Smirk isn't the only one paying off reporters - Allawi does too

[donsu]

http://news.ft.com/cms/s/a3828a0c-6346-11d9-bec2-00000e2511c8.html

Allawi group slips cash to reporters


The electoral group headed by Iyad Allawi, the interim Iraqi prime minister, on Monday handed out cash to journalists to ensure coverage of its press conferences in a throwback to Ba'athist-era patronage ahead of parliamentary elections on January 30.

After a meeting held by Mr Allawi's campaign alliance in west Baghdad, reporters, most of whom were from the Arabic-language press, were invited upstairs where each was offered a "gift" of a $100 bill contained in an envelope.

Many of the journalists accepted the cash - about equivalent to half the starting monthly salary for a reporter at an Iraqi newspaper - and one jokingly recalled how Saddam Hussein's regime had also lavished perks on favoured reporters.

(can we have the names of the paid off so as to know which reporters are lying?)

-snip-

In recent weeks, there have been signs that Mr Allawi's campaign is staging an unexpectedly strong challenge.
-snip-
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could we pay the reporters $200 to tell the truth?

[Osamasux]

1. (Dupe Thread)

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x1484837

[The Backlash Cometh]

2. You want a smoking gun to determine how rampant this practice is?

After 9/11 Neil Bush counseled Saudi Arabia to buy the public relations they needed to counter bad press with good press.

What shocks me is that anybody is expecting any goodwill out of the Bush bunch. They're out for themselves and their friends. No one else counts.