US to Fund Pro-American Publicity in Iraqi Media

The Defense Department will pay private US contractors in Iraq up to $300 million over the next three years to produce news stories, entertainment programs and public service advertisements for the Iraqi media in an effort to "engage and inspire" the local population to support US objectives and the Iraqi government. The new contracts -- awarded last week to four companies -- will expand and consolidate what the US military calls "information/psychological operations" in Iraq far into the future, even as violence appears to be abating and US troops have begun drawing down.