War / Peace

Head Games with Media's Help

Submitted by Sheldon Rampton on

So confident is the U.S. military about a swift victory in Iraq that plans are already afoot to fly a CNN correspondent and a BBC reporter to the southern Iraqi city of Basra the moment it falls. "I'm not doing this so that the CNN correspondent gets another $100,000 in their salary," he said. "I'm doing it because the regime watches CNN. I want them to see what is happening." The plan is part of a psychological warfare campaign that the British officer called "white pys-ops." "Yes, we are using them," he said.

No
Main Source: 
Newsday, March 13, 2003
Topics: 
Iraq
Journalism
Propaganda
U.S. Government

TV Networks Continue to Ban Ads for Peace

Submitted by John Stauber on

"MTV has refused to accept a commercial opposing a war in
Iraq, citing a policy against advocacy spots that it says
protects the channel from having to run ads from any
cash-rich interest group whose cause may be loathsome. ... 'It is irresponsible for news organizations not to accept
ads that are controversial on serious issues, assuming they
are not scurrilous or in bad taste,' said Alex Jones,
director of the Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press,
Politics and Public Policy at Harvard. 'In the world we

No
Main Source: 
New York Times, March 13, 2003
Topics: 
Advertising
Iraq
Media

Reporters Warned to Leave Baghdad

Submitted by Sheldon Rampton on

Defense Department officials are warning reporters to clear out of Baghdad, saying this war will be far more intense than the 1991 gulf war. "If your template is Desert Storm, you've got to imagine something much, much different," said Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The Pentagon says it is warning journalists in the interest of their safety, but some critics see the heads-up as an attempt to control the news, with the goal of minimizing politically damaging images of suffering Iraqi civilians.

No
Main Source: 
Chicago Tribune, March 12, 2003
Topics: 
Iraq
Journalism
U.S. Government

Bill Kristol Is Going To Get His War

Submitted by John Stauber on

"Five years ago ... The
Weekly Standard made the broad, seemingly preposterous
assertion that America was entitled and even compelled to
engineer regime change in Iraq. But under the current
administration, driven by 9/11, that contention has become
conventional wisdom. ... 'I am impressed by their success,' said Senator John

No
Main Source: 
New York Times, March 11, 2003
Topics: 
Iraq
Think Tanks

No More French Fries for Congress

Submitted by John Stauber on

News outlets are gleefully reporting the renaming of French Fries in Congressional cafeterias, now to be called "Freedom Fries." (Parents are no doubt telling their kids, "Behave and get those Freedom Fries out of your nose or we're leaving right now!") The TV media are running with this story as part of the cheerleading buildup for a US attack on Iraq. No word yet whether European governments will retaliate by renaming All-American Hot Dogs as "Dogs of War."

No
Main Source: 
CNN, March 11, 2003
Topics: 
Iraq
Rhetoric
U.S. Government

Pentagon Ready For Primetime

Submitted by Laura Miller on

U.S. Military public affairs officers at Central Command in Qatar are putting the finishing touches on their media center. USA Today reports that a $250,000 briefing stage has been shipped in from Chicago at a cost of $47,000. "Painted battleship-gray and backed by a 38-foot repeating world map, the set has five plasma screens, two rear screen projectors, two podiums and five digital clocks, including one giving Baghdad time. Behind the set is a state-of-the-art control room that requires at least three service members to operate," USA Today writes.

No
Main Source: 
USA Today, March 9, 2003
Topics: 
Iraq
Propaganda
U.S. Government

Smart-mobbing the War

Submitted by Sheldon Rampton on

Largely unnoticed by the press, "hacktivists" like Eli Pariser have used the Internet to create what George Packer calls "an instantaneous movement. ... During the past three months it has gathered the numbers that took three years to build during Vietnam. It may be the fastest-growing protest movement in American history. ...

No
Main Source: 
New York Times, March 9, 2003
Topics: 
Activism
Internet
Iraq

New Warnings from FBI Whistleblower

Submitted by Sheldon Rampton on

Minneapolis FBI agent Colleen Rowley, who last year exposed the agency's mishandling of warning signs prior to September 11, has written a new letter to FBI director Robert Mueller, warning that "the diversion of attention from al-Qaeda to our government's plan to invade Iraq ... will, in all likelihood, bring an exponential increase in the terrorist threat to the U.S., both at home and abroad. ... It is altogether likely that you will find yourself a helpless bystander to a rash of 9-11s.

No
Main Source: 
Minneapolis Star-Tribune, March 6, 2003
Topics: 
Iraq
Terrorism
U.S. Government

Canadian Military Brass Get PR Lessons

Submitted by Laura Miller on

"Canada's military has launched a major effort to help senior officers express empathy during tragedies, avoid nervousness, craft sound bites, avoid gaffes and 'deflect' questions," CanWest News Service's Peter O'Neil reports. A critic of the effort says that the federal government should focus on policy and performance rather than spin, suggesting that the military believes "that we're going to be the author of a lot of bad news over the next while, or associated with a lot of bad news and, therefore, we better figure out how to spin it."

No
Main Source: 
Ottawa Citizen, March 6, 2003
Topics: 
International
Public Relations
War / Peace

The Green Side Of The Pentagon

Submitted by Laura Miller on

In an effort to "preserve Iraq's oil for the Iraqi people," the Pentagon plans to prevent the destruction of Iraq's oil fields by "securing" them as quickly as possible. "In light of past acts of eco-terrorism by the regime of Saddam Hussein, the Department of Defense has developed plans to extinguish oil well fires and to assess damage to oil facilities that might occur in Iraq in the event of hostilities," a DoD release states.

No
Main Source: 
Department of Defense, March 6, 2003
Topics: 
Iraq
Environment
U.S. Government

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