Mantis Claw
12-30-2002, 10:55 AM
Spin of the Year
PR Watch, December 28, 2002
We tried to pick just one Spin of the Week story to feature as our Spin of the Year, but we couldn't. The U.S. government's propaganda machine was in overdrive in '02, trying to rally support for an invasion of Iraq here in the States, and to prop up the image of America the Brand in an increasingly hostile world. Following every twist and turn was a full-time job. Luckily, GNN partners PR Watch were on it. We'd like to thank them for helping our Guerrillas keep track of Bush's War on Tru... I mean, Terror. Here's the lowlights:
U.S. Propaganda in the Middle East: The Early Days
The National Security Archive (NSA), a nonprofit research institute, has published a collection of documents detailing an early Cold War campaign to win hearts and minds in the Middle East, launched 50 years before current efforts to achieve United States "public diplomacy" goals in the region. Methods that were utilized included graphic displays, manipulation of the news, books, movies, cartoons, activities directed at schools and universities, and exchange programs. "The documents show that many of the factors that generated resentment of the U.S. during the 1950s, and that impeded the effectiveness of U.S. propaganda, have persisted into the 21st century," states an NSA news release.
Pentagon Ponders Propaganda War Aimed at Allies
"The Defense Department is considering issuing a secret directive to the American military to conduct covert operations aimed at influencing public opinion and policy makers in friendly and neutral countries, senior Pentagon and administration officials say. ... Some are troubled by suggestions that the military might pay journalists to write stories favorable to American policies or hire outside contractors without obvious ties to the Pentagon to organize rallies in support of American policies. ... Those who oppose the military's taking on the job of managing perceptions of America in allied states say it more naturally falls to diplomats and civilians, or even uniformed public affairs specialists. They say that secret operations, if deemed warranted by the president, should be carried out by American intelligence agencies." Source: The New York Times, December 16, 2002
This War Brought To You By The Rendon Group
"'Word got around the department that I was a good Arabic translator who did a great Saddam imitation,' recalls the Harvard grad student. 'Eventually, someone phoned me, asking if I wanted to help change the course of Iraq policy,'" writes Asia Times (Hong Kong) correspondent Ian Urbina. "So twice a week, for US$3,000 a month, the Iraqi student says, under condition of anonymity, that he took a taxi from his campus apartment to a Boston-area recording studio rented by the Rendon Group, a DC-based public relations firm with close ties to the U.S. government. His job: translate and dub spoofed Saddam Hussein speeches and tongue-in-cheek newscasts for broadcast throughout Iraq. 'I never got a straight answer on whether the Iraqi resistance, the CIA or policy makers on the Hill were actually the ones calling the shots,' says the student, 'but ultimately I realized that the guys doing spin were very well and completely cut loose.'" Source: Asia Times, November 13, 2002
Spying in Iraq: From Fact to Allegation
"Nothing makes a newspaper prouder than a juicy foreign-policy scoop. Except, it seems, when the scoop ends up raising awkward questions about a U.S. administration's drive for war," writes Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR). "Back in 1999, major papers ran front-page investigative stories revealing that the CIA had covertly used U.N. weapons inspectors to spy on Iraq for the U.S.'s own intelligence purposes. ... But now that the Bush administration has placed the inspectors at the center of its rationale for going to war, these same papers have become noticeably queasy about recalling UNSCOM's past spying. ... Suddenly, facts that their own correspondents confirmed three years ago in interviews with top U.S. officials are being recycled as mere allegations coming from Saddam Hussein's regime." Source: FAIR, September 24, 2002
PR Campaign to Promote War with Iraq
"The United States, faced with a survey by diplomats showing widespread foreign skepticism about their motives, is planning a public relations offensive to build international support among foreign opinion leaders for a war against Iraq," reports UPI correspondent Eli Lake. The Iraq Public Diplomacy Group, "which includes representatives from the CIA, National Security Council, Pentagon, State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development," plans to publish a brochure and hold interactive teleconferences targeting "opinion leaders" in Europe and the Middle East. Good luck, guys. You'll need it, according to USA Today, which reports that "anti-American sentiment has turned into a contagion that is spreading across the globe and infecting even the United States' most important allies." The Bush administration has "squandered" the wave of sympathy and goodwill that America encountered after September 11 with a series of unilateral moves that have enraged the rest of the world on issues ranging from global warming to support for Israel, steel tariffs, farm subsidies, and refusal to participate in the UN's international court. Source: United Press International, August 20, 2002
How PR Sold the First War With Iraq
As the current Bush administration gears up for a second war with Iraq, now would be a good time to refresh our memories about the PR campaign used to sell the first war to the American people. In our book, Toxic Sludge Is Good For You, we showed how the first Bush administration collaborated with the Hill & Knowlton PR firm to peddle a false story about "babies removed from incubators by Iraqi soldiers," which helped swell public outrage against Saddam Hussein. Given the obvious relevance of this topic to the current buildup toward a second war against Iraq, we've added a relevant excerpt from our book to this site. (H&K staffer Lauri Fitz-Pegado, who helped prepare the "babies from incubators" story, is still trying to convince people that the story is true. PR Watch editor Sheldon Rampton recently sparred with her on the web site of O'Dwyer's PR Daily.)
