Propaganda

"As the war seemingly comes to an end with US troops in the centre of Baghdad, the propaganda war from both sides has become even more desperate," writes Charles Whelan, a former New Labour flack, for PR Week's UK edition. "The Iraqi minister for information has had a job to do made more difficult by the hour. The poor man was forced into making statements at his daily press briefing about how the brave Iraqi troops had expelled the Americans from Saddam Hussein Airport.

"The front line in the war for hearts and minds in the Arab world and
beyond is here, at the U.S. Central Command headquarters and media
center," writes the New York Times' Nicholas Kristof from Doha, Qatar. Kristof gives the Bush administration credit for reaching out to the foreign press, noting that Al Jazeera was assigned a front row seat for press briefings while the Times was in the second row. But he suggests international journalists see through the spin.

"If till now the coalition forces have been the ones surprised by the apathy of the Iraqi population and the cool welcome given them, apparently it is now Saddam Hussein's turn to be surprised," writes Zvi Bar'el. "The initial pictures from the battle for Baghdad show Iraqi citizens starting to wave cautiously to the U.S. and British soldiers bearing down on the capital.

"In the good old days, the US used to tell a lie -- crass propaganda -- and it would stick for a long time. Journalists would have to scurry for months before they could expose the lies, but by then it would be almost irrelevant," writes London-based economist Paul de Rooij