Now Everybody Do The Propaganda!

(nod to Green Day for the title)

I had a bunch of alternative names for this entry...But hey, that works as well as any of them.

I meant to grab this from the LA Times earlier today, but Reuters AlertNet does a nice job of condensing the Times piece down for the short attention span crowd like me ;)

It seems that your tax dollars(if you're a US citizen) are going to a special unit of the US military to funnel specially written pro-US 'news stories' to Iraqi media outlets. Isn't that a great idea?

From Reuters:

The newspaper also reported that the "Information Operations Task Force" in Baghdad has bought an Iraqi newspaper and taken control of a radio station, and was using them to disseminate pro-American views as well.

It said it based the story on interviews with U.S. military officials who spoke on condition of anonymity and with Iraqi newspaper employees, as well as documents it obtained.

Bryan Whitman, a Pentagon spokesman, said he could not say whether the story was true but some of what it described was "troubling" and he had asked military officials in Iraq for information.

"This article raises some questions as to whether or not some of the practices that are described in there are consistent with the principles of this department," he said.

The Times reported the program began this year. Records and interviews indicated that the articles were written in English, translated into Arabic and then given to Baghdad newspapers to print in return for payment.

Given the opportunity, I would have to ask Me. Whitman just what the hell are 'the principles of this department?'

The Pentagon, otherwise known as Rummy's Sphincter Shaped Playhouse™ doesn't appear to be above doing anything at this juncture.

The article goes on to detail the workings of the ironically named 'Lincoln Group,' the operational arm of the operation.

As we so often find, the best bits are near the bottom. This article follows the pattern. Reuters closes the article with this:

Earlier this year, the Bush administration came under criticism after federal agencies distributed video packages to American TV stations that could be broadcast as news stories.

The Government Accountability Office, an arm of Congress, has said those efforts could be seen as a form of "covert propaganda".

I remember those 'video packages'(ooh, fun!) all too well.

Whoever it was at the GAO that penned the "covert propaganda" phrase wins the pure bs "Truth of the Day" award(void where prohibited. does not include tax, title or destination fees)