[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 21]
[House]
[Page 29109]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                        IRAQ PROPAGANDA CAMPAIGN

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from California (Ms. Woolsey) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Ms. WOOLSEY. Mr. Speaker, the Coalition Provisional Authority which 
is the title of the American authority overseeing the reconstruction of 
Iraq, and the Bush administration which created it, are openly 
dissatisfied with the stories the media has chosen to broadcast 
regarding the United States' role in Iraq. In fact, they say the news 
media too often covers the negative events that occur in Iraq, but 
rarely reports any positive happenings there. They even pressured 
reporters to find the so-called good news in Iraq or lose access in an 
attempt to manipulate the stories coming out of Iraq.
  Let us keep in mind that over 400 American soldiers have died in Iraq 
since the start of the war in March. That is more than 11 brave young 
men and women killed each week. It is hard to find the good news when 
our sons and daughters keep coming home in body bags. And it is 
exceptionally insulting to the families of these victims to complain 
about media bias at the same time four helicopters have been destroyed 
by enemy fire over the last 2 weeks.
  The situation in Iraq is getting less safe for our troops, not safer. 
In addition to the 404 troops killed in action, over 2,000 have been 
wounded and another 7,000 have been evacuated for noncombat medical 
conditions. And yet, the President continues to complain about media 
bias. So what has the White House decided to do about the quote/unquote 
``unfair reporting'' by the media?
  Why, bypass that very media, of course. The President's handlers plan 
to influence public perception by creating a government-run broadcast 
operation to provide American news agencies unfettered access to the 
real stories in Iraq. This broadcasting system which the administration 
unofficially refers to as C-SPAN Bagdad will run via satellite 24 hours 
a day. C-SPAN Bagdad. More like American Al-Jazeera, the media giant 
that reports to the Arab world in a very biased fashion.
  The White House is increasingly aware, of course, that President 
Bush's fate in the upcoming 2004 election is directly linked to the 
progress of the war in Iraq. So bypassing the third-party national 
media allows the Bush administration to mold public perception of the 
war effort. I think our country's founders would be ashamed to know 
that at the same time hundreds of our soldiers and thousands of Iraqi 
civilians are dying, President Bush is thinking about the chances for 
reelection. That is nothing short of appalling.
  But equally appalling is that the American taxpayer will finance this 
shameful propaganda machine. That is right. The administration is 
directing money from the $87 billion emergency supplemental spending 
bill that Congress approved last month to help pay for the new Bush 
media machine. This is not emergency spending. This is campaign 
spending. This is propaganda spending. Instead of trying to win the 
hearts and minds of Americans through propaganda, President Bush should 
be trying to win the hearts and minds of the insurgents who are making 
Iraq less stable. He should show them a United States to which 
burgeoning democracies like Iraq can aspire, a United States that would 
be a democratic model for the rest of the world. I daresay an 
autocratic state-sponsored propaganda campaign is not a part of this 
model.

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