If you haven’t already read Mark Mazzetti’s Los Angeles Times report on the military’s recent blurring of the lines between public relations and “psy-ops,” be sure to check it out. Though the Pentagon closed its Office of Strategic Influence in 2002 after reports that the office was looking to plant false news stories in the international media, other offices throughout the U.S. government have assumed OSI’s mission, according to the Times. The most striking evidence? An October 14 briefing by a Marine spokesman at which he suggested that the U.S. offensive in Fallujah had begun. It hadn’t, and wouldn’t for three more weeks, but the military wanted to see the reaction of guerillas who heard the news that the invasion was underway. CNN reported the lie, and had to recant hours later.
At first blush, this sort of thing looks like bad news for the press, for an obvious reason: A responsible media organization cannot base reports on untrustworthy information. But we’d argue that the military’s willingness to leverage its credibility (or simply toss it to the wind) is cause for celebration among journalists. Reporters who cover the military deal constantly with obfuscation, lies and spin — it’s just that usually it’s dispatched behind closed doors and in off-the-record phone calls. Consequently, the public has little sense of how this game is played. But make the lie bold and externalize the practice, and you shine a light on it for the public. That’s a net positive for news consumers.
Added bonus: All this can only help the popular image of the media, which, as we all know, has taken a beating of late. Certainly, most reporters would rather be seen as honest brokers trying to ferret out information from a less-than-forthright military than as partisan hacks trying to manipulate public sentiment. Furthermore, it’ll be a lot harder for government officials in any agency (military or otherwise) to demonize the press if the public comes at long last to understand that part of the game plan of all too many officials on the public payroll is to lie to the reporters who report back to the public that pays their salaries.
–Brian Montopoli
Brian Montopoli is a writer at CJR Daily.