The Pentagon makes a much needed change in tactics

When the facts are biased. Defense dept. to defend Donald Rumsfeld.

WASHINGTON, Nov. 2 — The Pentagon is reorganizing its public affairs operation in an attempt to influence news coverage, amid internal frustration at the tone and substance of reporting on Iraq and on Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld.

The expanded office, which was first described by department officials in an informal press briefing on Monday, features a “rapid response unit” to react to news reports. It is also stepping up efforts to arrange appearances by department officials on talk radio and cable television, and to recruit “surrogates” who are not on the department’s payroll to defend its policies.

A dozen new staff members have started to work behind a newly installed wall in the Pentagon’s press office.

Officials involved say the new effort, which was conceived by Assistant Secretary of Defense Dorrance Smith, is not primarily a response to negative coverage but rather is aimed at more aggressively challenging articles and broadcasts deemed inaccurate and at making better use of podcasts, blogs and other new outlets.

“This is about the Department of Defense keeping the American people better informed about the nature of its operations, its activities, and its policies,” said Bryan Whitman, a Pentagon spokesman. “We would have to do this even if we were not nation at war.”

But officials also concede that much of the effort so far has focused on disputing stories about the war in Iraq and about Mr. Rumsfeld that they deem to be inaccurate. Pentagon officials in recent months have issued a flood of letters to the editor taking issue with accounts of Mr. Rumsfeld’s role in setting Iraq strategy, the content of his speeches and other matters of fact and interpretation in newspapers and magazine articles.

[...]

Barbara Starr, a veteran Pentagon correspondent for CNN, said she was surprised last month to be challenged by press officers within minutes after completing a report on a Baghdad briefing where the military’s top spokesman called the results of recent security operations “disheartening.” Ms. Starr said she had called it a “stunning development” on the air.

“They objected to the tone during my live shot,” she said. “My view is that if a general says things are disheartening, that is news.”

When the field of battle changes, tactics must be revised. At least in the battle against the media.

I find the focus on blogs to be very interesting. The Bush administration is growing more and more deft at using the Mighty Wurlitzer, blog edition, by providing content directly to the Rightwing blogospher, avoiding the "filter" of the press to get the word out to the faithful.