Transcript
BROOKE GLADSTONE: In its continuing effort to speak with a single voice, back in January the White House created the Office of Global Communications, and since the start of the war in Iraq, every administration mouthpiece, no matter where he or she is located, has sung in perfect harmony. To be sure, all administrations have had their PR arm, but Bob Kemper, Washington-based reporter for the Chicago Tribune, says this president's effort far exceeds that of Clinton's, Bush Senior's or even Ronald Reagan's, and that was a good one. Each day begins with a 9:30 a.m. conference call with Washington, London and Qatar to issue the day's message; a mass e-mail carries it to government agencies, embassy officials and military personnel. There is essentially a script, says Kemper. Don't say invasion. It's a war of liberation. They're not U.S. troops but coalition forces. Don't refer to Iraqi irregulars loyal to Saddam as Fedayeen. They are death squads.
BOB KEMPER: All of those determinations are made within the context of this global communication office. Everybody is saying the same words, the same catch phrases, telling the same stories. So it's really a coordinating office. But it's taken control with a discipline I, I think that I'm not sure we've ever seen before, even in Washington; and it's worldwide right now.
BROOKE GLADSTONE: Can you give me a couple more examples of how we've seen that message massaged and filtered?
BOB KEMPER:Well, Tony Blair. We can go back to Afghanistan and pre-Afghanistan. The Bush administration had a lot of information about Al Qaeda and there was talk within the administration of putting out its case in a white paper sort of thing. And there were many in the administration who said well you know we couldn't possibly do that or we'd, we'd, we'd set a precedent - we'd have to justify every - every time we wanted to attack someone we'd have to put out a white paper explaining why we did it, and we can't possibly do that. Well lo and behold, while the Bush administration is refusing to give out information, the British government puts on the Internet a dossier of the case against Al Qaeda and Bin Laden! Well where did it get that information? It got that information mainly from the Bush administration -- mainly from the CIA and the Pentagon! And this happened again with Saddam Hussein! When it came time to make the case about Saddam Hussein's recklessness and his weapons of mass destruction, who released that information? Tony Blair!
BROOKE GLADSTONE: Another white paper.
BOB KEMPER: Another white paper! On the Internet!
BROOKE GLADSTONE: And do you think that route through 10 Downing Street was paved by the office of global communications?
BOB KEMPER: It was paved by those who eventually set up the office of global communications.
BROOKE GLADSTONE:Let's talk about how this office seems to be able to if not distort then certainly shape the message in a particular way. One example that's been given is on the day earlier this month when seven civilians were shot by American soldiers at a checkpoint in Iraq, the incident obviously dominated the news coverage, but the Pentagon briefers made no mention of it; they went on to day that the coalition forces quote "continued to make good progress toward our objectives" and that sort of thing. Doesn't that hurt the credibility of these official spokespeople?
BOB KEMPER: It would, I think, under normal circumstances. But here's the out for the administration. We all knew firsthand and quickly exactly what happened at that checkpoint, and the reason we knew is because there was a Washington Post reporter embedded with that unit, and he was embedded thanks to the Pentagon. So while it did highlight the fact that the Pentagon is not always going to be forthcoming with details, the fact that the true story did come out via an embedded journalist I think allows the administration to have it both ways in a sense.
BROOKE GLADSTONE:I wonder about the atrocity story that was repeated a while back. A woman in Baghdad or - I, I can't remember what city it was now - there was a woman who was seen waving to American troops and, and shortly thereafter was seen hanging by a lamppost, and this was cited as yet another example of the brutality of Saddam's regime. I don't think anybody needs convincing that Saddam's regime is brutal, but nobody was able to find any corroboration for this story and it was repeated by several members of the administration and when challenged they just said in-- you know - "sources say."
BOB KEMPER: That's right, and-- you could be forgiven for not knowing what city she was in because the administration has never been able to tell us that. We only believe it was in a city because a lamppost was involved. [LAUGHTER] But there are two specific stories that I tried to track down that a number of officials in the Bush administration have told repeatedly; that was one of them and the other one was about a man who was tied to a stake in a square in Baghdad - his tongue cut out and he was left to bleed to death. Seemingly a story even easier to corroborate either with journalists in the region, with military units in the region or through human rights groups who monitor such atrocities. And no one, including U.S. intelligence sources I talked to, could cite where that story -- either of those stories -- came from. But the Bush administration has been telling them over and over and over again!
BROOKE GLADSTONE:Among the buzz words that the administration likes to use is "death squads" for the Iraqi irregulars who are called Fedayeen, and the reason I guess is because the office of global communications believes this word has heroic significance and could undercut the government's PR message. Fair enough, but as anybody knows, the word "Fedayeen" is being used all the time in the media; the office of global communications hasn't been able to stamp out the term, and that raises the question -- can they really be effective in a world of daily internet blogs, embedded reporters, armchair generals, Arab satellite television -- all of which are out of administration control?
BOB KEMPER: But-- here's the thing -- most Americans, anyway, will get their news from one or two particular sources -- they're either reading their newspaper or they're watching television. It's true -- the newspapers may still refer to the elite forces as elite forces, but on television when the clip is played of an administration official talking about an incident, they are going to hear the words "death squad" and I think in that sense, while there are a multitude of outlets, if they focus their energy on the largest and the ones most widely viewed, I think they do believe they can overcome these other sources and dominate the message.
BROOKE GLADSTONE:And what do you think? Do you think that the administrations' office of global communications is being effective in shaping the message despite all the news from elsewhere?
BOB KEMPER: You know I saw this incredible poll finding --it asked people do you believe Iraq was involved in 9/11. And 62 percent of those polled said yes! There is not a single piece of evidence that Iraq was tied directly or indirectly to the 9/11 attacks. But 62 percent of the people now believe that there is a direct connection between these two things. I think it's working.
BROOKE GLADSTONE: Thank you so much.
BOB KEMPER: Oh, thank you!
BROOKE GLADSTONE: Bob Kemper is a reporter for the Chicago Tribune based in Washington, DC. [MUSIC]