Military Admits Planting Stories In Iraq
Robert Paul Reyes
December 09, 2005
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I write about issues that I perceive as important: The war in Iraq, racial equality, human rights, the separation of church and state...
If an organization paid me to write essays espousing their ideas, I would lose all credibility. As an opinion columnist for a newspaper and as a contributor to various Web sites, I would never accept money to write an article taking a particular stand on an issue.
Ostensibly we are in Iraq to bring democracy to an oppressed people who have long suffered under a succession of dictatorships.
We are doing a lousy job teaching the people of Iraq what democracy is all about; the Pentagon has a program that pays to plant stories in the Iraqi news media.
American military officials in Iraq said articles had been offered and published in Iraqi newspapers "as a function of buying advertising and opinion/editorial space, as is customary in Iraq."
One of the hallmarks of a true democracy is freedom of the press: The assurance that our morning newspaper is free from government propaganda.
We stand to lose all credibility with the Iraqi population, how can they believe anything we say, when we are paying Iraqi newspapers to publish propaganda?
American military officials justification for planting stories that it's "customary in Iraq", just doesn't hold water. It's also customary in Iraq to dispatch homicide bombers to blow up your enemies, are our troops going to adopt this deplorable tactic?
The Pentagon should immediately stop paying Iraqi newspapers to publish stories, Iraq will never thrive as a democracy if there isn't a free, independent and responsible Iraqi media.
I write about issues that I perceive as important: The war in Iraq, racial equality, human rights, the separation of church and state...
If an organization paid me to write essays espousing their ideas, I would lose all credibility. As an opinion columnist for a newspaper and as a contributor to various Web sites, I would never accept money to write an article taking a particular stand on an issue.
Ostensibly we are in Iraq to bring democracy to an oppressed people who have long suffered under a succession of dictatorships.
We are doing a lousy job teaching the people of Iraq what democracy is all about; the Pentagon has a program that pays to plant stories in the Iraqi news media.
American military officials in Iraq said articles had been offered and published in Iraqi newspapers "as a function of buying advertising and opinion/editorial space, as is customary in Iraq."
One of the hallmarks of a true democracy is freedom of the press: The assurance that our morning newspaper is free from government propaganda.
We stand to lose all credibility with the Iraqi population, how can they believe anything we say, when we are paying Iraqi newspapers to publish propaganda?
American military officials justification for planting stories that it's "customary in Iraq", just doesn't hold water. It's also customary in Iraq to dispatch homicide bombers to blow up your enemies, are our troops going to adopt this deplorable tactic?
The Pentagon should immediately stop paying Iraqi newspapers to publish stories, Iraq will never thrive as a democracy if there isn't a free, independent and responsible Iraqi media.
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