Fake News Posts for Pro-Mil Bloggers: Planting Iraq “Good News” Stories for the Home Front (Part II)

By PHK

Part II of II
Just wave the stars and stripes, salute, and use the prepared text conveniently e-mailed you from Hass M S &L the U.S. Army-contracted Michigan PR firm otherwise known for selling automobiles. No not, "cars, colas and countries." This firm’s contracted to hawk wars and fake news along with Detroit’s finest.

No questions asked. No price tags attached. No need to think. These carefully chosen pro-mil bloggers have it made even easier. Now they won’t have to write the posts themselves – or even apply fingers to computer keys. Cutting and pasting the Pentagon’s prepackaged messages will do just fine. Oh, but please, no attribution either.

This story’s been circulating among bloggers since the first U.S. Army paid-for e-mails were dispatched in early January from the Detroit contractor. I haven’t seen the story reported in the MSM except for Washington Post blogger William Arkin, but may have just missed it. I note we have a trackback from Mountain Runner that refers to this fake news story although I come to a very different conclusion than MR does.

I hope that even pro-U.S. mil bloggers here and abroad will think twice before becoming unthinking conduits for a covert U.S. Army propaganda campaign. Kudos to the chosen few pro-mil bloggers who did receive those e-mails – and then posted their contents on their blogs themselves. (e-mail text below)

Frankly, I mostly concur with William Arkin, the Washington Post’s blogger on national and homeland security issues, who picked up the Pentagon blogger manipulation scheme and wrote about it last week. If by chance you missed the story, here are some details: The Army has hired Hass M S & L, a Detroit public relations firm, to manufacture good news editorials and commentary about the war in Iraq that it then e-mails to a select few U.S. military bloggers who already support the administration’s policies. The goal is to get these bloggers to use the PR firm’s e-mail outs to counteract all those negative stories reported by the MSM that question the success of Bush Administration Iraq policies.

Here’s a link to the PR firm’s e-mail that several of the bloggers received at the beginning of this year.

As if the MSM hasn’t – in my view – bent over backwards to report both sides of the Iraq story to the point that former New York Times reporter Judith Miller and others led us down the garden path and into the quagmire on the Tigris and Euphrates where the famous hanging gardens of Babylon once stood.

Rest assured: WhirledView is not on the Army’s chosen list - but then we’re not a military blog - although we do read and write regularly about national security issues.

It’s hard to tell how many of the Army’s chosen few U.S. military bloggers are recipients of the military’s latest media manipulation scheme, but if the pro-mil blogs start to look alike, sound alike and walk alike you may want to think twice about who actually wrote the story and why.

These surreptitious, un-sourced “only good news” messages may also start to appear in Internet chat rooms – if they haven’t already.

Wouldn’t you think, however, that the public affairs gnomes in that larger than life pentagonal shaped building on the Virginia side of the Potomac or sequestered on military bases might have checked with their lawyers as well as with their Congressional Liaison Offices before introducing this latest twist in attempting to manipulate the domestic media in the Bush Administration’s battle for control of American hearts and minds?

It was just last June that the administration’s production and placement of fake news stories on local American television stations became a subject of Congressional investigation. These activities were declared illegal because they did not have prior Congressional approval. The link to the GAO Report of May 12, 2005 is here.

So why is a Pentagon inspired and financed offer of similarly produced products to be used in a like manner e.g. for the purpose of “propagandizing the American public” by being covertly integrated into bloggers own posts – any different from the fake news stories generated by the Department of Health and Human Services for the purpose of selling the American public on a horrendous new prescription drug program “whereby” in the words of the GAO study, “a television audience did not know that stories they watched on television news programs about the government were, in fact, prepared by the government.”

It seems to me, however, that this latest helpful hand from Uncle Sam is just the latest wrinkle in the story of an unfettered imperial administration gone wild in its efforts to regain popularity in the face of mounting corruption scandals and a failing war.

Doesn’t the Army have far better ways to expend its whale-sized war chest – like training its soldiers in Arabic, Kurdish, Dari or Pashto so they don’t make as many fatal mistakes and expand America’s enemies simply because they can’t distinguish friend from foe?

Text of e-mail from Hass MS&L:
Hi, Donald. I’m writing from a PR firm on behalf of the U.S. Army. We’re contacting a few bloggers to test a new outlet for public information. The Army believes that military blogs are a valuable medium for reaching out to soldiers. To that end, the Army plans to offer you and selected bloggers exclusive editorial content on a few issues you’re likely to be interested in. If you do decide you are interested in receiving this material, whether you choose to write about what we send you is, of course, entirely up to you. (I notice you’ve been on a blog sabbatical for a while so am not sure where you stand there.)
Like I said, we’re only contacting a handful of bloggers at this time. If you are interested, please let me know, and we’ll send you further information as it becomes available. Either way, thanks for your time.
____________
Charlie Kondek
Account Executive
Web Producer
Hass MS&L

Comments

[Matt]

I believe the different conclusions we reach is the anticipation of what "exclusive editorial content" will be (is? has any come out?). I'm giving the benefit of the doubt to the military (nee "Pentagon") based on other intelligent applications of public affairs, including the recent JPASE launch. The military address slumping recruiting numbers and stress on the overextended military (personnel and equipment) (a story gaining traction today's msm -- but in reality an old story, so why is it gaining traction? who "inside" is starting to agree?). To this end, I strongly doubt a covert propaganda campaign like the misguided and failed Lincoln Group gig in Iraq would succeed or even be attempted within the US. Smith-Mundt probably makes it illegal, but current headlines suggests the Administration may have a different interpretation. Granted, the extreme short-sightedness of this Administration may not be concered about the impact of such a program.

A number of connected thoughts lead me to doubt the "exclusive editorial content" will be blatent "fake news" which you believe it will. My writings into the growing civil-military division in the US and effective public diplomacy efforts led by the military (in less politicized environments than Iraq) contribute to my belief, as does MilitaryTimes.com polls showing decreasing support by Army career officers of the Administration over the past years. Similiarly, the acceptance of the Murtha attack and the failings of the Administration's counter-attack. The trackback to my article you mention goes into some detail on this, which I could revise and easily expand on.

Any public relations campaign, however, results in some form of "planting" if not simply planting a seed. Perhaps I'm going out on a limb here since I do not know what the EEC will be, but for argument's sake, WSJ's OpinionJournal has long had a piece on "good news from Iraq". Is that fake news being planted? (I don't read the OpinionJournal's good news piece.)

The propagandizing by the various other Administration departments which you raise cannot be so easily transposed onto the Pentagon. The organizations and cultures are vastly different and the speaking out by military leaders against the civilian masters is increasing (Pace vs Rumsfeld on US soldiers intervening against inhumane treatment). That said, I think the blowback for such false and misleading statements, ala Armstrong Williams, would be severe.

I think it is also noteworthy MS&L was contracted by the US Army and not the Department of Defense.

For the record, I have not been contacted by MS&L or the US Army or the DoD on this topic.
-Matt

[PHK]

Matt: I'm not quite sure what you mean. Perhaps you could clarify.

Re Smith-Mundt. I may have it wrong, but I believe the act refers to the portions of the USG that used to be part of the U.S.Information Agency so, as a consequence, the DOD is likely to be exempt. Here's a link to the law: http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/html/uscode22/usc_sec_22_00001461----000-.html

Re pro-mil bloggers getting e-mails from SM&L. Rest assured, I certainly did not even suggest that you were one.