Press, You've Been Put on Notice

Big Brother really will be watching soon enough. In one of the more disgusting turn of Pentagon-related paranoia events, the Department of Defense (under the auspice of the US command in Baghdad) announced yesterday that it will be putting out a contract on the media. Well, to be more precise, it will be spending $20 million to hire a public relations firm to monitor the media's coverage on the quagmire in Iraq.

The AP reports that the proposal asks companies to show how they'll "provide continuous monitoring and near-real time reporting of Iraqi, pan-Arabic, international, and U.S. media." And should you be so naive as to think they are doing it just to keep in touch with how people feel about the war and its progress, the proposal also insists that the contracted reports should include, "but not limited to tone (positive, neutral, negative) and scope of media coverage."

We know W and Rummy don't handle criticism well, and that they need to get their talking points together so they can beat us over the head with them as they rebut criticism of the war leading up to the November elections, but this is absurd.

We see this as a sign that Republicans are moving into over-spin cycle in preparation for the elections and attempting to make certain dissenters are dealt with in a timely manner (read: limited access?), especially with September 11 around the corner, but we think it may confirm our assumption about the mid-term elections. But, much like broadcasters avoiding talking about a no-hitter when one is in progress, we refuse to announce that we expect a Democratic landslide. Nope, we ain't saying nothin.

How do you feel about this latest government contract? An attempt to limit the freedom of the press and focus too much time on PR and not enough on policy, or just much ado about nothing?

And, while we will continue to keep our fingers crossed for a Warner/Obama ticket and pray Hillary does not get offered to the slaughter, we figured this was a good time to remind you about the Stweart/Colbert '08 bumper stickers.

*Image (c) Department of Defense*