Rummy says Armstrong Williams wasn't paid, so stop saying that!!!

[Career Prole]

"We don't go out and hire journalists and propagandize and lie and put people on payroll so that they'll say what you want."
--Donald Rumsfeld, 12/24/2004

I saw that quote in a sig-line on the Daily Kos and just had to go look it up. It comes from a speech he gave in Mosul in which towards the end he criticized journalists for broadcasting "bad news" and ignoring "good news".

I find it singularly amusing in light of recent events. :evilgrin:

In context:
What hurts most is in the region where the neighboring countries whose help we need are constantly being barraged with truly vicious inaccuracies about what's taking place in this country. And it's conscious, it's consistent, it's persistent and it makes everything we try to do in neighboring countries where we're looking for support, vastly more difficult. And we, as a country, don't do that. We don't go out and hire journalists and propagandize and lie and put people on payroll so that they'll say what you want. We just don't do that and they do and that's happening. And Al Jazeera is right there at the top.
http://www.pentagon.mil/transcripts/2004/tr20041224-secdef1881.html

So there you have it folks...the "evil others" hire journalists to propagandize, but we as a country do not.
Would Don Rumsfeld lie to you? :eyes:

[Cocoa]

1. my guess for one paid Iraq journalist

Bob Arnot.

[b...]

2. em

you just can't make this stuff up

[Career Prole]

5. Heck no! The truth is always stranger than fiction nowadays.

...and welcome to DU! :hi:

[b...]

6. thank you.

i look forward trying to keep up with this all.

[dave123williams]

3. Sounds like if we do a little digging...

We'll find lots of examples of 'journalists' on the DOD payroll. Time for a purge of the Media, I think.

[GreenPartyVoter]

19. Agreed! Let's hold them accountable

----------------------------------------------------------
Save this nation one town, county, and state at a time!
http://timeforachange.bluelemur.com/electionreform.htm#why

[WMliberal]

4. he's technically correct....

It probably wasn't the Pentagon shilling out cash for No Child Left Behind, but Dept. of Education or maybe some White House petty cash. :crazy:

He's probably right on another technicality: they "won't put people on payroll to say what you want;" they get paid to say what HE wants!

[WildClarySage]

8. Depends on who he means by "we".

[WMliberal]

11. exactly. That wasn't a slippery of the tongue. That was a planted phrase.

[lawladyprof]

14. And they're not on the "payroll": they're independent contractors

N/T

[WMliberal]

18. oooh, good one! I think there might be a job for you in the WH PR Dept.

[tk2kewl]

7. This statement is perfectly consistent with a policy of constant lying.

[tanyev]

9. Whatever they accuse others of doing...

That's the place to start investigating them.

We just don't do that and they do and that's happening. And Al Jazeera is right there at the top.

[BrklynLiberal]

10. Has anybody been keeping track of the length of Rumsfeld's nose???

[wicket]

12. great find!!

:kick:

[JohnnyRingo]

13. It was a "tip" for good service....I admit, I didn't see that coming.

Figures they'd send RumDumb out with it.
I see he's back to his old gruff form again.

[The Backlash Cometh]

15. Er...actually, the Bush Administration announced they were going to

start a propaganda of false media information to confuse the enemy. I thought they got so much criticism for that strategy that they changed course. I'm not so sure anymore.

[Robbien]

16. Great find, thanks. Bookmarked to use

in future LTTE's and discussions.

[Tracer]

17. Rumsfeld the Liar.

This past weekend, I took home a DVD of "Control Room" and in several of the most telling sequences, there was Dumbsfeld at CentCom press conferences claiming that the U.S. doesn't bomb, kill, incinerate civilians or journalists ...... and in the very next frame, there is the U.S. bombing, killing and incinerating civilians and journalists.

[Ms. Clio]

20. America's Ministry of Propaganda Exposed

The 56-page investigation was assembled by USAF Colonel (Ret.) Sam Gardiner. "Truth from These Podia: Summary of a Study of Strategic Influence, Perception Management, Strategic Information Warfare and Strategic Psychological Operations in Gulf II" identifies more than 50 stories about the Iraq war that were faked by government propaganda artists in a covert campaign to "market" the military invasion of Iraq.

Gardiner has credentials. He has taught at the National War College, the Air War College and the Naval Warfare College and was a visiting scholar at the Swedish Defense College.

According to Gardiner, "It was not bad intelligence" that lead to the quagmire in Iraq, "It was an orchestrated effort began before the war" that was designed to mislead the public and the world. Gardiner's research lead him to conclude that the US and Britain had conspired at the highest levels to plant "stories of strategic influence" that were known to be false.

The Times of London described the $200-million-plus US operation as a "meticulously planned strategy to persuade the public, the Congress, and the allies of the need to confront the threat from Saddam Hussein."

The multimillion-dollar propaganda campaign run out of the White House and Defense Department was, in Gardiner's final assessment "irresponsible in parts" and "might have been illegal."


http://www.worldnewsstand.net/news/AMOP1.htm

[Career Prole]

21. "multimillion-dollar propaganda campaign"..."might have been illegal"

"Might have been illegal"?!
Lord, send me to a planet where common sense still reigns.

[Ms. Clio]

22. When you get there, please send back for the rest of us!

More from the same article:

Gardiner's dogged research identified a long list of stories that passed through Rumsfeld's propaganda mill. According to Gardiner, "there were over 50 stories manufactured or at least engineered that distorted the picture of Gulf II for the American and British people." Those stories include:

# The link between terrorism, Iraq and 9/11
# Iraqi agents meeting with 9/11 hijacker Mohammed Atta
# Iraq's possession of chemical and biological weapons.
# Iraq's purchase of nuclear materials from Niger.
# Saddam Hussein's development of nuclear weapons.
# Aluminum tubes for nuclear weapons
# The existence of Iraqi drones, WMD cluster bombs and Scud missiles.
# Iraq's threat to target the US with cyber warfare attacks.
# The rescue of Pvt. Jessica Lynch.
# The surrender of a 5,000-man Iraqi brigade.
# Iraq executing Coalition POWs.
# Iraqi soldiers dressing in US and UK uniforms to commit atrocities.
# The exact location of WMD facilities
# WMDs moved to Syria.

Every one of these stories received extensive publicity and helped form indelible public impressions of the "enemy" and the progress of the invasion. Every one of these stories was false.

[Career Prole]

23. The list is a walk down memory-hole lane, isn't it?

The scope of this thing was breathtaking...and nobody but us raised a stink.
I can't for the life of me figure out how they got by with it.

As for the new planet, you're always welcome.
They told me this one was a fixer-upper, but this is ridiculous! :eyes: