Knight-Ridder, NYT on the Pentagon’s Planted News
Additional detail on the story about the Defense Dept. paying Iraqi news outlets to run happy-puppies-and-moonbeams stories about the occupation: From Knight-Ridder’s Jonathan S. Landay: U.S. military pays Iraqis for positive news stories on war. And from the NYT’s Jeff Gerth and Scott Shame: U.S. is said to pay to plant articles in Iraq papers.
I guess it’s a fringe benefit of the cynicism I’ve been developing lately that I’m not shocked and outraged by this story. It really doesn’t seem all that surprising. It’s just another example of the ineptitude and dishonesty that has characterized this fiasco from the beginning.
