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Pentagon Reveals News Correction Unit
Posted by
ScuttleMonkey
on Tue Oct 31, 2006 04:16 AM
from the propaganda-juggernauts dept.
from the propaganda-juggernauts dept.
Jonas Wisser writes "BBC is reporting that a newly created Pentagon unit has a mandate to fight 'inaccurate' news stories. From the article: 'The Pentagon has set up a new unit to focus on promoting its message across 24-hour rolling news outlets, and particularly on the internet. [...] A Pentagon memo seen by the Associated Press news agency said the new unit will "develop messages" for the 24-hour news cycle and aim to "correct the record". A spokesman said the unit would monitor media such as weblogs and would also employ "surrogates", or top politicians or lobbyists who could be interviewed on TV and radio shows.'"
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Bush Signs Bill Enabling Martial Law 1594 comments
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Hello (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Hello (Score:5, Funny)
To the Citizens of the United States of America:
In light of your failure to elect a competent President of the USA thus to govern yourselves, we hereby give notice of the revocation of your independence, effective immediately. Her Sovereign Majesty Queen Elizabeth II will resume monarchical duties over all states, commonwealths and other territories (excepting Kansas, which she does not fancy). Your new prime minister, Tony Blair, will appoint a governor for America without the need for further elections. Congress and the Senate will be disbanded. A questionaire may be circulated next year to determine whether any of you noticed. To aid in the transition to a British Crown Dependency, the following rules are introduced with immediate effect:
1. You should look up "revocation" in the Oxford English Dictionary. Then look up "aluminium," and check the pronunciation guide. You will be amazed at just how wrongly you have been pronouncing it. The letter 'U' will be reinstated in will learn to spell 'doughnut' without skipping half the letters, and the suffix will be replaced by the suffix "ise." You will learn that the suffix 'burgh' is pronounced 'burra'; you may elect to respell Pittsburgh as 'Pittsberg' if you find you simply can't cope with correct pronunciation. Generally, you will be expected to raise your vocabulary to acceptable levels (look up "vocabulary"). Using the same twenty-seven words interspersed with filler noises such as "like" and "you know" is an unacceptable and inefficient form of communication.
2. There is no such thing as "US English." We will let Microsoft know on your behalf. The Microsoft spell-checker will be adjusted to take account of the reinstated letter 'u' and the elimination of "-ize."
3. You will relearn your original national anthem, "God Save The Queen", but only after fully carrying out Task #1 (see above).
4. July 4th will no longer be celebrated as a holiday. November 2nd will be a called "Come-Uppance Day."
5. You will learn to resolve personal issues without using guns, lawyers or therapists. The fact that you need so many lawyers and therapists shows that you're not adult enough to be independent. Guns should only be handled by adults. If you're not adult enough to sort things out without suing someone or speaking to a therapist then you're not grown up enough to handle a gun. Therefore, you will no longer be allowed to own or carry anything more dangerous than a vegetable peeler. A permit will be required if you wish to carry a vegetable peeler in public.
6. All American cars are hereby banned. They are crap and this is for your own good. When we show you German cars, you will understand what we mean. All intersections will be replaced with roundabouts, and you will start driving on the left with immediate effect. At the same time, you will go metric with immediate effect and without the benefit of conversion tables. Both roundabouts and metrication will help you understand the British sense of humour.
7. The Former USA will adopt UK prices on petrol (which you have been calling "gasoline")-roughly $6/US gallon. Get used to it.
8. You will learn to make real chips. Those things you call French fries are not real chips, and those things you insist on calling potato chips are properly called "crisps." Real chips are thick cut, fried in animal fat, and dressed not with mayonnaise but with vinegar.
9. Waiters and waitresses will be trained to be more aggressive with customers.
10. The cold tasteless stuff you insist on calling beer is not actually beer at all. Henceforth, only proper British Bitter will be referred to as "beer," and European brews of known and accepted provenance will be referred to as "Lager." American brands will be referred to as "Near-Frozen Gnat's Urine," so that all can be sold without risk of further confusion.
11. Hollywood will be re
Re:Hello (Score:4, Interesting)
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Hello (Score:4, Funny)
For others, see "it's/its" and "your/you're"; also, Wal*Mart (the fact that it even exists), Windows, AOL, how fat our kids are, how fat WE are, the idea that everything has to be someone's fault and there's no such thing as an "accident", the popularity of reality shows, the fact that we elected a retard to the Oval Office not once, but twice, our assumption that all Muslims are bomb-throwers, D.A.R.E. (and while we're on the subject, finding it acceptable that you need to pee in a cup to work at a video game retailer), and finally, the fact that W still has a 30% approval rating.
