Spinning the bullets (Guardian Unlimited)

[spindrifter]

By David Fickling / USA 03:08pm

It seems incredible, but on a day when at least 52 people were killed in bomb and gun attacks in Iraq after three years of chaos and insurgency, the US has concluded that its problem in the country is one of bad publicity.

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Given the scale of the problems that Washington faces in its war on terror, this refusal to accept the reasons behind the bad coverage from Iraq is astonishing.

Donald Rumsfeld, who was behind one of the creepiest bits of Bush-era public relations with his creation, closure and semi-secret resurrection of the Orwellian Office of Strategic Influence in 2002, was at it again in Salt Lake City earlier this week, comparing his critics to Nazi-era appeasers.

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You can find the roots of this attitude in the sincere belief among many American conservatives that the media should be used as a partisan tool to advance their political ends - an attitude encapsulated in the infamous Nixon-era memo by late Supreme Court judge Lewis Powell, seen by many as the seed from which the modern conservative media backlash has grown.

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http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/news/archives/2006/08/31/spinning_the_bullets.html