We've had considerable resistance to our plans from the staff within the Pentagon itself. There is an inability to recognize influence campaigns directed at the terrorist's support and recruitment as a legitimate military function.
IMO this couldn't be more important.
I am glad that Radio Free Europe was mentioned as an outlet of vital importance in the fight against communism during the cold war. Soviet bloc journalism was too heavily regulated by the state for there to be any truth from the free world.
I see nothing wrong with paying journalists and newspapers to print news and information in Iraq. As long as it is truthful and factual nothing is wrong. However the US media seems to have a problem with truth and factual reporting. They need to do some serious self-examination of why newspapers are losing readership.
People like to read positive news on a regular basis. Not violence laced accounts and distortions of political facts our MSM so enjoys.
Heres a hint to the MSM. If you can't report the news accurately, you can be replaced.