A class on PR issues began with war spin and the role of PR during war. The public relations industry gained its negative connotations duly after wars and the political campaigns surrounding it. One such war was the Iraq War. There was a lot written and spoken about the Iraq war but what most people including journalists missed was the fact that every information and evidence supporting the war was fabricated and carefully managed by some really intelligent public relations strategists and propagandists.
A meticulously planned propaganda campaign was launched to "sell the Iraq War" to the American and British populations. The justification to attack Iraq were based on two grounds - Iraq's connection with Al Qaeda and the generation of "weapons of mass destruction". While the real motives behind the war were never near of what was projected, words like "threat" and "security of America" were being played till its resonance plagued the minds of the public to believe them. The psychological battle was won and the second prong of the propaganda was to "drip-feed" information to the media with absolute control in the hands of the spin-doctors.
The American public, not fully recovered from the infamous 9/11 attacks were ready to back the "war on terror" without substantial reasoning and the media sis not question either. The media was convinced and glossed over basic facts and the basis for the war.
Taking maximum advantage of media submission to the war, the spin doctors and the public relations agency involved thought of a tactic which was more than clever. 600 international journalists were embedded near the war site to give first hand reports of the war. Little did the media understand that their power was being exploited and that they were mere used merely as middlemen to reach their vast audience. Events were misreported by the media as propagandists spun stories in their favour and also manufactured news to keep public support and morale high.
Then how did all these secrets be revealed? Wikileaks unfolded the true facts of the Iraq war. The Bush and Blair governments were at gun point by the media and its population. Questions that should have been raised before the war began were now being asked and answers were demanded.
The Jessica Lynch case was a tactic devised to arouse sentiments among the public followed by repeated sloganeering and symbolisation of the war. The media realised that they were poached and misused by the governments to successfully run their campaign. Although much of the truth is still being heavily blocked, there is enough in the open that uncovers the propaganda and truths of the war.
A small clip of the Iraq's Secret War Files
A small clip of the Iraq's Secret War Files