Radio Sawa Seduces Arabs with US 'Pop-aganda'
"From a ground-floor office in a nondescript building in Washington, the U.S. government's newest radio station is sending a message to the Arab world. ... This is the sound of three-month old Radio Sawa: 85 percent pop music, 15 percent government-generated news, slickly packaged with market research in hand. To counteract the anti-American diatribes on the Middle East's airwaves, a senior American radio executive has persuaded Congress to use the simple syntax of the young and lovelorn to sell the U.S. to the youth of the Arab world. ... Norman J. Pattiz, chief executive of Westwood One, the largest radio company in the U.S., and chairman of the Mideast subcommittee of the U.S. government's Broadcasting Board of Governors, has been the moving force behind Radio Sawa. ... He sees Radio Sawa as 'the future of the Voice of America,' the prototype for future government radio - and perhaps, eventually, television - broadcasts. The Voice of America's previous Arabic-language programming, which had been broadcast on shortwave, has been canceled; almost all the Arabic-language news staff has been dispatched to work at Radio Sawa." Source: The New York Times, June 17, 2002
The Rendon Group Got Almost $100M From CIA
The Rendon Group received close to $100-million dollars from the CIA for work it did in Iraq in the five years following the Gulf War according to reporter Seymour Hersh in a New Yorker article. Between 1991-96, The Rendon Group did "media relations" work for the Iraqi National Congress, a coalition opposition group supported at the time by the CIA. Hersh also reports that CIA clandestine service veteran Linda Flohr, who had worked for the "top-secret" Iraqi Operations Group, went to work for the Rendon Group in 1994 after her retirement from the CIA. "Recently, Flohr was named director of security for the Office of Homeland Security and director of counter-terrorism for the National Security Council," O'Dwyer's PR reports. In October 2001, The Rendon Group received a $100,000-a-month, no-bid contract from the Pentagon for assistance with the "war on terror." The Rendon Group also was to work for the Department of Defense's Office of Strategic Influence, until the Pentagon, responding to criticism about the possibility of OSI planting false news stories, said the office would be scrapped. Source: The New Yorker
Spin of the Week comes courtesy of our friends at PR Watch, a Wisconsin-based non-profit organization that reports on the public relations industry and the role of the media in democracy.
PR Watch, December 28, 2002
We tried to pick just one Spin of the Week story to feature as our Spin of the Year, but we couldn't. The U.S. government's propaganda machine was in overdrive in '02, trying to rally support for an invasion of Iraq here in the States, and to prop up the image of America the Brand in an increasingly hostile world. Following every twist and turn was a full-time job. Luckily, GNN partners PR Watch were on it. We'd like to thank them for helping our Guerrillas keep track of Bush's War on Tru... I mean, Terror. Here's the lowlights:
U.S. Propaganda in the Middle East: The Early Days
The National Security Archive (NSA), a nonprofit research institute, has published a collection of documents detailing an early Cold War campaign to win hearts and minds in the Middle East, launched 50 years before current efforts to achieve United States "public diplomacy" goals in the region. Methods that were utilized included graphic displays, manipulation of the news, books, movies, cartoons, activities directed at schools and universities, and exchange programs. "The documents show that many of the factors that generated resentment of the U.S. during the 1950s, and that impeded the effectiveness of U.S. propaganda, have persisted into the 21st century," states an NSA news release.
