Submitted by John Stauber on
PR Week commentator Paul Holmes writes that "the 'embedding' of reporters in military units is the most brilliant
strategic decision of this entire campaign, since its effect appears to
be the transformation of usually intelligent reporters into Pentagon
[Public Relations Officers]. As someone in the administration obviously realised, it's hard to
hold on to journalistic integrity when you're dependent for continued
survival on the people you're supposed to be covering. ... Then there's the brand name for this conflict: Operation Iraqi Freedom. ... It's possible, I suppose, that Iraqi freedom might be a by-product of
this campaign, but to pretend that it's what the exercise is all about
is intellectual dishonesty at its most perverse. ... But the most Orwellian usage of all has been the recent application of
the word 'relevance', as in 'the United Nations faced a test of its
relevance, and failed'. Relevance, in this context, means willingness to
rubberstamp whatever demands the US makes. If that sounds very much like
irrelevance to you, perhaps you don't understand the might-makes-right
world in which we are living. ... For a student of propaganda, these are rich times indeed."
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