$20 million:
By on Aug 31st, 2006 at 1:21 pm
$20 million:
The price for good news about Iraq. “U.S. military leaders in Baghdad have put out for bid a two-year, $20 million public relations contract that calls for extensive monitoring of U.S. and Middle Eastern media in an effort to promote more positive coverage of news from Iraq.”
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So they want to spend $20 million of our money on propaganda? They are concerned because military people aren’t quoted often enough? Perhaps if the Pentagon didn’t have a history of lying to the media, they might be asked for more comments. Did they ever consider telling the truth? (Remember Jessica Lynch and how they lied all over the place about what she went through.)
August 31st, 2006 at 1:28 pmWhy don’t they just “stay the course” and continue to do what they’ve been doing all along without spending 20 million dollars or any other amount. LIE! It’s worked so far.
August 31st, 2006 at 1:30 pmAmericans are brainwashed. Hell, Bush and Co. could just pull out and say we won, all terrorists are dead and Fox news views/listeners would think it was really finished. Foxnews viewers argue that we found WMD’s, and the hijackers got help from Saddam.
Every day this country looks more like the England in “V for Vendetta”.
August 31st, 2006 at 1:32 pm#4 God: Why, with a Turd Blossom, of course. Karl Rove, the specialist extraordinaire in shit shining.
August 31st, 2006 at 1:33 pmIs better to look good, than to do good. – Dubya
August 31st, 2006 at 1:34 pmdid any of that money go to mickey kaus? he’s earned it ya know!
August 31st, 2006 at 1:36 pmSeixon, Exley, Jason, Chase, Mighty Aphrodite, etc., better hurry up nd submit your resumes! This is your dream job: distorting the facts of Iraq for fun and profit!
I’d apply for this boondoggle myself, but I have this congenital disability that keeps me from pursuing opportunities like this. It’s called scruples.
August 31st, 2006 at 1:36 pmYou mean lying? Ok, that happens in every war. Just go ahead.
August 31st, 2006 at 1:38 pm$20 million, wow, that is one expensive catapault.
August 31st, 2006 at 1:39 pmSo, they’ve been looting the treasury and raising our cost of living. We’re strapped as it is, $30,00 for every man, woman and child. Why do they need taxpayer money to make commercials?
Just no-bid it to Haliburton and be done with it… I mean, oops?
August 31st, 2006 at 1:43 pmTime for the American people to bring a few lawsuits against chimpy. I did not give him permission, being a Democrat, for the government to use my tax money to shore up support for a war we were lied into by the Republican party and a Republican president. He is not uniting shit…..he is a divider by design and he is cutting off most of the country and giving us all the finger. We, the Democratic dissenters can ripen and rot as far as these thugs are concerned. America I once loved..where are you? His only hope of staying in power is endless war.
August 31st, 2006 at 1:49 pmJust imagine how much jobs would create $20M in Iraq. Talk about PR campaign…
August 31st, 2006 at 2:00 pmThey ought to do what I’ve been trying to get the Democrats to do: BUY PRIME TIME PSAs. With positive images of Iraq in them!
August 31st, 2006 at 2:01 pms sez:
Unfortunately, I don’t believe it is possible to bring a lawsuit against a sitting president. Impeachment is the only route.
This is why the American public must turn out in force this November and end the Repug majorities in the House and Senate. To do this, we’ll all have to vote Democrat.
(Now, please don’t think I’m trying to endorse Democrats…I’m only advocating a straight Democratic vote as the only sure means of unifying the opposition against the Repugs. If we split our voting power among Dems, indies, Libertarians, Greens, etc., we’ll only gurantee a repub victory in 2006.)
So get out there this November and make your voice heard. Remember, the Repugs got away with election fraud in 2000 and 2004 because the actual voter turnout was less than optimal. If everyone turns out to vote, and they vote like the polls currently show, then it’s going to be awfully difficult for the Repugs to steal another election.
Once the Dems are in, we can concentrate on removing these neocon fascists from power, and then perhaps our country (and the rest of the world) can start to heal. But you have to do your part.
