All the propaganda that's fit to print

ALL THE PROPAGANDA THAT'S FIT TO PRINT
[SOURCE: Miami Herald 4/3, AUTHOR: Edward Wasserman edward_wasserman@hotmail.com]
[Commentary] The Bush administration has recovered from its initial qualms over secretly paying to plant pro-U.S. stories in the fledgling Iraqi press. An internal Pentagon review has now concluded that those efforts, part of a wider propaganda push using a U.S. outfit called the Lincoln Group and costing as much as $100 million over five years, don't violate law or policy. That conclusion is a turnabout. At first, after The Los Angeles Times exposed the program in December, the administration had a brief bout with principle. Having paid off journalists for favorable columns and secretly financed bogus news releases supporting administration policies at home, we have the U.S. government using tax dollars to hobble precisely the independent expression that our troops are supposed to be fighting to make possible abroad.
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/opinion/14249052.htm