Image from the Lincoln Group website

The New York Times reports that the U.S. military's review of a PR firm's covert propaganda program in Iraq, led by Rear Adm. Scott Van Buskirk, has been completed but not made public. According to military officials, "The findings are narrow in focus, and conclude that the Lincoln Group committed no legal violations because its actions in paying to place American [information operations troops]-written articles without attribution were not expressly prohibited by its contract or military rules." The report "did not deal deeply" with such issues as how the small, young, well-connected firm received large government contracts, or whether its work was effective. It also did not address how, "in a modern information world connected by satellite television and the Internet, misleading information and lies could easily migrate into American news outlets." The Lincoln Group's Iraq work, on "a contract estimated at several million dollars," remains "fully in effect." The firm continues to bid for U.S. government contracts.

"George Bush, Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld actually need the media now more than ever," writes the Columbia Journalism Review's Gal Beckerman. Although the "conventional wisdom ... is that this administration views the press as vampires view garlic," White House criticisms of the media "have become essential to the administration's contention that progress is being made." The effect of this argument, Beckerman writes, is to sugggest that "We're not seeing car bombs ripping entire blocks apart and blowing dozens of Iraqis to bits. We're seeing images of car bombs ripping entire blocks apart and blowing dozens of Iraqis to bits. ... Because the violence is only 'on their television screens,' it's as if it does not actually exist out there in the world; it is only the 'image' of violence. ... There's no doubt the administration would love more images of Iraqi children playing in the street. But this same derision of the media also serves a purpose in itself in the administration's campaign to win over the home front. If the media cannot be trusted, then we shouldn't trust what we think we know about Iraq. Instead, the administration is saying, just trust us."

"When 15 Latino groups sent a letter to top Senate Commerce Committee lawmakers urging video-franchising relief for the Bell telecommunications firms, the appeal appeared to be on behalf of Hispanic Americans," writes David Hatch. "But critics said the letter also was on behalf of the Bell firms AT&T and Verizon Communications, which have financial and business ties to many of the signatories. ... Among the signers was the National Hispanic Media Coalition, which became a client of the Washington-based lobbying firm Mickey Ibarra and Associates on Feb. 23. Ibarra is a registered lobbyist for Verizon and Consumers for Cable Choice, which is funded partly by Bell companies."

The Wall Street Journal reports that Public Interest Watch (PIW), a non-profit 'watchdog' group which sucessfully lobbied for an Internal Revenue Service (IRS) tax audit of Greenpeace, has been heavily funded by ExxonMobil. Two years after PIW urged an IRS investigation, Greenpeace was subjected to a three-month long audit. Steve Stecklow reports that PIW's "most recent federal tax filing, covering August 2003 to July 2004, states that $120,000 of the $124,094" came from the oil company. ExxonMobil confirmed that they had funded the group at that time but no longer do. According to Greenpeace USA executive director John Passacantando, the IRS auditor, Charles Walker, told him the investigation was in response to PIW's complaint. In March this year Greenpeace was informed that it retained its tax exempt status. PIW's Executive Director Lewis Fein has refused to disclose any of the groups current funders.