August 31st, 2006 at 2:04 pm
#15
August 31st, 2006 at 2:04 pmEvil Spaniard,
I was thinking how much good that 20 mil would do for Lebanon and the good PR it would generate. But you are right that would work in Iraq and it should be used for something like that instead of paying a company to “create” a sense or good things in the media. People that live there are going to know if things improve or not no matter what the media says. Fix the problem don’t put lipstick on it. Somehting bush will never learn.
#17 TripMaster Monkey: All well and good, I agree, but I believe Diebold has an agenda to counteract people voting for “Democrats”.
August 31st, 2006 at 2:08 pm#18 dlet
Exactly. And if all the money that has been thrown in no-bid contracts in Iraq for Haliburton had been given to Iraqi entrepreneurs (with exhaustive accountability, of course, isn’t Mr. Bremer?), a lot more job of reconstruction and PR would have been accomplished.
But, nah, Reps love big guns and the military contractors love to sell them to the GOP. And, then, when this policy destroys the grandstanding of the USA, then the GOPers hurry to throw even more money to PR lobbyists… sad.
August 31st, 2006 at 2:25 pm$20million for the preliminary planning on how to put lipstick on the pig. Yeah, sure sounds like a rock-solid investment.
Of course, they wouldn’t have to worry about any of propaganda effort -saving both money and lives in the process- if they simply withdrew the troops and ended this horrible misadventure in the MiddleEast.
But that would mean acknowledging reality instead of manufacturing their own.
August 31st, 2006 at 2:28 pmI wonder if any of the 20 mil paid for bullets to be taped to front doors?
August 31st, 2006 at 2:31 pmSee it doesn’t matter that “NEW” Coke tastes like crap, just so long as you have a good PR campaign – you can sell crap to the rubes.
August 31st, 2006 at 2:35 pmTo every issue,
spin, spin, spin
There is a lie,
spin, spin, spin
And a sucker, every minute, to be born…
Dick Cheney’s version of the Byrds hit.
August 31st, 2006 at 2:38 pmOoops, I know, I know, Dylan’s hit…
August 31st, 2006 at 2:38 pmOr was that Mr. Tambourine Man? My brain is fried today!
August 31st, 2006 at 2:39 pmHealth care for all is too expensive…..but we’ve got an extra $20m around for propaganda?
August 31st, 2006 at 2:54 pmRUcerious
August 31st, 2006 at 3:00 pmYou were right the first time (and creative,too)
RUCerious, I believe it was the Byrds who sang it but the text is actually from the Bible somewhere.
August 31st, 2006 at 3:05 pm$20m for propaganda but Ted Stevens doesn’t want to spend $15m for a searchable database of how the government spends our money. Come on, even the wingers have got to understand this kind of waste.
August 31st, 2006 at 3:13 pmLet them spin today’s news: in Baghdad, 45 killed and 160 wounded. Just one more day in their fantasy of progress in Iraq. And what part of the defense budget or “emergency supplemental” is paying for this…..with OUR money!! Actually, considering this is all being done now with borrowed money, it’s actually our kids and grandkid’s money. Talk about taxation without representation!
August 31st, 2006 at 3:13 pm#
RUCerious, I believe it was the Byrds who sang it but the text is actually from the Bible somewhere.
Comment by libra — August 31, 2006 @ 3:05 pm
It’s from Eccleiastes 3:1-9. The whole book is very interesting, actually.
August 31st, 2006 at 3:26 pmThe Bush administration fears the truth, so they put out propoganda instead. Those who fear the truth are the biggest cowards of all.
August 31st, 2006 at 3:34 pmWho got the contract?
August 31st, 2006 at 3:34 pmfound this amazing piece of work via crooks and liars:
Lie by Lie: Chronicle of a War Foretold: August 1990 to March 2003
August 31st, 2006 at 3:53 pmhttp://www.motherjones.com/bush_war_timeline/index.html
Never try to teach a Pig to dance.
