maelorin | if only he wasn't kidding

US losing web war, says Rumsfeld
Daniel Trotta in New York
FEBRUARY 20, 2006

THE US lags al Qaida in getting out information in the digital media age and must update its old-fashioned methods, Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said
Modernisation is crucial to winning the hearts and minds of Muslims worldwide who are bombarded with negative images of the West, Mr Rumsfeld told the Council on Foreign Relations.
The Pentagon chief said today's weapons of war included email, Blackberries, instant messaging, digital cameras and blogs.
"Our enemies have skillfully adapted to fighting wars in today's media age, but ? our country has not adapted," Mr Rumsfeld said.
"For the most part, the US government still functions as a 'five and dime' store in an eBay world," Mr Rumsfeld said.
Mr Rumsfeld said US military public affairs officers must learn to anticipate news and respond faster, and good public affairs officers should be rewarded with promotions.
The military's information offices still operate mostly eight hours a day, five or six days a week while the challenges they faces occur 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Mr Rumsfeld called that a "dangerous deficiency."
Democrat Senator Ted Kennedy immediately criticised Mr Rumsfeld as missing the point.
"Clearly, we need to improve our public diplomacy and information age communication in the Muslim world," Senator Kennedy said in a statement. "But nothing has done more to encourage increased al Qaida recruitment and made America less safe than the war in Iraq and the incompetent way it's been managed. Our greatest failure is our policy."
Mr Rumsfeld said that vast media attention about US abuses at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq outweighed that given to the discovery of "Saddam Hussein's mass graves".
On the emergence of satellite television and other media not under Arab state control, he said, "While al Qaeda and extremist movements have utilised this forum for many years - we in the government have barely even begun to compete in reaching their audiences."
Reuters

wtfomgbbq!

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As Sen. kennedy says....do you think it might not be teh internets? Do you think it might be....the....hmmm....let me see....the WAR YOU CRAZY ARSEHATS!!!!

Gah!

This says something about the modern world. It's the kind of place where people belive you can "win the hearts and minds" of people you are bombing with a slick multimedia campaign.

I also have a theory about why the US got more press coverage for it's human rights abuses than the discovery of some of Saddam's naughty deeds. Could it be that we all knew Saddam was a fucktard allready? And if we didn't, the US has been at great pains to tell us for 15 years? But on the other hand, the US are supposed to be The Good Guys TM and thus public evidence that they are just as quick to fuck up Iraqi's as Saddam ever was is kind of more of a surprise. Sigh.

I wonder if the US government actually believes it's own bullshit?

This says something about the modern world. It's the kind of place where people belive you can "win the hearts and minds" of people you are bombing with a slick multimedia campaign.

well, see, it works so well on the us population.

of course, there have been many years of preparation gone into the us domestic propaganda campaign. the idiots are trying to use technology to solve a people problem. somehow the nation with the most advanced propaganda machine in history seems to haveforgotten the basics of propaganda.

you prepare the ~~victims~~ audience for your message, wait for (or create) a trigger event, then roll out the activation program. they ought to get microsoft to do this for them ...

I also have a theory about why the US got more press coverage for it's human rights abuses

you'd be pretty much on the button there. our media keep a story going only so long as they're getting a reaction from their audience. then they can it and move onto the next big thing™ ... the public's short attention span works both ways.

I wonder if the US government actually believes it's own bullshit?

certain key firgures certainly seem to, though i'm cynical enough to guess that at least a few of the main players are just playing along - or manipulating the true believers® ...

Another inevitable and expected response to a problem. Spin our way out of it, and/or blame the messengers.
It's the old propaganda being recycled, but with different place names - "The US Army didn't lose the Vietnam War; it was lost by the US Press", "The US isn't losing the struggle in Iraq; it's the press who are losing it."
mary

actually, it's aimed at the information offices of the us military ... who aren't subverting the local media properly (since they got caught doing it, anyway)

I do love this bit:
"US military public affairs officers must learn to anticipate news and respond faster, and good public affairs officers should be rewarded with promotions"
"must learn to anticipate news and respond faster" == learn to spin faster
"good public affairs officer" == spins faster

Spin doesn't have to be true. It just has to be credible.

mary

"must learn to anticipate news and respond faster"

actually means they're supposed to be creating the news, not responding to the damn stuff ...

rumsfeld is pissed coz his minions aren't givign him enough control over things.

if only he wasn't kidding

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