Old-thinker news | Feb. 28, 2007

By Daniel Taylor

“For example take the war.. have you shaped that agenda at all in terms of perceptions of the war in terms of how the war is viewed?

Murdoch: “no I don’t think so.. I mean, we tried”

In August of 2006 Donald Rumsfeld stated that the United States was facing an enemy who was “actively manipulating” the media. While Rumsfeld’s statement holds truth, it is in a twisted manner that most Americans are not aware of.

As reported by the Washington Post on April 10, 2006, the Pentagon conducted “…propaganda campaign to magnify the role of the leader [the now deceased Al Zarqawi] of al-Qaeda in Iraq, according to internal military documents and officers familiar with the program. The effort has raised his profile in a way that some military intelligence officials believe may have overstated his importance…” The documents revealed that the broader propaganda campaign was to include the “US home audience.”

In March of 2004 it was revealed by the London Guardian that TV news reports promoting Bush’s new Medicare law which were aired in Oklahoma, Louisiana, and several other states were in fact faked. The government admitted to paying actors to pose as journalists, and members of the audience to applaud.

In March of 2005 President Bush defended the U.S. government practice of sending fake news to local TV outlets. As reported by Reuters,

“President Bush said on Wednesday that the U.S. government’s practice of sending packaged news stories to local television stations was legal and he had no plans to cease it.

His defense of the packages, which are designed to look like television news segments, came after they were deemed a form of covert propaganda by the Government Accountability Office watchdog agency.”

Other examples of fake news: Fake TV News: Findings