Submitted by Laura Miller on
The Washington Post reports the picture-perfect turkey George W. Bush held in front-page photos of his Thanksgiving jaunt to Baghdad was actually a decoration. Instead of being served slices of the golden-brown bird by the President, troops were served from cafeteria steam trays.
Submitted by John Stauber on
Democracy Now! featured a debate between Lauri Fitz-Pegado, the account supervisor for Hill & Knowlton's PR campaign on behalf of "Citizens for a Free Kuwait," and John Stauber, co-author of Weapons Of Mass Deception and Toxic Sludge Is Good For You.
Submitted by Sheldon Rampton on
The British wing of the Save the Children charity was ordered to stop critizing the U.S.-led coalition's military occupation of Iraq, after it issued a statement saying that "lack of cooperation from the coalition forces is a breach of the Geneva conventions and its protocols, but more importantly the time now being wasted is costing children their lives." Kevin Maguire reports that the incident exposed "tensions within an alliance that describes itself as 'the world's largest independent global organisation for children' but which is heavily reliant on governments and big business for cash
Submitted by John Stauber on
The Bush Administration has been doing its best to paint a happy face on the Iraq occupation but reality keeps getting in the way. The New York Times reports today that even in Mosul, a city 'once so promising,' the current American military 'crackdown is draining away much of the goodwill that remains.' Earlier this month a leaked CIA report warned that resistance to the US occupation is growing among ordinary Iraqis, leading to a new US plan to speed up transfer of power to Iraqis.
Submitted by Sheldon Rampton on
"Freedom of the press is beginning to smell a little rotten in the new Iraq," reports Robert Fisk, listing some of the fatwas that U.S. Proconsul Paul Bremer has issued against Al Jazeera and other Arab media. "Things are no better in the American-run television and radio stations in Baghdad. The 357 journalists working from the Bremer palace grounds have twice gone on strike for more pay and have complained of censorship.
Submitted by John Stauber on
A Buzzflash editorial rips and deconstructs the latest propaganda effort to link Saddam to 9/11, noting: "the charge that Saddam Hussein was connected to Osama bin Laden, which was recently denied by Bush himself, was resurrected last week in the Weekly Standard. The Standard, owned by Rupert Murdoch, is the 'intellectual' Neo-con bed of radical ideas, subversive to American Democracy. It is kind of like a Pravda for Neo-cons with advanced degrees.
Submitted by Sheldon Rampton on
Georgia Military College officials sent out a news release earlier this week inviting reporters to hear a speech by a helicopter pilot involved in Jessica Lynch's rescue. When they came, however, the college informed them that the pilot, Marine Maj. Craig Kopel, didn't want the news media around. When reporters stayed, hoping to interview and photograph Kopel, the college said they were trespassing and called the police on them.
Submitted by Sheldon Rampton on
"With casualties mounting in Iraq, jumpy U.S. soldiers are becoming more aggressive in their treatment of journalists covering the conflict," reports Slobodan Lekic. "Media
Submitted by Sheldon Rampton on
Now that Private Jessica Lynch has told the truth about the conditions of her capture and rescue in Iraq, right-wing telebabbler Joe Scarborough is complaining that she "started whining about the Pentagon PR machine and the fact that they told parts of the stories that may have made her more of a hero than she considered herself to be. ... Well, Jessica, I've got bad news to break to you. It was because of the Pentagon PR machine that turned you into an American hero -- that got book publishers interested in paying you $1 million to tell your story. It was the Pentagon PR machine that told America how you were a hero that got NBC interested in doing a movie about your story. It was the Pentagon PR machine that's turned you into a millionaire."
Submitted by Laura Miller on
The U.S. sponsored Iraqi Media Network -- planned to include a 24-hour satellite channel, two land-based TV channels, two radio channels, a national newspaper and studios in every major Iraqi region -- promises Iraqis "comprehensive, accurate, fair, and balanced news." The Village Voice's Cynthia Cotts reports, however, that IMN already faces credibility issues. Budgeted at $100 million (part of the $87.5 billion approved for Iraq), the project's money will flow through the Defense Department's Special Operations and Low-Intensity Conflict division, which also handles military psy-ops.
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