War / Peace

GM's "Earth-Deadly" Hummer A Hot Selling Climate Killer

Submitted by John Stauber on

Five years after car industry and other lobbyists killed US ratification of the Kyoto treaty, a minimal effort to limit climate change, the General Motors corporation is selling its 11-miles-per-gallon Hummer. The company can barely keep up with surging American demand for the $50,000 behemoth, a version of a US military vehicle popularized during the first Iraq War. According to Dr. Clotaire Rapaille, marketing guru to the auto industry, "People told me, 'I can protect my family.

No
Main Source: 
New York Times, November 2, 2002
Topics: 
Climate Change
War / Peace

Marketing the New "Dogs of War"

Submitted by Sheldon Rampton on

In the latest installment of their series on the business of war, the Center for Public Integrity's team of investigative journalists examines the career of Tim Spicer, the figurehead in a PR campaign to improve the unsavory image of soldiers who fight for hire. "Politicians in the West seem quickly to have accepted a convenient if illusory dichotomy just as it has been handed to them - contrasting the old-style (and bad) 'dogs of war' with the new-style (and good) private military companies, or PMCs," the report states.

No
Main Source: 
http://www.icij.org/dtaweb/icij_bow.asp?Section=Chapter&ChapNum=3
Topics: 
Corporations
War / Peace

Branding New and Improved Wars

Submitted by Laura Miller on

"Marketing a war is serious business. And no product requires better brand names than one that squanders vast quantities of resources while intentionally killing large numbers of people," Media Beat columnist Norman Solomon writes. From 1989's Operation Just Cause to 1991's Operation Desert Storm to today's Enduring Freedom, Solomon suggests that naming military operations is nothing more than a form of "media cross-promotion" meant to sanitize war.

No
Main Source: 
http://www.fair.org/media-beat/021029.html
Topics: 
Rhetoric
U.S. Government
War / Peace

The Business of War

Submitted by Sheldon Rampton on

A nearly two-year investigation by the Center for Public Integrity's International Consortium of Investigative Journalists has identified at least 90 private military companies worldwide that intervene on behalf of governments in military conflicts. The ICIJ investigation shows how profits from war commerce have gone to a small group of individuals and companies with connections to governments, multinational corporations and, sometimes, criminal syndicates in the United States, Europe, Africa and the Middle East.

No
Main Source: 
http://www.public-i.org/dtaweb/report.asp?ReportID=469&L1=10&L2=10&L3=0&L4=0&L5=…
Topics: 
Corporations
War / Peace

What Aren't We Being Told?

Submitted by Sheldon Rampton on

As chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Bob Graham (D-FL) sees classified government information that isn't released to the public. Based on what he's seen, he told CBS News, the Bush Administration appears to be selectively disclosing classified information based on politics rather than the requirements of national security. "There's been a pattern in which information is provided on a classified basis, and then what is declassified are those sections of the report that are most advantageous to the administration," Graham said.

No
Main Source: 
CBS News, October 21, 2002
Topics: 
Secrecy
U.S. Government
War / Peace

Forked-Tongue Warriors

Submitted by Sheldon Rampton on

"Wedged between a rack of 99-cent Cheetos and a display of pork rinds stood a life-sized cardboard cutout of a buxom blond in a red miniskirt," reports Ian Urbina. "Resting on her inner thigh was a frosty bottle of Miller Genuine Draft. 'That's essentially what we do,' an army major remarked, pointing to the stiletto-heeled eye-catcher. 'But we don't sell beer.' ... The scene was a recruitment barbecue conducted by the US Army's 11th Psychological Operations Battalion ("Psy-ops," for short). ...

No
Main Source: 
Village Voice, October 9-15, 2002
Topics: 
Propaganda
U.S. Government
War / Peace

Advertising for Peace: "Uncle oSAMa Wants You!"

Submitted by John Stauber on

Two separate full page anti-war advertisements appear in today's New York Times. The Florence Fund's ad feature's "Uncle Osama," an Uncle Sam take-off who taunts "Send me a new
generation of recruits. Your bombs will fuel their hatred of America and
their desire for revenge." Meanwhile, a full page advertisement
from the TrueMajority Campaign led by former ice cream magnate Ben Cohen

No
Main Source: 
New York Times, October 14, 2002
Topics: 
Left Wing
Advertising
War / Peace

Chicago Conference on War Propaganda November 2nd

Submitted by John Stauber on

Chicago Media Watch is holding "an urgent city-wide conference" on war and propaganda Saturday, November 2, on the campus of Loyola University. Some of the speakers will include "David Schippers, attorney for FBI special agent and whistleblower Robert Wright, who was stopped from speaking out about the investigation of terrorist cells in the US, under threat of termination. ... Professor Nancy Snow of UCLA's Annenberg School of Communication who previously worked for US Information Service, and author of Propaganda, Inc.

No
Main Source: 
http://www.chicagomediawatch.org/conference2002.html
Topics: 
Propaganda
War / Peace

Bashing The Traitorous, Peacenik News Media

Submitted by John Stauber on

Does it seem that the corporate news media is filled with traitorous peaceniks who are coddling Saddam, bashing Bush, and opposing a first-strike attack on Iraq? No? Well, maybe you just aren't paying attention like target="_blank"> Brent Bozell III and his Media Research Center. The Center sends

No
Main Source: 
http://www.mediaresearch.org/
Topics: 
Right Wing
Media
Think Tanks
War / Peace

Worth More than a One-Liner

Submitted by Sheldon Rampton on

In a recent public speech, Senator Edward Kennedy "laid out what was arguably the most comprehensive case yet offered to the public questioning the Bush administration's policy and timing on Iraq," writes Washington Post ombudsman Michael Getler. "The next day, The Post devoted one sentence to the speech. ... Ironically, Kennedy made ample use in his remarks of the public testimony in Senate Armed Services Committee hearings a week earlier by retired four-star Army and Marine Corps generals who cautioned about attacking Iraq at this time -- hearings that The Post also did not cover.

No
Main Source: 
Washington Post, October 6, 2002
Topics: 
Journalism
War / Peace

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