Pentagon PR spending increases exponentially

[unhappycamper]

The newsroom of the Joint Hometown News Service in San Antonio is seen Jan. 8. In a growing attempt to win what it calls "the human terrain," the Pentagon plans to spend more than $4.8 billion and employ more than 27,000 people this year to shape public opinion around the world. But critics worry that the Pentagon is using vast amounts of public money to shape the opinions of the American public. They dismiss the military's assertion that it is trying to educate rather than manipulate the American people.


Pentagon PR spending increases exponentially
By Chris Tomlinson - The Associated Press
Posted : Thursday Feb 5, 2009 22:26:01 EST

WASHINGTON — As it fights two wars, the Pentagon is steadily and dramatically increasing the money it spends to win what it calls “the human terrain” of world public opinion. In the process, it is raising concerns of spreading propaganda at home in violation of federal law.

An Associated Press investigation found that over the past five years, the money the military spends on winning hearts and minds at home and abroad has grown by 63 percent, to at least $4.7 billion this year, according to Department of Defense budgets and other documents. That’s almost as much as it spent on body armor for troops in Iraq and Afghanistan between 2004 and 2006.

This year, the Pentagon will employ 27,000 people just for recruitment, advertising and public relations — almost as many as the total 30,000-person work force in the State Department.

“We have such a massive apparatus selling the military to us, it has become hard to ask questions about whether this is too much money or if it’s bloated,” says Sheldon Rampton, research director for the Committee on Media and Democracy, which tracks the military’s media operations. “As the war has become less popular, they have felt they need to respond to that more.”

Yet the money spent on media and outreach still comes to only 1 percent of the Pentagon budget, and the military argues it is well-spent on recruitment and the education of foreign and American audiences. Military leaders say that at a time when extremist groups run Web sites and distribute video, information is as important a weapon as tanks and guns.


Rest of article at: http://armytimes.com/news/2009/02/ap_pentagon_pr_020509w/%2e



uhc comment: I (again) call bullshit. The 2009 military budget is almost a trillion dollars, not the $500 billion they are claiming.