I could provide others, but my coffee hasn't completely kicked in yet.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Yeah, I'll see you down at the cafe where I'll be getting an espresso. Mebbe even a cappuccino.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Poutine? Yeah, that's how we kill tourists and select our immigrants. If they survive a meal of Pepsi, Mae West and this, they're good to go.
I've seen that some regions of the USA use the same trick, but with oily pizza as the main dish.
Office of Strategic Influence? (Score:3, Informative)
Well, obviously... (Score:4, Funny)
Astonishing (Score:4, Insightful)
No-- this is more important by far. The Pentagon really does need to be fighting a press war with hairy-assed, unemployed bloggers operating out of their mothers' basements. They also need more lobbyists and politicians on their payroll, because if they don't win the war for the US, nothing else can.
Astonishing. Just astonishing.
Re:Astonishing (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
I don't believe that the purpose of this new agency is to provide accurate information. I base this on the fact that it will often not be in the interests of this agency to provide accurate information. You only have to look at the way casualty figures an
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Okay, so now instead of talking about "terrorists" we're talking specifically about Iraq. That's fine, so long as it's recognised we're moving on. One of the worst things the US government's spin department has done has been to try and represent everyone
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
How about: every day. Al Qaeda is the single highest-profile player in the jihaddi insurgency in that country. Why not read the BBC's summary [bbc.co.uk], dated today, as a refresher? Do you think t
Either way, you're screwed (Score:2, Insightful)
So if you're the first type, this is no big change. Your disinformation now comes directly from the source.
If you're the second type, you won't
Re: (Score:2)
Bush has lapdogs inside the BBC?
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Bring on the war! (Score:5, Insightful)
What, are we afraid of ideas? Is a war of guns and bombs better? If the people of the world are trying to influence our thinking, should we ignore them or should we listen? Who knows better about the problems of their part of the world than them? Do the Generals in the Pentagon know whats better for people across the world than their own leaders?
Re:Bring on the war! (Score:4, Insightful)
And they have the guts to "condemn" China for the "great internet firewall" ? Talk about hypocrisy.
Just goes to show, in all human forms of gov't, whoever HAS the power is the one least worthy to HAVE it in the first place.
Re:Bring on the war! (Score:5, Insightful)
It seems to me that the government isn't trying to control ideas, it is trying to compete in the market place of ideas. Just because the Pentagon will issue some press releases, this doesn't stop you, me or anyone else from putting our ideas out there as well. It seems to me that it is the government's DUTY to release information if they think the news is reporting false information. We can still choose to research it, compare it to other sources, and accept or reject it.
I didn't see anywhere in the article that every US citizen was being forced to watch these new media channels, or being forced to accept the information as the truth. Funny, while I am as skeptical as they come when it comes to any government, I am not afraid of letting them release their response to news reports. Kinda fits in with the whole idea of free speech.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
No, even though Bush actually meant it to be the "War on Ideas", his press corp did not catch his latest mis-pronounciation, so it's the "War of Ideas" now.
The rise of Minitrue - Doubleplusgood!!! (Score:5, Funny)
Re:The rise of Minitrue - Doubleplusgood!!! (Score:4, Funny)
It's Eastasia we're at war with. We've always been at war with Eastasia.
Yeah right! (Score:2, Interesting)
Nice idea, but ... (Score:2)
However, the conflict of interest (the agency is run by the state, and will have to correct messages about the
The unit will also (Score:5, Insightful)
Correct the misunderstanding that the Iraq war did not actually end when GB said it did
Correct the misunderstanding that Iraq is not a nice place to be now
Correct the misunderstanding that several US interrogation techniques are actually torture
Corrent the misunderstanding that there are not hordes of rabid terrorists queueing up to kill each and every last one of us
And we used to laugh at the attempts of TAS to 'enlighten us'
Re:The unit will also (Score:4, Insightful)
that Iraq had anything to do with 9/11.
Re:The unit will also (Score:5, Insightful)
Well, there may be soon, the administration is working on it. Terrorists are too helpful to ignore, they have worked beautifully in their favor before.
I am a German, and we still get to see a LOT of information on the history of the second world war in school, including videos of the propaganda machine of that time, political strategies, and their mindless followers.
Now what is happening in America is beginning to remind me more and more of the propaganda machine that I saw in those videos from before the second world war. It is a trend that has gained intensity over the last couple of years. Whenever you tuned into US national news during the Iraq war, it's been a display of the technological advancement of the war machinery and one-sided government-friendly reporting. 50% airtime for one side, 50% for the other? It simply does not happen in popular media.
