payments from interested parties to write
>>> articles
>>>> and not to print government propaganda disguised as news.
>>>>
>>>> "You show the world you're not living by the
principles you profess to
>>>> believe in, and you lose all credibility," he said.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>
>

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