"In Iraq, Exporting a bunch of budding Jayson Blairs simply feeds the unhelpful image of Americans as inept and hypocritical puppetmasters" says Jonathan Alter, Newsweek columnist in a very challenging article after the Los Angeles Times revealed that the American government had been planting stories in the Iraqi press that promote the idea of Iraqi democracy and self-rule (see former posting).

What is interesting in Alter's article is the comparison between the cold war and the current war in Iraq: "My problem with all of this is less ethical than practical. If it helped build Iraqi democracy or blunted anti-American propaganda, it might even be worth it (though certainly not at those prices)...

"...But exporting a bunch of budding Jayson Blairs simply feeds the perception of Americans as inept and hypocritical puppetmasters. If we won't withdraw our troops, can't we at least withdraw our ham-handed propaganda efforts? Can't we stop discrediting the truly independent Iraqi reporters and editors that American journalists are helping to train? Can't we grasp the elemental point that an entirely pro-American Arab media is, on its face, not credible in the region and therefore not helpful to the cause of Iraqi independence?"

Source: Newsweek through MSNBC. See also MediaGuardian and Peter Preston column.

US Military admited planting news in Iraq. Please find below the official version of the "affair" (according to AFP):

"The US military intended news stories that were placed in Iraqi newspapers to be "paid advertisements," but some ran without disclaimers that they had been paid for, a US senator said Friday.

Senator John Warner, after being briefed by defense officials, said the Pentagon was still gathering information on the extent of the secret program and whether Iraqi journalists were paid by the military to write favorable stories.

Senior Pentagon officials confirmed that a private firm, the Lincoln Group, was contracted to pay Iraqi news organizations to run military-produced stories as paid advertisements, he said. "Now it's been discovered in some areas there's an omission of that reference that it's been paid for. And they're looking into that," Warner told reporters.

He said the stories were put together by a group working directly under Lieutenant General John Vines, the second ranking commander in Iraq. They were reviewed by a flag officer and cleared by military legal
advisers before being turned over to the Lincoln Group, he said. He said the material produced by the military was represented as originating with the coalition military.

"Lincoln Group is authorized to provide payment for placement of this material in Iraqi newspapers, similar to the way in which any advertiser, marketer or public relations firm would place advertisements," Warner said.

The Los Angeles Times reported this week that... dozens of stories written by military "information operations" soldiers ran in Iraqi newspapers, many of them presented as unbiased news
accounts by independent reporters.

Knight-Ridder newspapers reported this week that the military also has paid Iraqi journalists to write favorable stories, making payments of up to 200 dollars a month to members of a military-organized Baghdad Press Club.