U.S. military propaganda for Iraqis

"U.S. Army officers have been secretly paying Iraqi journalists to produce upbeat newspaper, radio and television reports about American military operations and the conduct of the war in Iraq.

U.S. officials in Washington said the payments were made through the Baghdad Press Club, an organization they said was created more than a year ago by U.S. Army officers. They are part of an extensive American military-run information campaign - including psychological warfare experts - intended to build popular support for U.S.-led stabilization efforts and erode support for Sunni Muslim insurgents."

Well no one should be surprised at this. This is just what the White House has been doing at home; paying reporters for good press, and to promote it's causes. This is what this government does when their actions don't appear to get the proper responses in the press.

The problem is the secrecy, not their attempts to put government actions in a good light. Once upon a time, we used the Voice of America and Radio Free Europe to send information behind the Iron Curtain and elsewhere. It was legitimate then because it was in the open and obvious to the listener exactly who and where the information from those broadcasts were coming from. Now, I've know that we've also planted news stories in the media of other countries for decades, but we weren't initiating "regime change" at the time.

This is different. This is done, in secret, during an operation in which we are supposed to be introducing democracy to the Iraqi people, it's benefits and it's institutions. To accomplish that, we need to establish trust in those people. You don't get that trust by deceiving them. To put out our own paper, radio and TV broadcasts, clearly identifying them as originating from the U.S. government, is what should've been done. But just like here at home, secretly influencing the press has the opposite affect. It sends the message that even the U.S. government doesn't trust a free press. Of course, we already know that here, but how do we expect to instruct Iraq on democratic institutions when we subvert them at the same time?

Remember, early into the war (or was it just before?), the government stated that they would be using propaganda and disinformation, but it probably didn't occur to many that they would do it by corrupting the press with cash payments.

And just what else are we corrupting over there?