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• Friday, August 3, 2007 06:11 AM

  They need to "control the message"

  the U.S. military in Iraq has been devoting far more efforts to all sorts of propaganda campaigns designed to shape American public opinion about the war.

  There is another side to the military “controlling the message” that gets out – they need to shut down those in the military who go “off message” and say anything (although it might be perfectly true) that doesn’t go along with the theme of a “glorious victory” unfolding in Iraq. Take what happened to Scott Thomas Beauchamp.

  Although anonymous sources are perfectly acceptable for O'Hanlon and Pollack to quote, any anonymous source that is “off-script” needs to be attacked and silenced if possible. That’s why the right achieved “victory” (at least short term) in the Beauchamp brouhaha even though everything every thing they claimed turned out to be false.

  As TNR reports:

  But, late last week, the Army began its own investigation, short-circuiting our efforts. Beauchamp had his cell-phone and computer taken away and is currently unable to speak to even his family. His fellow soldiers no longer feel comfortable communicating with reporters.

  The message to our soldiers is clear: tell reporters what the administration wants the media to hear or suffer the consequences.

  In this way, the administration feels it can “control the message” just like Cheney said he could do on “Meet the Press.”

  —_zack_ Read _zack_'s other letters
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