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Posted on 02/25/2006 5:25:54 PM PST by Cornpone
"More than half of this battle is taking place on the battlefield of the media, [for] we are in a media battle in a race for the hearts and minds of [Muslims]." The speaker was not some public relations executive, but Osama bin Laden's chief lieutenant, Ayman al-Zawahiri.
Terrorists have skillfully adapted to fighting wars in today's media age, but, for the most part, America and the governments of the other democracies have not. Consider that the violent extremists have their own "media relations committees" aimed at manipulating elite opinion. They plan and design headline-grabbing attacks using every means of communications to intimidate and break the collective will of free people.
They know that communications transcend borders, and that a single news story, handled skillfully, can be as damaging to our cause - and as helpful to theirs - as any military attack. And they are able to act quickly with relatively few people, and with modest resources compared to the vast, expensive bureaucracies of democratic governments.
Today we are fighting the first war in the era of e-mail, blogs, blackberries, instant messaging, digital cameras, the Internet, mobile phones, talk radio, and 24-hour news. In Tunisia, the largest newspaper has a circulation of roughly 50,000 in a country of 10 million people. But even in the poorest neighborhoods, you see satellite dishes on nearly every balcony or rooftop.
A few years ago, under Saddam Hussein, an Iraqi could have his tongue cut out if he was found in possession of a satellite dish or used the Internet without government approval. Today, satellite dishes are ubiquitous in Iraq as well.
Regrettably, many of the news channels being watched through these dishes are hostile to the West. Media outlets in many parts of the world often serve only to inflame and distort - rather than to explain and inform. While Al-Qaeda and extremist movements have used this forum for many years, further poisoning the Muslim public's view of the West, we in the West have barely even begun to compete.
We saw this with the false allegations of the desecration of a Koran last year. First published in Newsweek magazine, the story was then posted on Web sites, sent in e-mails, and repeated on satellite television and radio stations for days before the facts could be discovered. That false story incited deadly anti-American riots in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
The United States military, appropriately and of necessity, took the time needed to ensure that it had the facts before responding that the charges were untrue. In the meantime, innocent lives were lost.
But we have begun to adapt. In Iraq, for example, the U.S. military, working closely with the Iraqi government, has sought non-traditional means to provide accurate information to the Iraqi people. Yet this has been portrayed as "buying news." The resulting explosion of critical press stories then causes everything - all activity, all initiative - to stop. This leads to a "chilling effect" among those serving in the military public affairs field, who conclude that there is no tolerance for innovation. http://www.dailystar.com.lb
Consider for a moment the vast quantity of column inches and hours of television devoted to the detainee abuse at Abu Ghraib. Compare that to the volume of coverage and condemnation associated with, say, the discovery of Saddam Hussein's mass graves, which were filled with hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqis. Free governments must make communications planning a central component of every aspect of this struggle. Indeed, the longer it takes to put a strategic communications framework into place, the more the vacuum will be filled by the enemy.
There are nonetheless signs of modest progress. Soon after the devastating earthquake in Pakistan, an American public affairs team was deployed with our sizable military forces in the disaster area. They worked to help focus media attention on America's commitment to help the Pakistani people. Public opinion surveys conducted by private groups before and after the earthquake suggest that attitudes in Pakistan regarding the U.S. changed dramatically because of this new awareness.
Government public affairs and public diplomacy efforts are slowly beginning to reorient staffing, schedules, and bureaucratic culture to engage the full range of today's media.
Still, government must develop the institutional capability to anticipate and act within the same news cycle. That requires instituting 24-hour press operations centers and elevating Internet operations and other channels to the status of traditional 20th-century press relations. It will require less reliance on the traditional print media, just as the publics of the U.S. and the world are relying less on newspapers.
This also will mean embracing new ways of engaging people throughout the world. During the Cold War, institutions such as Radio Free Europe proved to be valuable instruments. We need to consider the possibility of new organizations and programs that can serve a similarly valuable role in the war on terror.
