The Propaganda Feedback Loop

I really hope you all clicked & read the L.A. Times story on propaganda Kerry linked to below. Among other revelations comes word that the military has secretly bought an Iraqi newspaper and radio station, knowing full well that the "news" funneled through them will eventually filter back to the States:

One of the military officials said that, as part of a psychological operations campaign that has intensified over the last year, the task force also had purchased an Iraqi newspaper and taken control of a radio station, and was using them to channel pro-American messages to the Iraqi public. Neither is identified as a military mouthpiece.

The official would not disclose which newspaper and radio station are under U.S. control, saying that naming them would put their employees at risk of insurgent attacks.

U.S. law forbids the military from carrying out psychological operations or planting propaganda through American media outlets. Yet several officials said that given the globalization of media driven by the Internet and the 24-hour news cycle, the Pentagon's efforts were carried out with the knowledge that coverage in the foreign press inevitably "bleeds" into the Western media and influences coverage in U.S. news outlets.

Previous Hit&Run tracing of related WoT/propaganda developments can be found here, here, here, here, here and here, for starters.