April 13, 2003
Irony or propaganda?
Printable Version | [eMail this article!] |I was struck by something in an article in the 4/12/03 Oregonian. The article starts on the front page and is "Brand America: Nation must restore its reputation" by Jeff Manning. Let me just share a couple of (to me) striking quotes:
Manning: "Selling the war to Americans proved relatively easy. The lightening drive up the Euphrates River, chronicled by embedded journalists and streaming video, was a testament to soldiers' courage and training."
The later in the article, Mark Barden (a media planner): "The next war is the propaganda war."
Excuse me? Gosh, I thought that "selling the war" was a propaganda war (or did I miss something? Remember the claims that Al Jazeera and other "Arab" media were shaping the image of the war? Even some debate about "neither side" showing quite the whole truth? Remeber the articles about "managing the message"?
Oh well, I guess maybe the concern is the propaganda needed to get the rest of the world "on our side" again.
Posted by rowan at April 13, 2003 07:21 PM | Printable Version | [eMail this article!] |Good point.
It's hard to interpret the meaning at this point since the administration doesn't seem to care that they've lost alliances. How much of an effort are they really going to make?
(By the way, in other news, Iran has suspended its practice of stoning women to death as punishment for adultery. The head of judiciary is looking into "alternative punishments for adultery".)
Posted by: Erika at April 14, 2003 01:40 PMWell that is an interesting development. I'm not sure though when stoning was last used in Iran.
Posted by: rowan at April 14, 2003 03:27 PM