Ethics Newsline®

WASHINGTON
Pentagon officials said last week that they are investigating whether there was anything improper in the military’s relationship with Iraqi news media following revelations that the military paid papers to publish pro-U.S. stories, the Reuters news agency reported.

Last Wednesday, the Los Angeles Times reported that articles praising U.S. military efforts were actually written by U.S. military personnel and translated into Arabic by a defense contractor that paid to place the articles in Baghdad papers.

Sen. John W. Warner (R-Va.), who heads the Armed Services committee, asked the Pentagon to explain and justify the program, the New York Times reported. In a statement, Warner said that paying for favorable coverage could “undermine the credibility of the United States as we help the Iraqi people stand up as a democracy.”

“A free and independent press is critical to the functioning of a democracy,” Warner said, “and I am concerned about any actions which may erode the independence of the Iraqi media.”

The White House also expressed concern over the reports.

In an analysis, the BBC said the allegations proved to be an embarrassment to the U.S. military at a time when it is attempting to promote transparency in Iraq.

Senior military officers in Iraq originally defended the actions, saying that the stories were factually correct and necessary to counteract the relentless propaganda of opposition forces.

Ironically, the revelations come as the U.S. State Department is training Iraqi reporters in journalism ethics, according to the newspaper trade journal Editor & Publisher.

The incident is the latest controversy involving the Bush administration and journalism of questionable objectivity. In the past year, the administration has been criticized for “covert propaganda” by distributing news stories to U.S. television stations where they were sometimes aired without identifying the government as the source, and for paying journalists, such as Armstrong Williams, to promote administration policies.