Some may remember back to about a year ago when a small scandal hit the airwaves when it was revealed that the Bush administration
was paying journalists to plant false stories about the war effort (and America in general) over in Iraq. In other words, "propaganda."

A secret military campaign to plant tailored "news" in Iraqi papers caused a fresh stir today as the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee said he would bring the affair before his panel and the Senate Democratic leader called on the Bush administration to "come clean."

The Armed Services chairman, Senator John W. Warner, said this afternoon that he remained "gravely concerned" over the disclosure that a Washington-based public relations firm working in Iraq had been hired to translate articles written by American troops into Arabic and, in many cases, give them to advertising agencies for placement in the Iraqi media.

Under the program, some friendly Iraqi journalists reportedly have also been given monthly stipends - a practice that Mr. Warner, a Virginia Republican, said could not be justified.

The Pentagon launched an investigation and released findings which found that such propaganda was legal:

It was reported previously that Rear Adm. Scott Van Buskirk's review of U.S. propaganda efforts in Iraq found that no regulations were violated by the "multipronged campaign."

According to the New York Times, the three-page summary of the Pentagon review calls the military's covert authorship of Iraqi newspaper articles "appropriate," but suggests new guidelines to "determine when attribution may be appropriate."

No US court reviewed this case and the conclusions in the report raised some eyebrows as the investigators at the Pentagon were seen as having a bit of a conflict of interest since they were basically reviewing actions which they themselves may have had a hand in- The Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld, has made no secret about his belief that the propaganda of the enemy (in Iraq) should be combated with our own propaganda.

The use of propaganda during wartime has always been a contentious issue and naturally, the blogosphere has weighed in on both sides of the issue. One blogger, LaShawn Barber, comes down on the side of allowing/supporting our propaganda efforts, saying:

If you're like me, you don't mind a little propaganda with your coffee.

As a conservative who supports the war on terrorism wholeheartedly, for example, including the "battle" in Iraq, I tend to give more weight to pro-war messages than "peace" messages. If we want to rid the world of war, we have to rid the world of sin. We don't have the power to do this, but we have the power to protect ourselves from attack.

That's why I believe certain types of propaganda during wartime are permissible (I can already see the e-mail coming!). I listen to old radio shows, and I especially like the ones broadcast during WWII. I even like the commercials. Everyone and everything seemed patriotic. We're wise enough to know this wasn't the case. The point is that Germany and Japan heard and saw pro-American and anti-German and anti-Japanese propaganda, which was the point. If nothing else, America presented a united front to the enemy, which I think is an extremely important psychological tactic during wartime.

But this week, a new wrinkle in the debate was introduced when it was revealed that the Bush administration was using US news outlets to plant fake news stories in the American media about the Iraq war effort - this has been a long-standing legal no-no. It has been established practice througout the years to use propaganda targeted at foreign audiences, but as the blog, Truth Out, notes:

US law forbids the Pentagon from conducting propaganda campaigns against American audiences. And though efforts such as the websites target foreign countries, they are available to any person with a computer.

It appears that our government may be in direct violation of the law and federal authorities are currently investigating the allegations:

Federal authorities are actively investigating dozens of American television stations for broadcasting items produced by the Bush administration and major corporations, and passing them off as normal news. Some of the fake news segments talked up success in the war in Iraq, or promoted the companies' products.

Investigators from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) are seeking information about stations across the country after a report produced by a campaign group detailed the extraordinary extent of the use of such items.

The report, by the non-profit group Centre for Media and Democracy, found that over a 10-month period at least 77 television stations were making use of the faux news broadcasts, known as Video News Releases (VNRs). Not one told viewers who had produced the items.

Interestingly, the fake news stories are not just about the war effort, but about corporate products. It's difficult to balance a free press on the one hand while knowing that the government can plant fake news stories favorable to its agenda without our knowledge, on the other.

Stay tuned...