Rhetoric

Gay-Bashing Provocateurs

by Sheldon Rampton — October 29, 2003 - 11:00pm

A gay-bashing, right wing student newspaper at Roger Williams University in Rhode Island offers a fresh example of the conservative media's strategy of "publicizing censorship of their papers" so they can "cast themselves as the little guy up against the leftist establishment." The Hawk's Right Eye provoked the university administration into clamping down by running nasty attacks on Judy Shepard, whose son was beaten to death in Wyoming for being gay.

Main Source: 
Student Press Law Center, October 30, 2003

This is Your Brain on Public Relations

by Sheldon Rampton — October 27, 2003 - 11:00pm

The Environmental Working Group has obtained and analyzed documents from a briefing book assembled by Frank Luntz, a top public opinion researcher for corporate lobbyists. The briefing book offers a PR playbook on how to frame the current wholesale rollback of environmental and public health protections while avoiding a stinging public backlash.

Main Source: 
Alternet, October 28, 2003

Right Wing Collegians

by Sheldon Rampton — October 26, 2003 - 11:00pm

The student editor of the California Patriot, a right-wing student newspaper at the University of California-Berkeley, claims that conservatives are the true heirs to the university's free speech movement of the 1960s. "The conservatives on Berkeley's campus have employed various strategies in order to insert their views -- whether they're wanted or not -- into campus debates," writes Michael Gaworecki.

Main Source: 
Wiretap Magazine, October 27, 2003

Mind Games and Word Games

by Sheldon Rampton — October 12, 2003 - 11:31pm

The NATO Review has published an essay by Lieutenant-Colonel Steven Collins, the chief of PSYOPS (psychological operations) in NATO's Operations Division at Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe. Titled "Mind Games," the essay examines the use of "perception-management operations before, during and after Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Main Source: 
NATO Review, Summer 2003

Bestselling Books Bash Bush

by Sheldon Rampton — October 6, 2003 - 10:00pm

Bookstore display tables give the distinct impression there is a lot of lying going on in America these days, with President George W. Bush and his top advisers portrayed as the main culprits. Bestsellers include The Lies of George W.

Main Source: 
Reuters, October 7, 2003

Blair 'Knew Iraq WMD Claim Wrong'

by Laura Miller — October 4, 2003 - 10:00pm

"British Prime Minister Tony Blair privately admitted before the Iraq war that Saddam Hussein had no weapons of mass destruction that could be used within 45 minutes, former Foreign Secretary Robin Cook has claimed," CNN International reports. Cook resigned his government post in protest of British involvement in Iraq. The Sunday Times of London published excerpts of Cook's new book, "Point of Departure," based on his diaries kept during the run-up to war.

Main Source: 
CNN International, October 5, 2003

PR Guru Says Iraq Occupation Needs a Marketing Makeover

by John Stauber — September 27, 2003 - 10:00pm

What should President Bush do now that the propaganda that deceived a nation into war is being exposed? G. Clotaire Rapaille, a marketing expert whose work we describe in our book Weapons of Mass Deception, told the New York Times that "The important thing is to tell a story. 'I would have an Iraqi child, and I would make a hero of this child. And then we have him on television telling, `Today I went to school, I talked to my grandmother, and this is what my future is going to be now.

Main Source: 
New York Times, September 29, 2003

What the Iraqis Want

by Sheldon Rampton — September 27, 2003 - 10:00pm

Top Bush administration officials have been citing a pair of public opinion polls conducted in Iraq to demonstrate that Iraqis have a positive view of the U.S. occupation, but Walter Pincus points out that the polls actually show Iraqis have a less enthusiastic view than the administration has portrayed. According to one poll, "only 33 percent thought they were better off than they were before the invasion and 47 percent said they were worse off," Pincus writes.

Main Source: 
Washington Post, September 28, 2003

The Other Lies of George Bush

by Laura Miller — September 24, 2003 - 10:00pm

"George W. Bush is a liar. He has lied large and small, directly and by omission," David Corn writes in the Nation. "Bush's truth-defying crusade for war did not mark a shift for him. Throughout his campaign for the presidency and his years in the White House, Bush has mugged the truth in many other areas to advance his agenda. Lying has been one of the essential tools of his presidency. To call the forty-third President of the United States a prevaricator is not an exercise of opinion, not an inflammatory talk-radio device.

Main Source: 
The Nation, September 25, 2003

Key Phrase Dropped From Dodgy Dossier

by Laura Miller — September 22, 2003 - 10:00pm

"The British intelligence chief responsible for a pre-war dossier on Iraq's weapons dropped a key sentence from it days before publication after prompting from Downing Street," Reuters reports.

Main Source: 
Reuters, September 23, 2003
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