December 2, 2005 by s.z.

Bush Administration Shocked, SHOCKED to Learn That It Bought More Journalists

From the New York Times we learn that:

The chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee summoned top Pentagon officials to a closed-door session on Capitol Hill on Friday to explain a reported secret military campaign in Iraq to plant paid propaganda in the Iraqi news media. The White House also expressed deep concerns about the program [...] which military contractors and officials said also pays friendly Iraqi journalists with monthly stipends. 

Well, what White House Press Secretary Scottie McClellan actually said was, "We know nothing about this program!  In fact, we didn't even think they had newspapers in Iraq.  And since we don't know anybody who's ever been in Iraq, we first learned about these allegations from the LA Times report.  And we have deep concerns about that report, since we hate it when our programs get bad publicity. Maybe we should buy some of the the LAT reporters ... but it would probably be easier to just give the paper the al-Jazeera treatment."

Okay, that's not an exact quote, but I think it captures the substance of Scottie's Press Briefing better than the NYT does.  But in the interest of fairness to the White House, we will provide some of Scottie's own words.

Q Who's watching the store, really? How can we spend millions of dollars to plant positive stories in Iraq and nobody around here knows anything about it? How is that possible?

MR. McCLELLAN: This is based off some media reports. We want to find out what those facts are.

Q How did they get their hands on the money to begin with?

MR. McCLELLAN: You might want to direct your questions to the Department of Defense to find out more information, Helen, because they're looking into it.

Q But it isn't a separate world. It's your world.

MR. McCLELLAN: That's why we're trying to find out the facts. 

Thank heavens for Helen Thomas. 

Anyway, because the President is technically Commander-in-Chief of the military, he (or somebody), is trying to find out why the Department of Defense paid the Lincoln Group to subvert the Iraqi press.  You know, just like he had to ask the Department of Education why it paid the Ketchum public relations firm to subvert the American press. 

Anyway, back to the NY Times:

Under the program, the Lincoln Group, a Washington-based public relations firm working in Iraq, was hired to translate articles written by American troops into Arabic and then, in many cases, give them to advertising agencies for placement in the Iraqi news media.

At a time when the State Department is paying contractors millions of dollars to promote professional and independent media, the military campaign appeared to defy the basic tenets of Western journalism.

But it's a great example of the kind of reporting that the Bush administration would apparently like to see practiced by Western journalists. While the stories of Armstrong Williams, MollyMaggie Gallagher, and Mike McManus may not be relevant to this story, I'd suggest that previous incidents such as "Bush Courts Regional Media: President Aims to Bypass Large News Outlets' 'Filter' on Iraq," and "Officer was the one behind 500 letters" ("An Army battalion commander has taken responsibility for a public-relations campaign that sent hundreds of identical letters to hometown newspapers promoting his soldiers' rebuilding efforts in Iraq") probably are.
And here's a military spokesman, explaining why the military might need to buy the Iraqi media.

Asked about the issue on Thursday, the top military spokesman in Baghdad appeared to defend the practice without referring specifically to the Lincoln Group's activities.

The spokesman, Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, said that Iraq's most-wanted militant, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the Jordanian-born head of Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, was also using the news media to advance his terrorist goals.

But General Lynch said the similarities ended there because the American military was disseminating truthful information.

"He is conducting these kidnappings, these beheadings, these explosions, so that he gets international coverage to look like he has more capability than he truly has," General Lynch said. "He is lying to the Iraqi people."

General Lynch continued: "We don't lie. We don't need to lie. We do empower our operational commanders with the ability to inform the Iraqi public, but everything we do is based on fact, not based on fiction."

We just have to pay the media to inform the public of these facts, because nobody considers them newsworthy except us.

And see, if Al Qaeda gets to use the news media, then the American military should too -- and since it can't grab headlines by beheading people or doing other cool stuff like that, then it has  to fight back by buying journalists and planting stories.

The Lincoln Group, which includes some businessmen and former military officials, was hired last year after military officials concluded that the United States was failing to win over Muslim public opinion.

If the United Stated is failing to win over Muslim public opinion, it must be because the newspapers aren't printing that stuff about the re-opened schools and hospitals.

And for a much better explanation of who makes up the Lincoln Group (ex-Marines, British boy financiers, and apparently the same kind of inexperienced young Republicans who were hired to run the CPA), see this Whiskey Bar post from this summer. 

The Lincoln Group site doesn't currently have much info about who is running the show, but I do love the new title for British terrorism expert Andrew Garfield, who used to be their "Director, Strategic Solutions":

November 9, 2005
Andrew Garfield, Senior Director of Insight and Influence, was on a New Perspectives on Insurgency discussion panel for the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research. >> Learn More

"Director of Insight and Influence" -- now doesn't that sound Orwellian?  (As does the "American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research," when you think about it.)

Oh, and this link also sounds interesting:

June 11, 2005
Lincoln Group is Awarded a five year $100 million Global Media Support Contract by United States Special Operations Command. >> Learn More

But back to the Times, for a little more info about how one directs insight and influence:

Lincoln's media work for the Pentagon in Iraq included a multimillion dollar campaign to influence Sunni Arab voters in Anbar Province before the national referendum on the new Iraqi Constitution in October, according to military contractors and officials.

The campaign, the officials said, included television and radio spots that did not disclose their American sponsorship and the disbursement of more than $1 million in cash.

"It wouldn't be obvious it came from Americans," said one official, referring to the media messages.

Gee, you'd think we could manipulate the Iraqi media for a lot less.  Just imagine what the Pentagon could have got from Jeff Gannon for a million dollars!

And speaking of Jeff Gannon, I think I found a job for him:

Senior Media and Public Relations 

Due to ongoing expansion, Lincoln Group has an immediate need for Sr. Media and Public Relations Professionals to mount an aggressive advertising and public relations campaign that will accurately inform the Iraqi people of the Coalition’s goals and gain their support.

[...]

Salary: $80K to $150K depending on experience.  All company employees receive bonus profit sharing, bonuses, medical, and dental insurance and workers compensation coverage.

But maybe Jeff should start out as a Lincoln Group Media/Public Relations Intern  (you can just imagine the sexy possibilities).

The official duties include:

• monitor Iraqi media
• develop press releases and other media materials 
• interact with the local media to fulfill information requests and pitch story ideas
• organization and support of Iraqi media events, including press conferences

So, it sounds like it's actually the Lincoln Group unpaid interns who are subverting the Iraqi media -- you'd think that for several million dollars, we'd at least get professional evil-doers.

12:37:30 AM