Submitted by John Stauber on
"It's no coincidence that Americans, and others around the world, are echoing the exact same phrases and news bites at the same times with near-military precision. It's the result of a slickly orchestrated public relations campaign on the part of the military and the U.S. government that is borrowing the best practices of the corporate PR world. ... The PR industry, as many may know, was actually started by the military during World War I, when persuasive techniques were developed to recruit soldiers. 'After the [First World War] a lot of those [PR] people went to work for the private sector and are seen as the grandfathers of PR,' says Laura Miller, associate editor of PR Watch [and author of the article War Is Sell ].... "They were very up front about the fact that [in their opinion] in a democracy, public opinion needs to be controlled by a small number of people who know what's best for the public.' In the case of the war against Iraq, that means that there should be no confusion or dissent about the aims and progress of the war."
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