Reply #2: Devil Is in the Lack of Details: The Defense Department's Media Contracts

[ProSense]

Published on Thursday, February 23, 2006 by Center for Media and Democracy

The Devil Is in the Lack of Details: The Defense Department's Media Contracts

by Diane Farsetta

Although they've done their best to keep their spinning from public scrutiny, several major incidents have exposed the Bush administration's manipulation of news media: The "sell job" for the invasion of Iraq. Payola pundits Armstrong Williams, Maggie Gallagher and Michael McManus. Stooge "reporter" Jeff Gannon / James Guckert. Video news releases determined to be covert propaganda by the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office (GAO).

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The Wages of Spin
During the second Clinton term (calendar years 1997 through the end of 2000), government PR contracts averaged $32 million per year. Over the first Bush term (calendar years 2001 through 2004), PR spending averaged $62.5 million annually. From fiscal year 2003 to mid-fiscal year 2005, an average of $78.8 million went to private PR firms per year -- from just seven federal departments.


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Major Information Operations
News accounts of the GAO report, as well as a press release put out by the members of Congress who requested the study, mentioned some of the smaller Pentagon contracts. It is easy to understand why an Air Force-sponsored "Stars and Strikes" bowling tournament, Coca-Cola branded "victory T-shirts," NASCAR promotion ads, or embroidered golf towels for youth tournaments might catch a reporter's eye. But among the sea of small and carefully detailed contracts are a few major efforts described just well enough to raise eyebrows.


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Propaganda, Propaganda Everywhere
The United States is facing not only "growing budget deficits," as the House committee report noted, but also multiple wars overseas, natural disasters at home, a shaky economy, and shrinking resources for such basic infrastructure as education and health care. It is against this background -- and, likely, because of it -- that federal spending on PR firms and other media contractors is increasing.

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http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0223-27.htm

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