U.S. Government

Journalists Frustrated With White House Secrecy

Submitted by Sheldon Rampton on

One of America's leading newspaper executives took the Bush administration to task Wednesday for what he termed an "unsettling trend toward governmental secrecy." Tony Ridder is chairman of the Newspaper Association of America, the industry's largest and most important trade organization. Speaking at an October 8 luncheon at the National Press Club, Ridder said the current fear, frustration and anger felt by many veteran journalists in the nation's capital is "unprecedented, even going back to the dark days of Watergate."

No
Main Source: 
Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, October 9, 2003
Topics: 
Journalism
Secrecy
U.S. Government

It's The Foreign Policy, Stupid

Submitted by Laura Miller on

"A severe lack of funding, convoluted bureaucracy, and a near-total absence of research and measurability are badly undermining US attempts to bolster its image via public diplomacy in Muslim countries, according to a report released last week by the Advisory Group on Diplomacy for the Arab and Muslim World," PR Week's Douglas Quenqua writes. The report, "Changing Minds, Winning Peace," recommendations include creating a cabinet-level foreign policy PR advisor to the President and an independent Corporation for Public Diplomacy to increase private-sector involvement.

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Main Source: 
PR Week, October 6, 2003
Topics: 
International
Public Relations
U.S. Government

The Spin War Trumps the War on Terror

Submitted by Sheldon Rampton on

The White House official who leaked the identity of CIA operative Valerie Plame did more than attack a political enemy, writes Shaun Waterman. Plame worked for the CIA "on the very issue the Bush administration says was at the heart of its decision to go to war with Iraq: weapons of mass destruction. ... Plame's outing, whomever did it, has damaged the very effort the White House said it was pursuing in going to war in the first place. A very important line has been crossed here. The integrity of the policy goals - non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction - is now seen by at least some in the White House as less important than the integrity of the message - we didn't exaggerate the case against Iraq. ... The message seems to have trumped everything, even the need to get it right in the war on terror." And as Walter Shapiro notes in USA Today, the Plame flap is only one of several scandalous recent developments related to the war in Iraq. "In the past week, three major Iraq-related developments should have, in theory, caused lasting embarrassment to the Bush administration," Shapiro writes. "But because none of these flaps touched on illegality, they have been treated as one-day stories."

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Main Source: 
Capitol Hill Blue, October 6, 2003
Topics: 
Iraq
Ethics
Politics
Secrecy
U.S. Government

Saying Bye-Bye to "Hi"

Submitted by Sheldon Rampton on

The U.S. State Department has launched Hi, a glossy, Arabic-language magazine intended to "build bridges of communication" between Arabs and the United States. Described by its editors as a non-political, lifestyle magazine, "Hi" features happy talk about topics such as sand-surfing, Internet dating, rock climbing and yoga.

No
Main Source: 
http://merip.org/mero/interventions/colla_interv.html
Topics: 
International
Propaganda
Secrecy
U.S. Government

Pentagon Honors Four Dead Journalists, Ignores Others

Submitted by John Stauber on

"Bush administration officials and U.S. news media chiefs met on a rain-swept Civil War battlefield on Wednesday to honor four American journalists who died in Iraq and Pakistan while reporting on the U.S. war on terrorism. ... Honored were Daniel Pearl ... and three journalists who traveled with U.S. fighting units in Iraq this year -- Michael Kelly of the Atlantic Monthly and Washington Post, David Bloom of NBC and Elizabeth Neuffer of the Boston Globe. ... Not mentioned were the five journalists killed by U.S.

No
Main Source: 
Reuters, October 1, 2003
Topics: 
Iraq
Journalism
U.S. Government

More Alarm at Plummeting U.S. Image

Submitted by Sheldon Rampton on

The United States must drastically increase and overhaul its public relations efforts to salvage its plummeting image among Muslims and Arabs abroad, says a panel chosen by the Bush administration. "Hostility toward America has reached shocking levels," states a new report by the United States Advisory Group on Public Diplomacy for the Arab and Muslim World. The report recommends a new White House office for foreign propaganda.

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Main Source: 
New York Times, October 1, 2003
Topics: 
International
Public Relations
U.S. Government

What the Iraqis Want

Submitted by Sheldon Rampton on

Top Bush administration officials have been citing a pair of public opinion polls conducted in Iraq to demonstrate that Iraqis have a positive view of the U.S. occupation, but Walter Pincus points out that the polls actually show Iraqis have a less enthusiastic view than the administration has portrayed. According to one poll, "only 33 percent thought they were better off than they were before the invasion and 47 percent said they were worse off," Pincus writes.

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Main Source: 
Washington Post, September 28, 2003
Topics: 
Iraq
Rhetoric
U.S. Government

The Other Lies of George Bush

Submitted by Laura Miller on

"George W. Bush is a liar. He has lied large and small, directly and by omission," David Corn writes in the Nation. "Bush's truth-defying crusade for war did not mark a shift for him. Throughout his campaign for the presidency and his years in the White House, Bush has mugged the truth in many other areas to advance his agenda. Lying has been one of the essential tools of his presidency. To call the forty-third President of the United States a prevaricator is not an exercise of opinion, not an inflammatory talk-radio device.

No
Main Source: 
The Nation, September 25, 2003
Topics: 
Ethics
Rhetoric
U.S. Government

Clarke Embedded at CNN

Submitted by Sheldon Rampton on

Victoria Clarke, the former Pentagon spokesperson credited with developing its journalist "embedding" strategy during the war in Iraq, has gone to work as a commentator for CNN. Clarke says that the Pentagon ought to reactivate the embedding program to counter negative media reports on the war.

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Main Source: 
Associated Press, September 22, 2003
Topics: 
Media
U.S. Government

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