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War spin fall-out 'will be traumatic'
160/ Nicholas Jones
DATELINE: 12/11/07
By allowing "political storytellers" like Alastair Campbell to have so much influence in presenting the case for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Bush and Blair had made it more likely the post-Iraq trauma would be even worse than the aftermath of the withdrawal from Vietnam.
Sam Gardiner, a retired USAF colonel who investigates the media strategies of the US military, believes that unless Gordon Brown manages to distance himself from the way the wars were spun he will get caught up in a convulsion which is bound to damage the credibility of Britain as well as America.
In a presentation to a conference on communication and conflict held at the University of Strathclyde in September, Gardiner described how daily storylines prepared in the global information centre at the White House were fed to Campbell in Downing Street. "Political storytellers" took control after 9/11 and Gardiner cited the US/UK orchestration of the Afghan women's campaign in November 2001 as an early example of their work. Similarities in storyline and timing were striking. On November 17, 2001 Laura Bush said: "Only the terrorists and the Taliban threaten to pull out women's finger nails for wearing nail polish". Just three days later Cherie Blair commented: "In Afghanistan, if you wear nail polish, you can have your nails torn out". Subsequently it emerged the Afghan media campaign was described at the time by Jim Wilkinson of the office of strategic communications in the White House as the "best thing we have done" in building support in countries where there was heavy scepticism of the anti-terrorism coalition. "Despite the excellence of the message control by political storytellers, their strategy has totally failed," said Gardiner. "It will be a major trauma for the USA when we get out of Iraq, bigger than perhaps Vietnam and it will be Gordon Brown who will have to deal with the fallout here.
Because of disillusion with the war, policy makers will not find the public ready to believe them even if they're telling the truth, that's the lasting damage of letting the storytellers take charge." Gardiner thought it essential the military clawed back control over the message and he was encouraged to hear that Brown had promised during a visit to Baghdad in June that when he became Prime Minister any future analysis presented by the security and intelligence services would be kept independent of the political process and the involvement of political spin doctors like Campbell. "It sounds as if Brown has gone further than anyone in the Bush administration to own up to the mistakes that were made, let alone promising to put them right."
Despite the assurance Brown gave in June, no mention was made in his proposals for restoring public trust (The Governance of Britain July 3, 2007) of any action to fulfil the recommendation of the Butler Inquiry that intelligence should be kept separate from Government. Campbell chaired the group of officials which prepared the Government's dossier on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction and has always defended his role. He has insisted it was his task to "help from a presentational point of view" but that John Scarlett, the then chairman of the joint intelligence committee, retained "ownership" of the assessment presented to Parliament.
Last modified: Monday, November 12, 2007
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World Press Freedom Day
More reporters are currently imprisoned in Turkey than in any other country in the world. Only a matter of weeks ago lawyers failed to persuade a Turkish court to release a 76-year-old journalist from a Turkish internet news station.
World Press Freedom Day on Friday May 3, 2013 is being marked in Britain by a rally to highlight the dangers facing journalists in Turkey and in this podcast, Nicholas Jones speaks to Barry White, Organiser at the Campaign for Press and Broadcasting Freedom, and Sam Bamford, the TUC's policy officer for Eastern Europe and Africa about the importance of a campaign to highlight international press freedom.
The World Press Freedom Day rally is being staged by the National Union of Journalists at the NUJ head office, Gray’s Inn Road, London WC1 on Thursday May 2, 6pm-8pm.
DATELINE: 27/4/13
UK launch of EU media campaign
DATELINE: 13/3/13
The UK launch of a 'European Citizens' Initiative' calling for EU rules against concentration of media power will take place on Thursday March 21 from 11:00am – 12:30pm in Committee Room 4A at the House of Lords, London. Guest speakers will include actor and activist Hugh Grant (pictured), media consultant Claire Enders, Professor Steven Barnett, Barry McCall (President of the NUJ) and Marc Gruber (Director of the European Federation of Journalists).
A European Citizens' Initiative is an official petition, like a Downing Street petition. If it succeeds in gathering a million signatures across the EU, the Commission is obliged to respond.
This petition calls for the EU to act to protect media pluralism and press freedom.
CPBF Annual General Meeting
DATELINE: 1/3/13
Make a note in your diary
Saturday 13 July 2013 from 10.00am
NUJ HQ, 308/312 Gray's Inn Road, London WC1.
Leveson, media ownership, CPBF future work.
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MEDIA FOR ALL CONFERENCE
DATELINE: 26/3/10
Papers from the Media for All Conference
MEDIA MANIFESTO
DATELINE: 26/3/10
The media’s job is to inform and entertain us but we rely on them too to tell us what our rulers and representatives are up to. In the run-up to the Iraq war the government used spin and disinformation in the media to create panic and mislead people. The truth is coming out now, but we need stronger, more independent media to be able to scrutinise governments and make informed choices.
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Previous stories
Journalism Ethics
Sound Advice
The History of Spin
Can we trust the broadcasting media?
US journalist freed after record-breaking jail term
Media regulation - battle lines drawn?
New enquiry into press self-regulation
Independent journalist facing jail
Jail for journalists
Landmark Lords Libel Ruling
MEPs campaign to protect sources
It Ain't Half Homophobic, Mum: DeGrading the BBC
European Parliament initiative on protecting sources
'Conversation with a child trafficker'
Reporting Torture
The Moral Mirror
Fake news in the UK
Source's victory for Ackroyd
City Slickers trial
The Rise and Rise of the Censor
Product Placement
Children's rights v. press freedom - who wins?
Children's rights v. press freedom - who wins?
London Bombings: Missing Questions
Alter-EU launched
Marketing Labour
US threat to protection of sources
Protection of sources: 'A denial of justice'
Astroturfing
When errors hit the information superhighway
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