Propaganda

Filling Every Information Void

by Laura Miller — March 18, 2003 - 11:00pm

"Once the war starts, the [Bush] administration plans to fill every information void in the 24-hour worldwide news cycle, leaving little to chance or interpretation," writes the Washington Post's Karen DeYoung.

Main Source: 
Washington Post, March 19, 2003

Head Games with Media's Help

by Sheldon Rampton — March 12, 2003 - 11:00pm

So confident is the U.S. military about a swift victory in Iraq that plans are already afoot to fly a CNN correspondent and a BBC reporter to the southern Iraqi city of Basra the moment it falls. "I'm not doing this so that the CNN correspondent gets another $100,000 in their salary," he said. "I'm doing it because the regime watches CNN. I want them to see what is happening." The plan is part of a psychological warfare campaign that the British officer called "white pys-ops." "Yes, we are using them," he said.

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Newsday, March 13, 2003

US-Funded Radio Sawa Big Hit In Middle East

by Laura Miller — March 10, 2003 - 11:00pm

Within six months of going on the air Radio Sawa -- Sawa is the Arabic word for "coming together" -- has more listeners than BBC and local stations in Jordan according to the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), the U.S. government agency that oversees Radio Sawa and the Voice of America. The station broadcasts 24 hours-a-day from seven transmitters throughout the Middle East and features a mix of Arabic and Western pop music with news headlines every half-hour.

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Detroit Free Press, March 11, 2003

Secretive U.S. "Information" Office Back

by Sheldon Rampton — March 9, 2003 - 11:00pm

"A Cold War-era office with a shadowy name and a colorful history of exposing Soviet deceptions is back in business, this time watching Iraq," reports Connie Cass. "The Counter-Disinformation/Misinformation Team's moniker is more impressive than its budget. It's a crew of two toiling in anonymity at the State Department, writing reports they are prohibited by law from disseminating to the U.S. public. The operation has challenged some fantastic claims over the years -- a U.S.

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Associated Press, March 10, 2003

Pentagon Ready For Primetime

by Laura Miller — March 8, 2003 - 11:00pm

U.S. Military public affairs officers at Central Command in Qatar are putting the finishing touches on their media center. USA Today reports that a $250,000 briefing stage has been shipped in from Chicago at a cost of $47,000. "Painted battleship-gray and backed by a 38-foot repeating world map, the set has five plasma screens, two rear screen projectors, two podiums and five digital clocks, including one giving Baghdad time. Behind the set is a state-of-the-art control room that requires at least three service members to operate," USA Today writes.

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USA Today, March 9, 2003

Psyops in Iraq

by Sheldon Rampton — March 1, 2003 - 11:00pm

The U.S. has already launched psychological warfare operations in Iraq, including "leafleting, radio and TV broadcasts, even personal phone calls and e-mails, as well as secret techniques the public knows little about," reports Michael Kilian. "Since Jan. 18, U.S.

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Contra Costa Times, March 2, 2003

Star Witness on Iraq Said Weapons Were Destroyed

by Laura Miller — February 26, 2003 - 11:00pm

"On February 24, Newsweek broke what may be the biggest story of the Iraq crisis," FAIR writes. "In a revelation that 'raises questions about whether the WMD [weapons of mass destruction] stockpiles attributed to Iraq still exist,' the magazine's issue dated March 3 reported that the Iraqi weapons chief who defected from the regime in 1995 told U.N. inspectors that Iraq had destroyed its entire stockpile of chemical and biological weapons and banned missiles, as Iraq claims." The CIA denied the Newsweek story.

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Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting, February 27, 2003

State Department Requests Funding For Middle East TV Network

by Laura Miller — February 2, 2003 - 11:00pm

"The budget request for the State Department for 2004 reflects the changing foreign policy priorities of an administration set on winning the global war on terrorism and the hearts and minds of the countries where terrorists recruit," UPI's Eli J. Lake writes. "It includes $30 million to launch the Middle East Television Network, an Arabic language satellite station. Also, the budget will double funding for the Voice of America's Indonesia channel. ... Big losers in the budget include both big and small programs.

Main Source: 
UPI, February 3, 2003

HBO's Belated & Weak Retraction: Baby Killing a PR Hoax

by Sheldon Rampton — January 3, 2003 - 4:03pm

HBO Films has finally gotten around to admitting what PR Watch readers knew all along: "allegations of Iraqi soldiers taking babies from incubators (in 1990) ... were never substantiated." This fabrication by the Hill & Knowlton PR firm resurfaced in HBO's December docudrama, "Live from Baghdad" and was subsequently repeated as fact in the Washington Post.

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http://www.hbo.com/films/livefrombaghdad/related.shtml

A Lesson in U.S. Propaganda

by Sheldon Rampton — January 2, 2003 - 11:00pm

Last week U.N. weapons inspectors swooped in to inspect the Iraqi manufacturing plant that U.S. planes bombed in 1991. Iraq said the plant made infant milk formula; the U.S. said it made biological weapons. Mark Crispin Miller examines the evidence and concludes that Iraq's version was correct. Nevertheless, "Iraq, in trying to publicize the targeting of its civilian infrastructure, had engaged in clumsy propaganda (which backfired in the West), while the US counter-propaganda was apparently disinformation (which succeeded).

Main Source: 
Alternet, January 3, 2003
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