My point is: The goverment has now started to broaden the definition of terrorism, so these things will give them even more power. If you control public opinion, democracy is not much different from a monarchy. When more power is given to anybody, the greed for more power will grow. In my opinion, it is not a question of whether the power will be abused. It is a vicious circle and only a matter of time.
Re:The unit will also (Score:5, Insightful)
However, the one thing that makes the US more of a monarchy than a democracy, is that you have the son of a former president as the commander in chief. And the wife of another former president is looking to run for president at the next election.
The US is not a democracy in the terms of people CHOOSE their leaders, its a democracy in the terms of people THINK they choose their leaders.
And if you get to know the political system in the US a bit closer, it becomes clear that the choices people think they have, are actually very carefully screened and selected by the most powerful parties in the country. This opens the door wide for a puppet government, where the president is a prominent public figure, and the policy is done by players in the background. Look for Cheyney to run for President in 2 years!
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
What's so ironic is that at the same time you point the finger at the US government propaganda efforts, I'm certain that you believe YOUR media is objective.
I've never seen p
In becoming our enemies in order to fight them... (Score:4, Insightful)
This rapid walk away from democracy in the name of democracy is frightning .
You can't win a modern war without propaganda (Score:5, Insightful)
People who think that the military doing propaganda is wrong/evil/unprecedented have never taken an honest look at history.
Get over it people, this is not 1984, this is trying to do a much scaled back version of what we have always done in the past.
Re:You can't win a modern war without propaganda (Score:5, Insightful)
That's what is being suggested, though. People are sent to the place where whatever idea is fought, they die there and nothing is gained. You can't gain ground in this battle. There is no big leader, no key figure, no enemy headquarter to be conquered to end the battle.
Ralleying your population behind a war against a common enemy is a necessity. But this time the war has become an end in itself, it's not the means to the end. The war on (idea) is not fought to end (idea), because it cannot end it. The goal is simply to strengthen the economy, to reduce unemployment (as hard as it sounds, but killing people (or having them killed) reduces your workforce...) and to distract the population from other problems.
And a war with these goals cannot be won. It never was in history.
ALL inaccurate stories? (Score:2)
True Picture About Iraq (Score:5, Insightful)
``The Bush administration does not believe the true picture of events in Iraq has been made public, the BBC's Justin Webb in Washington says.''
Well, I don't believe so, either. If the true picture had been made public right from the beginning, popular support for the war would probably have been so low that the government wouldn't have dared to go to war in the first place.
Its news not law (Score:3, Insightful)
Knowing what the military want you to think is fascinating, providied its balanced by the free press. Having the news delivered by different agendas is what makes watching modern history unfold so exciting and makes it easier to get down to the facts and through the bullshit.
great (Score:5, Insightful)
BBC source? (Score:3, Funny)
There Is Absolutely Nothing Wrong With This (Score:4, Interesting)
In the old days, respectable news outlets could be counted on to check their sources and accurately report the news coming out of the defense department. The number of organizations deliving news to the populace was few, so if inaccurate information was given to the public, all it took was a phone call from the defense department press liason to a news outlet to straighten out the facts so that the news outlet had the opportunity to report the defense department's official version of events.
Now with the internet and bloggers on all sides of the political spectrum from Matt Drudge to Arianna Huffington, the loudest and most obnoxious rumors based strictly on hearsay from "unnamed sources" often become "facts" in the minds of the populace at large, due to the fact that a lie told often enough, often becomes truth in the minds of the public.
And with respect to governments and other international organizations that are hostile to the interests of the United States, including terrorist organizations like Al-Qaeda or Hezbollah, they have no moral or ethical qualms about feeding their politicized version of events to unprofessional amateur journalists that are desperate for attention and website hits, also known as "Bloggers".
Now, does that mean that the defense department does not actively put out propaganda of its own which is of dubious nature when it comes to its "truthiness"? Of course not, and how much "truth" you believe comes out of the defense department mostly comes down to how much you trust the defense department in the first place. If you are a hardcore liberal, then you probably are more likely to believe Osama Bin Laden's propaganda than anything Donald Rumseld says, and if you are of the neo-con flavor, then anything Donald Rumsfeld or George Bush or any of the generals say is gospel to you.
Nevertheless, it is ridiculous to get all worked up about whether or not the defense department is working to counter the propaganda of political interests both domestically and abroad who are willing to lie incessantly about the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan because they feel that the worse America does in Iraq, the more political brownie points their favored party gets in the long run.
The sad thing is that the people on both ends of the political spectrum will pass second hand "facts" from dubious sources around so much between each other that eventually they begin to believe their own bullshit and then when the real facts and truth come to the surface, they are unwilling to accept them (sort of like how the 9/11 World Trade Center conspiracy theories have been debunked so many times, yet many people continue to believe they were controlled demolitions by the Israeli Mossad).
