House: Less Propaganda Pls. LAT: "The House of Representatives moved Thursday to crack down on a Pentagon program that Democrats say planted false and overly optimistic news stories about the Iraq war, using military analysts who appeared regularly on television. Acting on a 2009 defense policy bill, lawmakers forbade the Defense Department from engaging in 'a concerted effort to propagandize' the American people over the war. The amendment by Rep. Paul W. Hodes (D-N.H.), which passed by voice vote, also would force an investigation by the General Accounting Office of efforts to plant positive news stories about the war. The overall bill passed 384-23." Guess the GAO can't investigate this: "Representatives of NBC, CBS and ABC said Thursday that they were confident their analysts had not been improperly influenced[by the Pentagon]. Fox News and CNN did not respond to requests for comment."

Posted by Laura at May 23, 2008 01:04 PM