Should the U.S. Defense Department Write Articles in Iraqi Media?

Should the U.S. Defense Department Write Articles in Iraqi Media?

The Iraqi news media is being manipulated by the United States Government and it is improper. The Defense Department has been paying for positive press in the Iraqi news media in order the paint a favorable picture of the war. Is this type of propaganda ethical or proper? Is this another case of the Bush Administration trying to promote a war that is not going well, or is it a case of poor communication in Washington D.C.? White House Officials said they are concerned about the report and asked the Pentagon for more information. (Shuster)

Propaganda is a specific type of message presentation directly aimed at influencing the opinions of people, rather than to impartially provide information. (Wikipedia) The media is supposed to report the news as it exists, from a non-partial point of view and the Iraqi media is being influenced. Propaganda has been used during war time and it is perfectly legal. “In Afghanistan, U.S. aircrafts jammed Afghan radio stations and dropped thousands of leaflets repeating the friendly messages about U.S. forces and during the Cold War, the U.S. Information Agency created Voice of America and Radio Free Europe to beam American-friendly broadcasts behind the iron curtain.” (qdt in Shuster) In both cases it was known that the United States was doing this. But, paying the Iraqi press to print stories and representing them as coming from credible reporters is not propaganda, it is deceitful. What example is the United States government setting for the Iraqi people?

On November 29th Donald Rumsfeld hailed what he called the country’s “free media” saying they were acting as “a relief valve” through which Iraqis have been engaging in democratic debate and dialogue. (Landay) What he neglected to say was this “free media” is controlled by the United States government. When the United States invaded Iraq, the news media was controlled by Sadam Hausain, therefore it needed to be re-created. Unfortunately, now it is controlled by the United States government. Senator Richard Lugar, an Indiana Republican who chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, questioned the practices of paying Iraqi press on November 30th, saying, "I wouldn't fault somebody trying to get the American message out, it may be about the only way that any sort of a message will ever get to anybody. But that's a very forlorn conclusion early on, and really sort of violates what we're attempting to do to begin with in our emphasis on democracy."(U.S. Buys)

When the United States toppled Saddam Hussein’s regime, no one had given much thought about the Iraqi media. The fact that it was part of Saddam’s regime meant that it would have to be completely dissembled and there was nothing to take its place. A current American official and a second former U.S. official, both of whom served in Iraq said, “the attempt to jump-start independent Iraqi media--described by the current official as “priming the pump”--quickly mushroomed into a much more ambitious and entrenched effort to influence what was being reported in the Iraqi media. (qdt. In Landay) The Iraqis realized that if they reported what we wanted them to they would get a paid.

What is more disturbing about this story is how the United States is conducting this operation. The favorable articles are written by U.S. military “information operations” troops, then translated into Arabic and placed in Baghdad newspapers with the help of a defense contractor by the name of the Lincoln Group. This is a Washington based public relations firm. This group received a $100 million contract to “help produce favorable articles, translate the articles into Arabic, get them placed in Iraqi newspapers and not reveal the Pentagon’s role.” (qdt in Shuster) The Lincoln Group’s Iraqi staff poses as freelance reporters or advertising executives when the stories are delivered to the Baghdad media. The Bush administration is now tampering with freedom of speech and with truthful news reporting. The Chicago Tribune reported a year ago that Lincolns’ public relation workers in Iraq included three Republican operative who helped run the Bush campaign in Illinois and had no apparent experience in Iraq. (Shuster) “Critic say the problem in Iraq is that the Pentagon’s secret effort to buy favorable coverage