We are fighting a war in which the survival of our way of life is at stake. And the center of gravity of that struggle is not just the battlefield. It is a test of wills and it will be won or lost in the court of global public opinion. While the enemy is skillful at manipulating the media and using the tools of communications to his advantage, we have an advantage as well: truth is on our side, and, ultimately, truth wins out.
Donald Rumsfeld is U.S. Secretary of Defense.
Interesting
Ping...
"We are fighting a war in which the survival of our way of life is at stake."
A simple, honest and straight forward remark. And sadly, far too many American's are completely unaware of it.
That is........IF........the TRUTH gets out!!
Don't I know it in my own corner of the world!!
This is a story about freedom of the press. Rumsfeld is complaining that the truth is manipulated in the Mideast media. We are fighting to keep our freedoms from Islamofascis here. I find it ironic that I have to read this story in a Lebanese paper.
It seems the middle east has taken over the MSM in this nation if the DPW deal is any indication.
I hope he's right. Yet if he is, I hate to think how bad it was before considering this happened after his "modest progress."
Wanna fight Terrorism in the Media?
KEEP SPEECH FREE.
The government will never even compete with Hollywood. Porter Goss tells a story of how a Muslim told him the US id bad. How did he knoe? Baywatch. Goss didn't know what that was.
Here is an example of a terrorist media tycoon --Sumner Redstone - CBS - who has already done enough harm and damage..to our own people..he turned gangsterism into the National Culture..gun battles, crack addicted, all glorifed in MTV when he owned it along with Karmazin --you think the pimp Soros is evil--these guys are absolutely satanic.
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I for one would not complain if drones loaded with heavy bombloads flew into the New York Times, Washington Post and L.A. Times buildings creating complete destruction. At the same time, lethal bombs could descend on the lairs of Newsweek and Time. The U.S. would be better for it! Public discourse would be infinitely improved.
A good example:
Brent Bozell pointed out that Time and Newsweek devoted 12 and 13 pages respectively to the "issue" of Cheney accidentally shooting his hunting companion.
When Vince Foster shot himself, Newsweek only had a little blurb on the corner of the cover, and only devoted a few pages of fluff coverage to it that talked about the childhood relationship with Clinton. Time didn't even have any reference on their cover and had even less inside.
And no mention EVER about the frantic sealing off and rummaging around in his office before the authorities arrived that the Clintons did.
Read it at:
http://www.mrc.org/BozellColumns/newscolumn/2006/col20060222.asp
Also, see some information on Rumsfeld at my website at:
http://web.mac.com/rlmorel (just click on the Rumsfeld links...he is a remarkable guy, in my opinion)
IMHO Islam is a very brittle religion. It is much more fixed and inflexible than Christianity. Still I really think there are enough good elements in it to build a reformation around. I do truly hope that in the end we can live in peace with Muslims but I don't have any doubts that it is going to be a very long, costly, bloody process. I also have no doubt that we could lose unless we are really strong and determined to fight for as long as it takes. And it could take generations for Muslims to reform from within, which is something only a few of them have understood that they must do. There fore it is up to us. I don't think the enemy can defeat us but we can defeat ourselves unless we are willing to bear this out as long as it takes and make enemy realize that we will never ever give up.
Good article by Rumsfeld, but I will say what he did not... The media in THIS Country, which should be known as the ENEMEDIA, are aiding and abetting the terrorists.
Anything our government does to try to get the truth out is regarded as propaganda and interfering with the free press. The government is pretty much damned if they do or damned if they don't.
I want to scream every time someone says, 'Why doesn't Bush tell us more? Why doesn't he explain it better?' Everything he says is reported to us through the media and after every press conference they come on and give us the twisted version of what he just said and that becomes what he said. The majority of people in the US do not even listen to or read what he actually says. They rely totally on the snips of his speeches that the media comments on in the newspapers and news shows afterwards.
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