It can only frustrate you, and it
annoys the Hell out of the Pig.
$20M to Lebanon, counteracting Hezbollah’s recent activity?
Nah, too ‘Liberal’.
$15M to establish where the money is going?
Nah, too ‘Accountable’.
$9BILLION missing?
Ah, it’s just money.
You see, that’s why you can’t teach Pigs to dance.
August 31st, 2006 at 3:57 pm.
August 31st, 2006 at 3:58 pmSongfacts: http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=246
Turn! Turn! Turn! (To Everything There Is a Season) by The Byrds
This was written by Pete Seeger, an influential folk singer and activist. He recorded it before The Byrds covered it as a follow-up to their hit “Mr. Tambourine Man.”
The lyrics were based on a passage from the book of Ecclesiastes in The Bible. They were married to Seeger’s music to make the song.
…
Maybe I am “misrememberig” here, but I seem to recall a story, probably from 2005, about Rumsfeld using $100 million dollars to create a ‘Department of Propoganda’ sort of thing, hiring P.R. firms to come up with stories, to tell US how great things are going, blah, blah, blah, and that Iraq would be targeted as well. Does this ring any bells?
August 31st, 2006 at 4:31 pm#38
When, under pressure, Bush&Co said they would not go forward with their program of disinformation, it was only that they would merely go ahead with it and just not say so.
They are desperate for news of the debacle in Iraq to be squelched as much as possible; the msm is quite compliant, but Bush&Co is not satisfied.
Look how the 24/7 news outlets have spent 99% of their coverage on Karr, on Jeffs, on anything but real news that affects everyone.
BTW, how much notice is being given to the FAA and its cutting by half the number of traffic controllers? One controller on duty in Louisville, against the rules of the FAA, because of cost-cutting by the bastards in office.
August 31st, 2006 at 5:23 pmKaty, I am saving my Mother Jones copy with that article in it.
August 31st, 2006 at 5:26 pmI am saving the timelines here at TP as well. I think when the Bushies have finished their Orwellian cleanse of historical facts, my grandchildren may find them helpful.
Does this ring any bells?
Comment by Cyra Brown — August 31, 2006 @ 4:31 pm
I remembered two efforts to “catapult the propaganda” that were made public. I had to look for the information because I didn’t recall the specifics.
The first one was the Pentagon’s Office of Strategic Influence, that had a budget of around $100million. It was meant to influence the way the US is perceived abroad. It was shut down in 2002.
The second effort is, I think, the one you are alluding to. It was a psychological warfare operation by the Pentagon aimed at “planting” US-friendly stories in Iraqi newspapers, and had a budget of $300million. It was also stopped -at least officially.
The current effort is different from those two in that the aim is the domestic audience rather than the foreign. Obviously it is also designed to “filter” negative stories and view points without proper official approval by buying loyalties.
August 31st, 2006 at 5:35 pmGregor, I am not sure if the program I am thinking of is the OSI you speak of, or another one in about the same time frame. It was a program of deliberate disinformation, supposedly aimed at foreign audiences, but there was no doubt in my mind that it was domestic as well.
August 31st, 2006 at 6:17 pmI recall the Pentagon’s plan, which was a little more recent and was strictly military/war information. They say they halted that one too – but I don’t trust their word.
Marie,
I am not aware of any other propaganda effort from the Pentagon. The other one I recall was from the Department of State:
The mastermind of U.S. public diplomacy efforts in the wake of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, resigned from her State Department post Monday.
Bush’s Muslim propaganda chief quits
I don’t know how many millions of dollars were spent in this campaign to sell the US in the Middle East.
August 31st, 2006 at 7:09 pmConsidering all of the new cable programming about 9-11, Osama, and Iraq, I would not doubt that the government is funding such programming. Especially since an election is right around the corner. They need to make up excuses and try to reach out to America for sympathy for their failures (by using patriotism) So that 20 mil is just a drop in the bucket. The government has it’s hands in all sorts of public relations. Video games and propaganda driven television are just a few.
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