A surprising front-pager for CNN.com:
Pentagon sites: Journalism or propaganda?
The article concerns two sites set up by the Pentagon to appear to be "independent news sites" but which, in fact, are vehicles for Pentagon-sponsored "news" on the Balkans and a region in North Africa.
Says CNN:
At first glance, the Web pages appear to be independent news sites. To find out who is actually behind the content, a visitor would have to click on a small link -- at the bottom of the page -- to a disclaimer, which says, in part, that the site is "sponsored by" the U.S. Department of Defense.
The article also warns that the Pentagon "plans to add more sites on the Internet to provide information to a global audience."
Scary stuff. More below.
The sites are obviously structured to hide their true origins. They "carry stories on subjects such as politics, sports and entertainment," and their connection to the Pentagon can be discovered only after clicking on "a small link -- at the bottom of the page."
"There is an element of deception," said Tom Rosenstiel, director of the Project for Excellence in Journalism. "The problem," he said, is that it looks like a news site unless a visitor looks at the disclaimer, which is "sort of oblique."
The Pentagon admits that the content is dictated by the administration agenda:
The Pentagon maintains that the information on the sites is true and accurate. But in a recent memo, Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz insisted that the Web site contractor should only hire journalists who "will not reflect discredit on the U.S. government."
To its (small) credit, the Pentagon (or some within it) is investigating the propriety of these arrangements:
On Thursday, Lawrence Di Rita, the principal deputy assistant secretary of defense for public affairs, asked the Pentagon inspector general to examine Defense Department activities, including the Web sites in question, to see that they fall within the guidelines Bush laid out.
How long 'til we see a Jeff Gannon by-line there?
