Rumsfeld Targets Blame at Lincoln Group

Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld told international studies students he thought the media focused too much on the bad news in Iraq. "His criticism of the press, a theme to which Mr. Rumsfeld returns frequently in public and private statements, came only a few days after the Pentagon acknowledged that it had paid Iraqi newspapers to publish news articles that presented a positive view of developments in Iraq. That disclosure 'has been pounded in the media, Mr. Rumsfeld said. 'We don't know what the facts are yet,'" The New York Times reports. "[Rumsfeld] said blame for the propaganda program might rest with the Lincoln Group, the Washington-based public relations company that worked on the program under contract." He said that the question is whether the contractor was "implementing the policy properly."