War / Peace

Pentagon Deals Out "PR Play of the Week"

Submitted by Laura Miller on

PR Week's "PR Play of the Week" goes to the Pentagon's limited edition playing cards, which the trade publication described as "part troop diversion and part Most Wanted poster." The cards features the pictures of the of 55 top members of the fallen Iraqi regime. "The deck's unveiling in and of itself would have amounted to a smart PR move, as the reporters stationed at the briefing center have grown restless in recent weeks from the perceived lack of real information and news coming from [Brig. Gen. Vincent] Brooks' daily briefings," PR Week writes.

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Main Source: 
PR Week, April 21, 2003
Topics: 
Iraq
Propaganda
U.S. Government

Saddam Did 9/11 -- The Big Lie Tactic Works Again

Submitted by John Stauber on

Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels observed that "the bigger the lie, the more people will believe it." The Big Lie technique has worked well in Bush's war on Iraq. The New York Times reports that "organizers of the antiwar movement lament how well the administration argued that there was a link between Al Qaeda and Iraq, playing on Americans' residual anger and fear after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

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Main Source: 
New York Times, April 20, 2003
Topics: 
Iraq
Ethics
Rhetoric
U.S. Government

How the White House Won the Spin War at Home

Submitted by John Stauber on

"The second Persian Gulf war was not only a runaway victory for the United States military, but for another aggressive force that fired off round-the-clock verbal cruise missiles: the White House communications operation. That is the assessment of the Bush administration's wartime public relations campaign by both its supporters and critics, who say the spin operation was extraordinarily successful in shaping a positive battlefield narrative, at least for American audiences. ... White House officials acknowledge that the communications effort in the Arab world largely failed...

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Main Source: 
New York Times, April 20, 2003
Topics: 
Iraq
Public Relations
U.S. Government

Pro-War Rally Gets PR Help

Submitted by Laura Miller on

"Shirley & Banister Public Affairs helped put together one of the largest pro-Bush rallies during the Iraq war on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., last Saturday, starring Republican heavyweights G. Gordon Liddy, former senator and actor Fred Thompson and Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol, among others," O'Dwyer's PR Daily reports. "The event, which drew between five and ten thousand people, was staged for longtime client Citizens United Foundation. ...

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Main Source: 
O'Dwyer's PR Daily, April 17, 2003
Topics: 
Right Wing
Iraq
Public Relations

Burson-Marsteller Buffs Iraqi National Congress Image

Submitted by Laura Miller on

"Burson-Marsteller is working to buff the image of the Iraqi National Congress," O'Dwyer's PR Daily reports. BKSH & Associates, Burson-Marsteller's lobbying wing is working for the Iraqi National Congress Support Foundation. With the assistance of the Pentagon, INC head Ahmad Chalabi and 'free Iraqi forces' arrived in Bagdad last week. Chalabi and the INC hope to be part of a new government in Iraq.

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Main Source: 
O'Dwyer's PR Daily, April 17, 2003
Topics: 
Iraq
Front Groups
Public Relations

Poetry Is Dangerous Again

Submitted by Sheldon Rampton on

New Mexico high school teacher Bill Nevins is fighting a March 17 suspension from his teaching job, after a student on his poetry team read an anti-war poem over the school's closed circuit TV system. School administrators have accused him of "permitting" students to participate in after-hours poetry contests at a local bookstore without school permission. (Kids these days. Why can't they just watch TV like decent folks?)

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Main Source: 
Urbana-Champaign Independent Media Center, April 17, 2003
Topics: 
Arts / Culture
War / Peace

Poster Boy for War

Submitted by Sheldon Rampton on

Just when you thought American TV couldn't stoop any lower, now we have the plight of Ali Abbas, a 12-year-old Iraqi boy who lost both of his arms, along with his parents, three siblings and ten other relatives, in a missile strike on Baghdad. Now he has become "a redemption story, the kind we like," muses Joan Walsh. The U.S. military has flown him to Kuwait, where reporters are breathlessly following his medical treatment. "But some of the stories have tried to deal with an uncomfortable fact. Ali is, um, well, he's angry at the U.S. for killing his family," Walsh writes.

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Main Source: 
Salon.com, April 17, 2003
Topics: 
Iraq
Journalism
Ethics

Neo-Nazi Hoax Exploits Iraqi War Bias

Submitted by Sheldon Rampton on

An anti-Semitic web site called the "Barnes Report" is distributing fake whistleblower memos on media bias in the Iraq war that attempt to exploit public skepticism about the accuracy of U.S. news coverage. Excerpts from the alleged memos appear on a series of web pages titled "Controlling the News." The "memos" instruct reporters to avoid showing scenes of violence from the war and to stress images that depict U.S. policy in a favorable light.

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Main Source: 
http://www.disinfopedia.org/wiki.phtml?title=Fake_whistleblower_memos_on_media_b…
Topics: 
Right Wing
Iraq
Propaganda
Race / Ethnic Issues

MSNBC & CNN Imitating the Far-Right 'Fox Effect'

Submitted by John Stauber on

The New York Times reports on the 'Fox Effect' of MSNBC and CNN imitating Fox's vicious style of biased, nationalistic reporting. "...[I]t has been the Fox News Channel, owned by [Rupert Murdoch's] News Corporation, that has emerged as the most-watched source of cable news by far, with anchors and commentators who skewer the mainstream media, disparage the French and flay anybody else who questions President Bush's war effort. ... Fox's formula had already proved there were huge ratings in opinionated news with an America-first flair.

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Main Source: 
New York Times, April 16, 2003
Topics: 
Right Wing
Iraq
Media

Baseball, Tim Robbins, and Apple Pie

Submitted by Sheldon Rampton on

"A chill wind is blowing in this nation," actor Tim Robbins told the National Press Club. "A message is being sent through the White House and its allies in talk radio and Clear Channel and Cooperstown. If you oppose this administration, there can and will be ramifications." But Robbins, who was uninvited to the Baseball Hall of Fame in retaliation for his anti-war views, is optimistic. "It doesn't take much to shift the tide," he said.

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Main Source: 
Common Dreams, April 15, 2003
Topics: 
Iraq
Arts / Culture

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