The Daily Nightly began on May 31, 2005. As Brian wrote in his first post it aims to provide a narrative of the broadcast day and a window into the editorial process at NBC Nightly News. Brian weighs in every weekday and NBC News correspondents and producers post regularly.
Brian Williams became the seventh anchor and managing editor in the history of NBC Nightly News on December 2, 2004. Read his full biography.
 |
|
 |
|
 |
advertisement
About the broadcast | Biographies
RSS is an easy way to get the news you want as it is updated even if you are not on MSNBC.com. More information about MSNBC.com's RSS feeds.
Podcasting brings you audio and video from each weekday broadcast on your iPod or other portable MP3 player anytime, anywhere. More information about MSNBC.com's podcasts.
Sign-up for our daily e-mail newsletter. It offers a preview of the stories and special reports featured on each weekday broadcast.
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld declared today that the war on terror is not only being fought on the battlefield, "but in the newsrooms -- in places like New York, London, Cairo and elsewhere." At a speech before the Council on Foreign Relations in New York, Rumsfeld outlined a strategy for the U.S. to become more aggressive in conducting "information warfare" in the modern era of satellite TV and the Internet.
Rumsfeld defended the practice of paying to place stories in Iraqi newspapers. He called it a "non-traditional means" to counter disinformation by the enemy, and said that critical press stories about the operation had a "chilling effect" and brought all initiatives to a stop. Rumsfeld said "while the enemy is increasingly skillful at manipulating the media, the U.S. advantage is "truth is on our side -- and ultimately truth wins out."
Rumsfeld criticized the U.S. media which he says "seems to demand perfection from the government, but does not apply the same standard to the enemy, or even sometimes to themselves." He cited as an example the erroneous claim by Newsweek of desecration of the Koran at Guantanamo Bay.
Rumsfeld stressed that the government be more aggressive in "strategic communications" (which some, even in the military, say is synonymous with propaganda), and to do that the government should consider the possibility of new organizations and programs similar to Radio Free Europe and the United States Information Agency, which he called "valuable instruments" during the Cold War.
Read more from Jim Miklaszewski
Cheney's accident: Why all the fuss?
EMAIL THIS
TRACKBACKS
Trackbacks are links to weblogs that reference this post. Like comments, trackbacks do not appear until approved by us. The trackback URL for this post is: http://www.typepad.com/services/trackback/6a00d83451b0aa69e200d834adab9c69e2
Obviously, since it wasn't included in the original story on these comments by Rumsfeld, a followup is in order, examining the task of winning hearts and minds -- interview people who can comment on whether it is can or should be won with propaganda or by the moral and ehtical behavior of America overseas. That's a no-brainer.
Also, maybe it is time to do a story on this administration's constant blaming of Americans and the press for the lack of success in the war. Isn't it time to interview people who can talk about that as a possible propaganda? As strategy by the administration to control the media and citizens?
Guest (Sent Feb 20, 2006 6:56:16 PM)
I listened aghast to the Secretary distort and obfuscate reality. He treated the matter of torture as
as though it was of no consequence. The incumbent Secretary unfortunately epitomizes everything that is wrong with the US at this point in its short history.
We the people deserve to be respected and this administration is an insult to the memory of the Founding Fathers.
Patrick J. Corr, Westview PA (Sent Feb 19, 2006 11:00:06 AM)
well republicans this is what you wanted and this is what you got-you've won everything senate,house,presidency,supreme court(w/roberts and alito). the only thing i want to know is did you think it would be better than this and are you proud of where the country has gone in the past 5 years? just curious. (and i really do mean that and am not being sarcastic
go getem in the allstargame ivy (Sent Feb 17, 2006 6:00:47 PM)
When people were listening to Radio Free Europe they understood that what they heard came from the U.S. and its allies. They also knew that what they heard on state sponsered media came from their own government sources.
The difference with what Rummy is doing and suggesting to keep on doing is that the readers/hearers do not know the true source of these planted "news reports".
I have always been of a mind that one must consider the source on anything and everything that I hear or read in order to come to a fair judgement on its merit.
The power of a free press is in knowing that it is a free press. Unfortuately, even the "free" press inside the U.S. does not seem to truely be free anymore.
D. Webb (Sent Feb 17, 2006 1:56:29 PM)
SEND A COMMENT
PLEASE READ: All comments must be approved before appearing in the thread; time and space constraints prevent all comments from appearing. We will only approve comments that are directly related to this post, use appropriate language and are not attacking the comments of others.