Guy Farmer: The Pentagon is up to its old tricks

In December 2005, I wrote a column titled "Pentagon gets best press money can buy," detailing how the U.S. Defense Department was violating First Amendment principles by paying Iraqi journalists for favorable press coverage. Well, guess what? The Pentagon is at it again.

According to Politico.com, "The Defense Department wants nearly $1 billion for its greatly expanded information operations programs ... but lawmakers are growing leery of what they see as a hangover from the Donald Rumsfeld years, an ever-expanding propaganda machine ill-suited to the military."

I see it as a Defense Department effort designed to usurp the State Department's lead role in public diplomacy - overseas information and cultural programs. The Pentagon calls it "strategic communications," but it's the same thing.

Late last month the House Appropriations Committee did the right thing by cutting the Pentagon's bloated strategic communications budget request in half, to $498 million.

"They've got so goddamn much money nobody was watching them, nobody was paying attention," said Committee Chairman John Murtha (D-Pa.). "It's propaganda (and) the military has nothing to do with this," he added. Amen!

The Defense Department's strategic communications budget has grown exponentially since 2005.

"We're in a battle for hearts and minds, and information operations are vital," said Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell.

But I have news for Morrell: That's exactly what $900 million worth of State Department public diplomacy programs are designed to do. And besides, our diplomats have the necessary communications skills and cultural sensitivity to conduct such programs effectively, and they usually speak the host country's language, which is essential.

In my '05 column I noted that the Defense Department was spending millions of taxpayer dollars to buy favorable press coverage in Iraq, where local journalists would be paid to write "good news" stories when the war was going very badly. I wrote that during my 28-year career as a U.S. embassy press attache and public affairs officer (PAO) I never once paid for media placement, which was my specialty.

The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) ruled last month that the Pentagon didn't break the law when it paid retired military officers to go on TV as "talking heads" to report on how well the Iraq War was going. Nevertheless, the Defense Department skated perilously close to the edge of domestic propaganda, which is prohibited by law.

In 2005, the New York Times opined that the Pentagon's press operations in Iraq "appeared to violate the fundamental principles of western journalism." For my part, I think we should practice what we preach. What a concept.

• Guy W. Farmer, of Carson City, is a retired diplomat who believes in "beer diplomacy."