Burson-Marsteller Calling the Shots for the Irag Media
So Who is Behind Planting Stories in Iraqi Press? — More about the planted and carefully controlled propaganda being waged in Iraq via carefully slanted news stories. Media manipulation. How novel! What’s most interesting is the $300 million being spent to do it. Behind it all is what’s behind news everywhere: a giant PR agency.
A June 11, 2005, Washington Post article reported that the Pentagon had just awarded three contracts, potentially worth up to $300 million over five years (if the effort panned out), to three companies to handle “psychological operations” to improve foreign public opinion about the United States, particularly the military. The contract winners: Lincoln Group, Science Applications International Corporation, and SYColeman, Inc., a subsidiary of L-3 Communications.
O’Dwyer’s, a leading trade publication in the public relations field, reported in July that BKSH & Associates, one part of the giant communications company, Burson-Marsteller’s, had been hired by The Lincoln Group, “one of three firms selected last month by the U.S. Special Operations Command to wage psychological warfare on behalf of the Pentagon in Iraq and other hot spots. BKSH has experience on the Iraqi front earned from work for Ahmed Chalabi and his Iraqi National Congress. Col. James Treadwell, director of the Joint Psychological Operations Support Element, said TLG was selected to develop ‘cutting-edge types of media,’ including radio/TV ads, documentaries, text messages, Internet spots and podcasts for the U.S. military.”
Podcasts?
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Original Post
Dr. Goebbols worked much cheaper. Seriously, all wars has used propaganda for moral and to control unrest. It’s much more efficient than having squads of troops patrolling every street 24/7.
Is anyone truely surprised by this?
Remember that Baghdad Bob guy. Hire him. He can tell everybody that the war was over last month and Iraq has won a huge victory.
Iraq is now being restored since we have won the war. Saddam Hussein has joined forces with the Americans, so we had him killed.
After U.S. Missiles Destroyed His Office in the Information Ministry and He was Forced to Give Press Briefings on the Street:
“They will be burnt. We are going to tackle them.”
“It has been rumored that we have fired scud missiles into Kuwait. I am here now to tell you, we do not have any scud missiles and I don’t know why they were fired into Kuwait.”
“We made them drink poison last night and Saddam Hussein’s soldiers and his great forces gave the Americans a lesson which will not be forgotten by history. Truly.”
Blame it all on somebody else. “I blame Al-Jazeera – they are marketing for the Americans!”
“Iraqi fighters in Umm Qasr are giving the hordes of American and Brtish mercenaries the taste of definite death. We have drawn them into a quagmire and they will never get out of it.”
As goofy as this Baghdad Bob guy was, he might of been right about the quagmire part. Never is a mighty long time though.
Iraq Ministry of Information.
Everything is fine. Pay no attention to the tanks and shelling.
OK, I need to address this whole issue of “looting”. What’s going on here is not “looting”, but “recycling”. All of the ministry buildings and other offices are getting (at expense of emasculated and enslaved Coalition, of course) new furniture, computers, etc., as part of “Operation Remodel Iraq.” All the old stuff has to go somewhere, right? So everyone has been invited to come and take whatever they can use. Perhaps a desk chair and computer for home office. Maybe a new sink for guest bathroom. Everything must go! And don’t tell Qusay, but I’m “recycling” his solid gold toilet and diamond encrusted bidet from Palace #27. I’m all about the bling-bling, baby!
So I get this call the other night, “Big meeting at the safe house tomorrow morning, everyone will be there, keep it under your beret.” I’m running late, and show up a few minutes after the start of the meeting, and safe house is gone. Just big pile of rubble. Obviously, they finished the meeting quickly and then tore down the building to throw off the invading American kitten-army. Very shrewd, but can a brother get an email with the meeting minutes and action items? I’m the Information Minister, after all.
Open Letter To Saddam (Someone is still not answering his cellphone.)
Dear Cousin Saddam – I hope you get this, as I don’t know if you can get to the net from Assad’s palace in Syria. How was your trip? Did the Peter Arnet disguise work? ahahahha, you so crazy! Anywho, wanted to let you know that I started one of these “blog” thingies yesterday. It’s been so stressful the last few weeks in Baghdad (remember Baghdad? Little town on the Tigris, you should visit sometime… ha) that I had to have somewhere to vent. So give it a look, and pick up a phone once in a while, ok?
P.S.
I just got big commission cheque for writing newspaper story about how airport will open new Starbucks next month. Everybody bought it and we will be writing a feature for the New Baghdad Times in coming weeks. Cousin Ali from Tikrit is in Egypt selling DishTV and all the kids are getting new xbox 360 which we will be useful for insurgent training. The little infidels are all jealous that we can get xbox and they have none. To the victor belong the spoils.
Lost: 100 Scuds with new style chemical warheads.
If found, contact Mo or Ali at
http://www.baghdadbob.blogspot.com/
BIG REWARD! Possible XBOX, but we can’t say for sure you will get XBOX. You might get cash only and not worthless old cash. We just got new provisional authority notes in yesterday.
Who thinks that this program is confined to Iraq?