U.S. Government

Department of Justice Plugs USA Patriot Act

Submitted by Laura Miller on

"The Department of Justice is going on the offensive against critics of the USA Patriot Act," PR Week reports. Civil liberties advocates criticize the legislation for removing checks on law enforcement and undermining Constitutional rights, prompting some state and local governments to pass resolutions condemning the act. "Attorney General John Ashcroft and department spokespeople are now aggressively speaking out to the public and the press with an eye toward setting the record straight," PR Week writes.

No
Main Source: 
PR Week, July 28, 2003
Topics: 
Human Rights
U.S. Government

White House Fumbles On 16-Word Crisis

Submitted by Laura Miller on

"If President Bush's White House is known for anything, it is competence at delivering a disciplined message and deftness in dealing with bad news," Washington Post's Dan Balz and Walter Pincus write. "That reputation has been badly damaged by the administration's clumsy efforts to explain how a statement based on disputed intelligence ended up in the president's State of the Union address." The shifting White House story about it's references to Iraq, Niger and uranium continues to draw attention to the Bush administration deception.

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Main Source: 
Washington Post, July 24, 2003
Topics: 
Crisis Management
Iraq
Propaganda
U.S. Government

Dissent in Stars and Stripes

Submitted by Sheldon Rampton on

"As frustration over their lengthening deployment grows among troops in Iraq, soldiers are smacking head-on into limits on their public speech," writes Steve Liewer, a correspondent for the European version of Stars and Stripes magazine. Troops interviewed in Germany and Iraq say they have been briefed to refer questions to a public affairs specialist and that soldiers have been getting in trouble for speaking out. "I'm not comfortable telling you what I really think, and I'm not going to lie to you, so it's better if I just don't say anything," said one soldier.

No
Main Source: 
Stars and Stripes, July 22, 2003
Topics: 
Iraq
Secrecy
U.S. Government

Hyping A Hero

Submitted by Laura Miller on

"Jessica Lynch, the wounded Army private whose ordeal in Iraq was hyped into a media fiction of U.S. heroism, was set for an emotional homecoming on Tuesday in a rural West Virginia community bristling with flags, yellow ribbons and TV news trucks," Reuters reports. "But when the 20-year-old supply clerk arrives by Blackhawk helicopter to the embrace of family and friends, media critics say the TV cameras will not show the return of an injured soldier so much as a reality-TV drama co-produced by U.S. government propaganda and credulous reporters.

No
Main Source: 
Reuters, July 22, 2003
Topics: 
Iraq
Media
Propaganda
U.S. Government

Dead But Not Counted

Submitted by Sheldon Rampton on

According to Thursday's press and television reports, 33 U.S. soldiers have died in combat since President Bush declared an end to the major fighting in the war on May 2. Actually the numbers are much worse -- and rarely reported by the media. According to official military records, the number of U.S. soldiers who have died in Iraq since May 2 is actually 85. This includes a staggering number of non-combat deaths. "Even if killed in a non-hostile action, these soldiers are no less dead, their families no less aggrieved," observes Greg Mitchell.

No
Main Source: 
Editor & Publisher, July 17, 2003
Topics: 
Iraq
U.S. Government

Shut Up and Fight

Submitted by Sheldon Rampton on

General John Abizaid, the new chief of U.S. Central Command, has issued a threat aimed at U.S. soldiers who complain publicly about the situation in Iraq. "Some U.S. troops in Iraq have complained publicly about the uncertainty of when they are returning home," write Will Dunham and Michael Georgy. "A group of soldiers aired their concerns on U.S. television on Wednesday, speaking of poor morale and disillusionment with Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

No
Main Source: 
ABC News, July 17, 2003
Topics: 
Iraq
Propaganda
Secrecy
U.S. Government

Playing With a Full Deck

Submitted by Sheldon Rampton on

"A high school teacher, fed up with the Bush administration's popular playing cards featuring Saddam Hussein, 'Chemical Ali' and other most-wanted Iraqis, is now selling her own deck, 'Operation Hidden Agenda,'" writes Kim Curtis. "Kathy Eder's 55 playing cards show pictures of President Bush, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and others along with quotes, mostly from journalists, questioning the rationale for the U.S.-led war.

No
Main Source: 
Associated Press, July 15, 2003
Topics: 
Left Wing
Iraq
Propaganda
U.S. Government

Rewriting History

Submitted by Sheldon Rampton on

"We gave him a chance to allow the inspectors in, and he wouldn't let them in." George W. Bush uttered that amazing sentence yesterday to justify the war in Iraq, according to the Washington Post. "Now a presidential statement so frontally at variance with the universally acknowledged facts obviously presents a problem for the White House press corps," comments Joe Conason.

No
Main Source: 
Salon.com, July 15, 2003
Topics: 
Iraq
Journalism
Ethics
U.S. Government

U.S. Sends 'Hi' To Middle East

Submitted by Laura Miller on

The U.S. State Department's new Arabic-language magazine hits newsstands in the Middle East this week. Hi magazine "will dispel misinformation and misconceptions about the United States by focusing on similarities between American and Middle Eastern cultures with articles about lifestyle, technology and health," the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports. "We're fighting a war of ideas as much as a war on terror," Tucker Eskew, deputy assistant to the president and director of the White House Office of Global Communications, said during a visit to Atlanta.

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Main Source: 
Atlanta Journal-Constitution, July 15, 2003
Topics: 
International
Public Relations
U.S. Government

End Of The Ari Era

Submitted by Laura Miller on

White House press secretary Ari Fleischer today ended his two-and-a-half-year tenure as the President's top spokesperson. The man who New York Times' Elisabeth Bumiller wrote "often displayed the charm of a cold glass of water behind the briefing room lectern" looks forward to becoming a well paid after-dinner speaker and starting his own Washington consulting firm, Ari Fleischer Communications, that will advise corporate executives on handling the news media.

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Main Source: 
New York Times, July 14, 2003
Topics: 
Public Relations
U.S. Government

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