Monday, February 15, 2010

Afghan Rambam

"A senior Australian army media adviser who served in Afghanistan and Iraq has revealed that a culture of excessive spin and unnecessary secrecy stopped important information reaching the public. Andrew Bird, who left the army in December after 8 years as an information operations and media adviser, said the defence force deliberately obscured or painted an overly rosy picture of the war in places like Afghanistan... Mr Bird said that when the defence department organised for Australian journalists to travel to conflict zones, the journalists were prevented from seeing anything negative compared to journalists from the US or Britain who had greater access. 'The way we do it with the Australian army, we take it almost like a show tour. You fly in, everything is rehearsed on schedule and you fly out again', Mr Bird said." (Veteran charges army over spin, Nick McKenzie/Rafael Epstein, Brisbane Times, 12/2/10)

I'm sure Greg (Jerusalem Prize) Sheridan, Peter Hartcher and their many rambammed mates throughout the Australian ms media* (not to mention their politician clones) know exactly what Andrew Bird is talking about. [* See my regularly updated 30/3/09 post I've Been to Israel Too]

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