Flack Attack

With CMD's hot-off-the-press The Best War Ever: Lies, Damned Lies, and the Mess in Iraq by Sheldon Rampton and John Stauber (excerpts proudly presented herein), the atmosphere around the office of the Center for Media and Democracy has been downright electric. Add to that the Federal Communications Commission's August 2006 demand to 77 TV news outlets for detailed information on corporate-funded video news releases that the stations presented as news (exposed, of course by our own Diane Farsetta and Daniel Price -- see PR Watch

Providing a perfect lead-in to The Best War Ever, the New York Times reported on August 4 that the Bush Administration was attempting to classify most of a congressional study that examines the role of the Iraqi National Congress (INC) in selling the war to the American public. In our excerpted chapters " Big Impact, " " Rewriting History " and " Not Counting the Dead, " you will find parts of our own account of the White House whitewash on Iraq, including the sordid collaboration of the Rendon Group, Ahmed Chalabi and the INC. You'll want to read the entire account. After you read the excerpts in this issue, you can order a signed copy at www.thebestwarever.com.

CMD's books and websites have helped make America aware that this war is driven by a dangerous elevation of propaganda over policy, and privatization of government functions that insulate the administration from accountability for its own decisions. Previous Congresses and presidents were aware of precisely these risks of propagandizing the public. In 1951, Congress began a tradition of forbidding government contractors (e.g. the INC) from using funds for domestic publicity or propaganda purposes, including lobbying Congress. Three years before that, Congress passed the Smith-Mundt Act, which outlawed domestic dissemination of U.S. government materials intended for foreign audiences. The only problem: federal courts have only allowed Congress the power to seek enforcement of this prohibition. Currently Congress is failing to police the executive branch and itself on foreign policy propaganda, and taxpayers cannot sue to enforce the government's own promise to the American people.

Where does all this leave us (other than in a quagmire)? Read on . . .