Profiles in Fake News, Part MCMXVIII

So the US military is paying Iraqi newspapers to plant "nonpartisan" stories in their publications. If that's not exporting democracy, what is? I mean, here in the States, the Education Department was paying Armstrong Williams to write positive stories. The HHS Department and the ONDCP were creating fake "video news releases" and giving them to local news affiliates to air without divulging that they came from the government.

We're just exporting the democratic principle of propaganda!

As part of an information offensive in Iraq, the U.S. military is secretly paying Iraqi newspapers to publish stories written by American troops in an effort to burnish the image of the U.S. mission in Iraq.

The articles, written by U.S. military "information operations" troops, are translated into Arabic and placed in Baghdad newspapers with the help of a defense contractor, according to U.S. military officials and documents obtained by the Los Angeles Times.

Many of the articles are presented in the Iraqi press as unbiased news accounts written and reported by independent journalists. The stories trumpet the work of U.S. and Iraqi troops, denounce insurgents and tout U.S.-led efforts to rebuild the country.

Though the articles are basically factual, they present only one side of events and omit information that might reflect poorly on the U.S. or Iraqi governments, officials said. Records and interviews indicate that the U.S. has paid Iraqi newspapers to run dozens of such articles, with headlines such as "Iraqis Insist on Living Despite Terrorism," since the effort began this year.

The operation is designed to mask any connection with the U.S. military. The Pentagon has a contract with a small Washington-based firm called Lincoln Group, which helps translate and place the stories. The Lincoln Group's Iraqi staff, or its subcontractors, sometimes pose as freelance reporters or advertising executives when they deliver the stories to Baghdad media outlets.

Military psychological operations are time-tested in times of war. In fact, the military tried to mainstream this by creating an "Office of Strategic Influence" in late 2002, designed to plant propaganda stories in foreign media (it was nixed as soon as anyone found out about it). But in a war that, on principle, is about spreading freedom and democracy (at least that's what they're telling us this week), we are apparently undermining one particular freedom, that of the press, at the same time. Why, read the words of Donald Rumsfeld just yesterday:

The country is -- has a free media, and they can -- it's a relief valve.  They could have hundred-plus papers.  There's 72 radio stations.  There's 44 television stations.  And they're debating things and talking and arguing and discussing.

But what about the fact that we're planting fake stories in with this debate? Well, democracy is imperfect and messy, I'm sure that'd be the reply.