A rchive Date
[ 25-02-2002 ]
Category
[ International Relations ]
sub-Categoy
[ Mass Media ]
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[http://msnbc.com/news/714763.asp
Truth: The Best Propaganda
Disinformation has its uses, but it’s not the way to win the Muslim world’s hearts and minds
Sigrid Estrada
NEWSWEEK
March 4 issue - When word leaked last week that the Pentagon had established an “Office of Strategic Influence,” I thought at first it was a joke for the Orwell fans among us. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld was forced to deny that the office intended to spread falsehoods in the foreign press, but for once, it was hard to believe him - in part because his under secretary, Douglas Feith, admitted that the Pentagon will just outsource the lying to contractors. Feith clearly didn’t get the memo. Anyone truthful enough to admit that he would pay for untruthfulness is clearly too honest to lead a disinformation campaign. P.S.: the campaign won’t do much in the war against terrorism, anyway.
THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN bureaucrats run around trying to play secret - agent man. The administration rightly identified that the United States had a huge propaganda challenge in the Arab world and needs to think creatively about it. But “creative” seems to mean going back to cold - war spy games that don’t work well in a global Information Age. Even if word that Osama bin Laden was a pedophile (just trying to do my patriotic part!) made it into the press in one or two countries, it wouldn’t help much in a worldwide struggle without borders. There are just too many sources of information to control.
More important, Muslims will not suddenly swallow something they are not predisposed to believe. We have to change the predisposition, their natural tendency to distrust us, which is a much longer and more subtle struggle. In that sense, the most convincing objection to black “info ops” is not ethical but practical; any benefits are outweighed by loss of credibility in the Arab world. If we try to hide our lies, we’ll be busted soon enough anyway, somewhere on the Internet, further fueling the conspiracy theories that abound like pita bread in the region. If we admit to lying, that will be the only thing out of our mouths that anyone will believe.
Washington flacks - the public - relations folks paid to be cheerfully pro - government - are angry about this idea. It’s one thing to have CIA operatives involved; they’ve dabbled in disinformation for years. But any time the Pentagon gets involved - and tells us about it - we risk blurring the line between covert operations and public affairs. They are different functions, with the former acting like poison on the latter. “We’re supposed to have a firewall,” one public - affairs officer told me. “And this would shatter it.”
Obviously there is a place for occasional tactical deception. Vice President Cheney drew a useful distinction last week between the D - Day - style military fake - outs that everyone favors (used most recently to fool Iraq into believing we were about to launch an amphibious invasion during the gulf war) and spreading lies in the foreign press. But the need for such military surprise is rare, and the surprise is easier to pull off if the government is telling the truth most of the rest of the time. Anything that erodes that presumption hurts the war effort.
There’s also a place for truthful spin, both positive and negative. The outside contractor being used by the Bush administration is the secretive Rendon Group, a “global communications” firm headed by a former Democratic National Committee official named John Rendon. He’s the guy who made sure that the Kuwaitis had lots of little American flags on hand to wave when the American troops arrived in 1991. During the Clinton years, he worked under a multimillion-dollar contract to the CIA to demonize Saddam Hussein in the Arab world, which was sometimes goofy (Rendon used anti-Saddam comic books) but worth a try.
Unfortunately, the limitations of such an approach became clearer when Rendon tried unsuccessfully to collaborate with the Iraqi National Congress, the exile group attempting to oust Saddam.
The longer-term challenge is for the hearts and minds of Muslims. The Voice of America, which is holding its 60th-birthday party this week, reaches only 2 percent of Arabic speakers. But one of the members of its broadcasting board of governors, Norman Pattiz, has a plan. The Beverly Hills entrepreneur, who founded Westwood One, will this month launch the Dubai - based Mideast Radio Network, a government-funded top-40 station for the Arab world, with a mixture of Western and Middle Eastern music and some VOA news.
American popular culture, already available in many parts of the region, creates a bigger backlash in the Arab world than it did in Eastern Europe - and not just because the mullahs will have to listen to Britney Spears. Let the countdown begin.
Then there’s the concept, pushed by Sen. Joe Biden among others, of a new TV network to compete with Al - Jazeera. The problem here is that the United States can’t fund Israel-bashing, and if that’s missing, the Arab audience won’t tune in. A better idea would be to mix some news with well - produced scientific, cultural and religious programming, where moderate Arabs can offer a peaceful, modern version of Islam for the next generation. Some lawmakers are blanching at the cost, but it’s a good investment even if the ratings flag.
With all due respect to the CIA, our winning of the cold war had almost nothing to do with dirty tricks. We won with information, not disinformation - with what we like about our culture, not what we’d like to hide. Even amid a nasty war, that’s still the best way to win friends and influence some people.
© 2002 Newsweek, Inc.
 World Fact Book (CIA)]
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