Iraq propaganda program legal: Pentagon report

I can somehow see this already happening here.
Wait,i think its already happening here,Afterall we got Fox News.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. military acted legally when it hired a contractor to pay Iraqi news organizations to run pro-American stories, the Pentagon's inspector general has found.

today.reuters.com... =PolNewsHome_C1_%5bFeed%5d-10

"We concluded that the Multi-National Force-Iraq and Multi-National Corps-Iraq complied with applicable laws and regulations in their use of a contractor to conduct Psychological Operations and their use of newspapers as a way to disseminate information."

today.reuters.com... =PolNewsHome_C1_%5bFeed%5d-10

The controversial propaganda program was made public in a Los Angeles Times report in November.

today.reuters.com... =PolNewsHome_C1_%5bFeed%5d-10

"This Department of Defense report shows that the Pentagon cannot account for millions paid to the Lincoln Group for their propaganda program and that basic contracting rules were not followed," said U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy, the Massachusetts Democrat who sought the inspector general's review.

today.reuters.com... =PolNewsHome_C1_%5bFeed%5d-10

"Broader policy questions remain about whether the administration's manipulation of the news in Iraq contradicts our goal of a free and independent press there," Kennedy said.

today.reuters.com... =PolNewsHome_C1_%5bFeed%5d-10

I'm not suprised by this in the slightest.

Hell, acording to US law, it's not even illegal for mass-media News to lie to it's own people.

On February 14, a Florida Appeals Court ruled that there is absolutely nothing illegal in a major media organisation lying, concealing or distorting information. The
court reversed the US$425,000 jury verdict of 2000 that was in favour of journalist Jane Akre, who charged she was pressured by Fox Television management and
lawyers to air what she knew and documented to be false information.

Source

After a five-week trial in 2000, a jury decided unanimously that Akre was fired solely because she threatened to blow the whistle to the FCC the broadcast of a false, distorted or slanted news report. The panel that found in Akre's favor awarded nothing to Wilson who represented himself at trial.

The Fox appeal was largely on an argument that it is not technically illegal for a broadcaster to deliberately distort the news on television. The appellate justices reasoned that since state law provides whistleblower protection only for employees who object to misconduct which is against an "adopted law, rule, or regulation" and they decided prohibitions against news distortion are merely a "policy" of the FCC, the reporters' eight-year-old lawsuit must have been without merit from its
inception.

Source

The US administration is passing new laws and bills left, right, and center, but they've utterly failed to regulate the things that really matter.

It should be a CRIME for any media outlet to publish information that it knows to be false.

I do believe there's already a thread or two about this.


I do see the negative side of this, but propoganda has always
been part of war, and I'd be surprise if it was illegal.

Though I will say, if I was running a war, I'd do the same thing,
as long as the stories/news were true.

[edit on 10/19/2006 by iori_komei]

.....

Why shouldn't the US try to convince the iraqis to stop fighting through their media???

Originally posted by Nygdan
.....

Why shouldn't the US try to convince the iraqis to stop fighting through their media???

Propganda has negative connotations. Of course the administration is going to spread pro-American, pro-allied forces propaganda through whatever media sources they can.

After all, all the discussions here on ATS of Iraq, 9/11 and any other topic contain much propaganda from various sources. Propaganda can range from the truth or unsubstantiated information/rumors but doesn't typically include outright lies. So we push our side of the story, others push their side of the story and maybe somewhere in the middle lays the truth.

Dis-information is a bad thing.
It doesn't matter what your intent is, if you have to lie or distort the truth to get *your* message out, it's time to ask some very hard questions.

Disinformation is detrimental to critical and individualistic thought in the long run and has proven itself in the last few decades. The Media can and does lie as do American politicians and are never issued legal reaction in regards and this has become a serious issue in my eyes. The U.S has based itself on blatant lies and disinformation from the get go.

Luxifero