Incompetent Liars? Here's $6.2 Million

Submitted by Diane Farsetta on

Lincoln Group, the PR firm that covertly placed U.S. military-written stories in Iraqi newspapers and has been called "amateurish" by former associates, has won a new two-year, $6.2 million Pentagon contract. Additional requests from Washington DC could increase the value of the contract up to $20 million total. The work includes establishing "a unit of 12-18 communicators to support military PR efforts in Iraq and throughout the Middle East from media training to pitching stories and providing content for government-backed news sites." The Rendon Group previously handled similar work for the U.S.-led military force in Iraq. The request for proposals for the new contract "cited the emboldened insurgency bent on civil war as a key obstacle to the U.S. force's military and communications mission in Iraq." U.S. Senator Robert Menendez has introduced an amendment to halt the PR blitz, according to O'Dwyer's.

Main Source: 
O'Dwyer's PR Daily (sub req'd), September 26, 2006
Topics: 
Iraq
Propaganda
Public Relations
U.S. Government

Comments

stephane mot replied on

I suggest a Karl Rove Propaganda Award for President Bush following his comment about medias revealing parts of the intel report on terror and Iraq. According to King Dubya, the said medias did "create confusion in the minds of the American people", which could be translated into "did their jobs" or "exposed our propaganda machine".

Things to read : interesting papers from Newsweek (20061002 issue) about :
- Hizbullah's propaganda machine : "Winning Hearts and Minds"
- The Architect's new proteges (Todd Olsen, Terry Nelson...) : "In Rove's Footsteps"

______________________________________________________________________________________
Stephane MOT -
http://e-blogules.blogspot.com

______________________________________________________________________________________

Diane Farsetta replied on

The [http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003157690 Associated Press reports]:

Rep. [[Robert Andrews]], D-N.J., who serves on the House Armed Services Committee, said he would be asking the Department of Defense for information about how this "controversial" vendor was chosen, saying the choice of the Lincoln Group "concerns me greatly."

But, Andrews said he's more concerned about the fact that the contract was awarded at all, not just to the Lincoln Group.

"I wish that our problem in Iraq was that the military wasn't getting good PR," Andrews said. "The problem seems to be that the country is sliding into civil war."