How about "we" hire a PR firm to make sure reporters embedded with the military offer fluffy coverage? I used to figure some plague or other would destroy the world, but I have to revise that. PR will destroy the world. The only reason the Bible says the love of money is the root of evil, I'm convinced, is because the PR industry hadn't been invented yet. That industry is already doing a bang-up job of creating a false world, a world of perceptions, to overlay on the real one. Where's Philip Dick when you really need him?
From Stars and Stripes:
As more journalists seek permission to accompany U.S. forces engaged in escalating military operations in Afghanistan, many of them could be screened by a controversial Washington-based public relations firm contracted by the Pentagon to determine whether their past coverage has portrayed the U.S. military in a positive light.
U.S. public affairs officials in Afghanistan acknowledged to Stars and Stripes that any reporter seeking to embed with U.S. forces is subject to a background profile by The Rendon Group, which gained notoriety in the run-up to the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq for its work helping to create the Iraqi National Congress. That opposition group, reportedly funded by the CIA, furnished much of the false information about Iraq’s supposed weapons of mass destruction used by the Bush administration to justify the invasion.
Rendon examines individual reporters’ recent work and determines whether the coverage was “positive,” “negative” or “neutral” compared to mission objectives, according to Rendon officials. It conducts similar analysis of general reporting trends about the war for the military and has been contracted for such work since 2005, according to the company.
They claim they haven't barred anyone "because of what may or may not come out of their biography." They just want to get to know their embeds a little better. They did not, however, claim they wouldn't bar anyone in future. They also mentioned a bridge for sale. Oh, and there's this:
U.S. Army officials in Iraq engaged in a similar vetting practice two months ago, when they barred a Stars and Stripes reporter from embedding with a unit of the 1st Cavalry Division because the reporter “refused to highlight” good news that military commanders wanted to emphasize.
I have a new idea: let's save taxpayer money and just hire a pool of stenographers to fancy up what the military commanders would like to say and deliver it to the media with a bow on it. That way we wouldn't have to go through the dog and pony show and give perfectly good money to a PR firm.
