As if the Bush administration didn’t have enough headaches to worry about, now there are reports of positive US stories being planted in the Iraqi press. Quote time:
Troops in an “information operations” task force have written articles with positive messages about the U.S. mission in Iraq that have been translated from English into Arabic and planted in Iraqi newspapers in return for money, according to defence officials speaking on condition of anonymity.”
We’re very concerned about the reports. We are seeking more information from the Pentagon,” said White House spokesman Scott McClellan.
When it rains, it pours.
Tags: News, Politics, United States
I’m not too sure that I have a problem with this, if the stories are true. If it helps keep our troops alive, by all means, do it. If we can show the Iraqi people that we are doing good things for them, maybe the can give us a heads up about an ambush set up or something like that. If all that is printed about our troops is bad stuff, the Iraqi people are less likely to keep an eye out for us. I hope that the posative stories are true stories. I hope that we don’t have to fabricate stories that are posative.
True or not, it’s the appearance of impropriety that is going to put our troops into more danger. If they want to pay to have positive news, the money might be better spent setting up their own paper — at least then the news could be weighed on its own merits.
But I agree with your later point — I hope the positive stories are true and their not making things up. The Jason Blair scandal over at the NY Times is a good example of what happens to your rep when you feed people bullshit.