Rumsfeld Targets Blame at Lincoln Group

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Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld told international studies students he thought the media focused too much on the bad news in Iraq. "His criticism of the press, a theme to which Mr. Rumsfeld returns frequently in public and private statements, came only a few days after the Pentagon acknowledged that it had paid Iraqi newspapers to publish news articles that presented a positive view of developments in Iraq. That disclosure 'has been pounded in the media, Mr. Rumsfeld said. 'We don't know what the facts are yet,'" The New York Times reports. "[Rumsfeld] said blame for the propaganda program might rest with the Lincoln Group, the Washington-based public relations company that worked on the program under contract." He said that the question is whether the contractor was "implementing the policy properly."