Marketing the invasion of Iraq...Bush Admin's use of PR firms to sell war

[Mixxster]

My apologies if this is a dup. I looked but didn't find an earlier thread.

Bill Berkowitz
WorkingForChange
8.13.03

Marketing the invasion of Iraq
New book documents Bush Administration's use of PR firms to sell war to the American people

Sheldon Rampton and John Stauber's new book will not sell as many copies as Hillary Clinton's memoir, the latest Harry Potter book or Ann Coulter's most recent bestselling work of fiction, "Treason." There won't be a major motion picture deal and there's no made-for-tv flick in the works. Unlike Jessica Lynch, Stauber and Rampton haven't received a massive multimedia financial proposal from CBS -- or any other network. And thus far, they haven't been asked to co-host MTV's Doggy Fizzle Televizzle with Snoop Dogg.
They haven't even been invited to discuss their timely book on the Today Show, Good Morning America or any of the nightly cable news channel talk-fests. And most mainstream dailies haven't seen fit to review it.

In a mid-August email, Stauber talked about a recent trip to New York City "where our very competent and hardworking publicist at Penguin was unable to interest a single ABC/NBC/CBS/MSNBC/FOX/CNN/PBS program in having us on for a discussion." He noted that even "the war's number one cheerleaders at FOX" refused to avail themselves of the opportunity "to pound and smear us in their typical WWF style. Amazingly," adds Stauber, "the common response from these networks when they turned down our publicist was 'the book is not topical.'"

<snip>

In the coming months, expect the Bush Administration to launch a campaign to convince the American public that it has found Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, or what it now prefers to call "weapons of mass destruction programs." In light of Andrew Card's words, the campaign will likely not be unveiled until September. Conservative columnist Robert Novak has already provided a sneak preview: In a short item in an early-August column Novak wrote: "Former international weapons inspector David Kay, now seeking Iraqi weapons of mass destruction for the Pentagon, has privately reported successes that are planned to be revealed to the public in mid-September."

http://www.workingforchange.com/article.cfm?itemid=15447&CFID=9007933&CFTOKEN=30065107

[ewagner]

1. AAAAArrrrrgggggghhhhhh!

This is exactly why there needs to be a "liberal network".

Also wish we had enough $$$ to hire one or more of those Madison Ave type firms to get our message out! Those whores will work for anyone who has the cash.

[searchingforlight]

2. I believe there is going to have to be tremendous documentation

for the world view. This will not be accepted at face value.

[teryang]

3. Lies, distortions, misinformation, propaganda

Manipulating public perceptions. In other words, the stock in trade of corporate America and its media. They are not going to cover the story of their role in the fascist nightmare. After all, they have to work with people like Rendon and his ilk on a daily basis. It's how they make their living. You don't shit where you eat.

The phrase, "fair and balanced" is old one oft used in prior decades by the Rendon like firms, including the oldest and largest PR firms in America. It became popular during the huge multimillion dollar campaign for three decades (with media cooperation) to convince Americans that it wasn't proven that CIGARETTES CAUSE CANCER, long after it had been, at an untold public cost. There is a blurring of boundaries that occurs when discussing corporate wrong, propaganda, and fascism. Goebbels and the Nazis were fascinated with and developed American corporate PR techniques. It then came to be further developed as a political art form by our own nations intelligence and defense establishments. Now it is a political ideology that controls three branches of government and most of the public in addition to the commercial marketplace from whence it originated.

[berry]

4. Is it good news that the book is sold out at Powell's? You have to

back order it. I hope they printed a LOT of these--even if the media is uninterested in it, word is apparently getting out. It's also quite reasonably priced (about $12), so people will buy it instead of waiting in line at the library (as I often do with more expensive books).

I have never understood how anyone could doubt that PR was the game, with Victoria Clark right out there in front....

[ikojo]

5. The Kuwaiti government

hired a PR firm to help sell the US public on Gulf War I in 1990. They even went so far as to have a 12 year old girl testify before Congress that she had personally seen Iraqi soldiers bayonetting babies in a neonatal unit.

Of course it wasn't until much later that all of this turned out to be false. It was not reported widely in the corporate press. This girl turned out to be the daughter of Kuwaiti diplomats hired by the PR firm Hill and Knowlton (I think that was the name of the firm).