Get your news from multiple and diverse news outlets and any reasonably intelligent person can sort out the bullshit from the facts and get a general idea of what the real truth happens to be. Of course, that requires more effort than listening to just one news outlet or another that tends to report the news in a way that just reaffirms your existing world view, but at least you will be more likely to spot propaganda when you see it.
You are a misguided romantic, I fear... (Score:4, Insightful)
"In the old days, respectable news outlets could be counted on to check their sources and accurately report the news coming out of the defense department."
Alas I think you're a misguided romantic. Can I ask what experience you have of 'news outlets' in 'the old days'?
I am afraid I am deeply suspicious of anybody who tries to tell me they have solid facts after they start with "in the old days".
In the UK this is a bit close to Tory MPs telling us about warm beer and cricket on sunny Sunday afternoons while coppers cycled past and clipped kids round the ear for scrumping apples from Farmer Giles' orchard. I guess in the USA these 'old days' were when kids ate blueberry pie and fished in the hollow and were called Huckleberry Finn or something.
Define "in the old days" please. 1980? 1950? 1785? (last being first publication date of the Times)
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:In related news (Score:5, Insightful)
It's getting pretty insanely ridiculous. Our government runs military detention camps in other totalitarian regimes, simply to skirt the law requiring trials in America. Congress has allowed our spy agencies to watch American citizens without probable cause. The Executive branch has condoned and practiced torture of untried suspects -- torture to any person with senses intact, which the perpetrators would never submit to themselves -- and half of the American public has gladly cheered them on.
Now we've suspended the Writ of Habeas Corpus and given the President the power to deploy troops domestically. Is it really any surprise there are agencies paid with our tax money to spread pro-government propaganda?
The only thing surprising is that so many Americans are still looking up with worshipful puppy eyes -- at the leaders who pretend to protect them while stealing their wealth, liberty, and lives.
Re:In related news (Score:4, Insightful)
Panem et circenses (Score:4, Insightful)
You have entertainment. From TV to movies, malls and Sunday Night Football.
It worked 2000 years ago. Why do you think anything changed? That's what most people are simply content with. They want to be fed and they want to be entertained. They don't want to deal with complicated problems. The leaders don't want to deal with the problems at hand but distract the population by war and spectacles.
The similarities between the US of today and the Rome at the change from republic to empire are stunning.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Pardon me for being incensed, but where were you people when the Reeves family was slaughtered on Ruby Ridge? Sure, a guy who was a white, racist bigot, living in the mountains -- away from everyone where a bigot shoul
Re:In related news (Score:4, Insightful)
But coming in after the Patriot Acts One and Two, after suspension of right to trial, waltzing in after allowing for the extradition of people (including American citizens) to 'detention camps' in countries that happen to have lax laws when its comes to torture, coming in after Bush and his whole fucking government lied through their teeth about the reasons for the illegal invasion and continued occupation of Iraq, bouncing along after stolen elections, skipping along to the the tune of "warrentless wiretapping" and getting down to the beat of "corporate kickbacks for Bush's buddies" - ya just gotta sit back and wonder if maybe its symptomatic of a government gone horribly wrong.
Rectify parent: -1 (undoublethink) (Score:5, Funny)
Re:A few things come to mind here. (Score:5, Insightful)
Well, you don't need to make up "the Marines bombed your house and killed your sister, father, and daughter. Join us in fighting them!" People aren't swarming to fight the US so much because of made-up stuff, but because there are about 150,000 armed-to-the-teeth foreign military, and a few tens of thousands of foreign paramilitary, killing their fellow Iraqis every day, with complete immunity from Iraqi law. It's true that if all Iraqis laid down their arms and did exactly what the foreign occupiers told them to, without hesitation or complaint, with averted eyes and a cowed demeanor, no one would be shot, but there's that pesky "pride" thing that, though a virtue in Americans, is a character flaw in everyone else on the planet.
Well, to be fair, the West has financed and armed many of the corrupt dictators that kept their economies in a state of, well, shit. It's not as if they were free nations that decided to hate us because we were free. Saddam was put in charge by Britain. Other examples abound. No, I'm not saying "the west is evil," only that part of their list of grievances against us is that we have supported dictators in their countries, and actually impeded democracy. See Iran as an example. We overthrew their democracy and installed a dictator--somehow, though they hate us, I don't think it's because of our freedom. No, I don't think their nations would blossom into post-Enlightenment bliss if we pulled our money and influence out, but we have been a very prominent part of the problem for about a century. Even if the problem would have existed without us (as it probably would have), that doesn't negate the fact that we have dirt up to the elbow.