Pentagon Ponders Propaganda War Aimed at Allies
"The Defense Department is considering issuing a secret directive to the American military to conduct covert operations aimed at influencing public opinion and policy makers in friendly and neutral countries, senior Pentagon and administration officials say. ... Some are troubled by suggestions that the military might pay journalists to write stories favorable to American policies or hire outside contractors without obvious ties to the Pentagon to organize rallies in support of American policies. ... Those who oppose the military's taking on the job of managing perceptions of America in allied states say it more naturally falls to diplomats and civilians, or even uniformed public affairs specialists. They say that secret operations, if deemed warranted by the president, should be carried out by American intelligence agencies." Source: The New York Times, December 16, 2002
This War Brought To You By The Rendon Group
"'Word got around the department that I was a good Arabic translator who did a great Saddam imitation,' recalls the Harvard grad student. 'Eventually, someone phoned me, asking if I wanted to help change the course of Iraq policy,'" writes Asia Times (Hong Kong) correspondent Ian Urbina. "So twice a week, for US$3,000 a month, the Iraqi student says, under condition of anonymity, that he took a taxi from his campus apartment to a Boston-area recording studio rented by the Rendon Group, a DC-based public relations firm with close ties to the U.S. government. His job: translate and dub spoofed Saddam Hussein speeches and tongue-in-cheek newscasts for broadcast throughout Iraq. 'I never got a straight answer on whether the Iraqi resistance, the CIA or policy makers on the Hill were actually the ones calling the shots,' says the student, 'but ultimately I realized that the guys doing spin were very well and completely cut loose.'" Source: Asia Times, November 13, 2002
Spying in Iraq: From Fact to Allegation
"Nothing makes a newspaper prouder than a juicy foreign-policy scoop. Except, it seems, when the scoop ends up raising awkward questions about a U.S. administration's drive for war," writes Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR). "Back in 1999, major papers ran front-page investigative stories revealing that the CIA had covertly used U.N. weapons inspectors to spy on Iraq for the U.S.'s own intelligence purposes. ... But now that the Bush administration has placed the inspectors at the center of its rationale for going to war, these same papers have become noticeably queasy about recalling UNSCOM's past spying. ... Suddenly, facts that their own correspondents confirmed three years ago in interviews with top U.S. officials are being recycled as mere allegations coming from Saddam Hussein's regime." Source: FAIR, September 24, 2002
PR Campaign to Promote War with Iraq
"The United States, faced with a survey by diplomats showing widespread foreign skepticism about their motives, is planning a public relations offensive to build international support among foreign opinion leaders for a war against Iraq," reports UPI correspondent Eli Lake. The Iraq Public Diplomacy Group, "which includes representatives from the CIA, National Security Council, Pentagon, State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development," plans to publish a brochure and hold interactive teleconferences targeting "opinion leaders" in Europe and the Middle East. Good luck, guys. You'll need it, according to USA Today, which reports that "anti-American sentiment has turned into a contagion that is spreading across the globe and infecting even the United States' most important allies." The Bush administration has "squandered" the wave of sympathy and goodwill that America encountered after September 11 with a series of unilateral moves that have enraged the rest of the world on issues ranging from global warming to support for Israel, steel tariffs, farm subsidies, and refusal to participate in the UN's international court. Source: United Press International, August 20, 2002
How PR Sold the First War With Iraq
As the current Bush administration gears up for a second war with Iraq, now would be a good time to refresh our memories about the PR campaign used to sell the first war to the American people. In our book, Toxic Sludge Is Good For You, we showed how the first Bush administration collaborated with the Hill & Knowlton PR firm to peddle a false story about "babies removed from incubators by Iraqi soldiers," which helped swell public outrage against Saddam Hussein. Given the obvious relevance of this topic to the current buildup toward a second war against Iraq, we've added a relevant excerpt from our book to this site. (H&K staffer Lauri Fitz-Pegado, who helped prepare the "babies from incubators" story, is still trying to convince people that the story is true. PR Watch editor Sheldon Rampton recently sparred with her on the web site of O'Dwyer's PR Daily.)
Radio Sawa Seduces Arabs with US 'Pop-aganda'
"From a ground-floor office in a nondescript building in Washington, the U.S. government's newest radio station is sending a message to the Arab world. ... This is the sound of three-month old Radio Sawa: 85 percent pop music, 15 percent government-generated news, slickly packaged with market research in hand. To counteract the anti-American diatribes on the Middle East's airwaves, a senior American radio executive has persuaded Congress to use the simple syntax of the young and lovelorn to sell the U.S. to the youth of the Arab world. ... Norman J. Pattiz, chief executive of Westwood One, the largest radio company in the U.S., and chairman of the Mideast subcommittee of the U.S. government's Broadcasting Board of Governors, has been the moving force behind Radio Sawa. ... He sees Radio Sawa as 'the future of the Voice of America,' the prototype for future government radio - and perhaps, eventually, television - broadcasts. The Voice of America's previous Arabic-language programming, which had been broadcast on shortwave, has been canceled; almost all the Arabic-language news staff has been dispatched to work at Radio Sawa." Source: The New York Times, June 17, 2002
The Rendon Group Got Almost $100M From CIA
The Rendon Group received close to $100-million dollars from the CIA for work it did in Iraq in the five years following the Gulf War according to reporter Seymour Hersh in a New Yorker article. Between 1991-96, The Rendon Group did "media relations" work for the Iraqi National Congress, a coalition opposition group supported at the time by the CIA. Hersh also reports that CIA clandestine service veteran Linda Flohr, who had worked for the "top-secret" Iraqi Operations Group, went to work for the Rendon Group in 1994 after her retirement from the CIA. "Recently, Flohr was named director of security for the Office of Homeland Security and director of counter-terrorism for the National Security Council," O'Dwyer's PR reports. In October 2001, The Rendon Group received a $100,000-a-month, no-bid contract from the Pentagon for assistance with the "war on terror." The Rendon Group also was to work for the Department of Defense's Office of Strategic Influence, until the Pentagon, responding to criticism about the possibility of OSI planting false news stories, said the office would be scrapped. Source: The New Yorker
Spin of the Week comes courtesy of our friends at PR Watch, a Wisconsin-based non-profit organization that reports on the public relations industry and the role of the media in democracy.