media
31 Aug 2009
Some Of My Best Employees Are Journalists
As more countries adopt modern spin techniques to justify their wars, journalists leaving the cash-strapped media are cropping up as highly paid propagandists, writes Phillip Knightley
Lots of people and organisations make money out of war. But I learnt this week of a comparatively new arrival on the scene that is really cashing in: the public relations industry.PR firms from the USA and Europe have been active in the Caucasus since the conflict between Russia and Georgia over the Russian enclaves of South Ossetia and Abkhazia degenerated into open warfare a year ago. But few realised the extent of their operations or how sophisticated they have become.
These PR firms pump out none of the crude propaganda of yesteryear. They employ former advertising men, ex-politicians and journalists to put across a subtle but convincing case for their clients. Even Moscow has joined the trend.
It has hired Ketchum, a New York agency which has some 50 people working on the account. Some of the work is subcontracted to Portland which is run by Tim Allan, a former spin doctor for No.10 Downing Street, and the BBC's former Moscow correspondent, Angus Roxborough. South Ossetia and Abkhazia have retained Saylor Company which is run by a former Los Angeles Times senior editor, Mark Saylor. Meanwhile Georgia has used a Belgian agency, Aspect, run by a British expatriate, James Hunt, but also has an arrangement with a London firm called Project Associates. David Cracknell, a former political editor of the Sunday Times, works on the account.
Exactly how much these firms are paid is a commercial secret but various figures are bandied around. Mark Saylor bills his time at US$550 an hour. Georgia paid US PR firm Public Strategies US$50,000 a month. The Guardian says that the Russians have paid Ketchum and its affiliate, The Washington Group, at least US$14 million in the past three years, plus a further US$5 million to Gavin Anderson, the London financial PR firm, for representing the state gas giant, Gazprom.
All this might appear not to matter much but it raises important questions about truth and how wars are reported. A Kremlin spokesman said at the time of the conflict between Russian and Georgia, "We are like schoolchildren when it comes to using the media. But we are learning."
He was reflecting on the fact that Georgia won the PR battle last year by portraying itself as a plucky pro-Western country struggling against an imperialist Russia. Journalists were bombarded with emails and text messages on what were claimed to be the latest Russian atrocities — irrespective of the facts.
The Guardian's media columnist Peter Wilby says, "The brief war in the Caucasus was a classic example of the situation outlined in Nick Davies's book Flat Earth News. Most newspapers didn't have a clue what was going on and lacked sufficient resources to find out. So skilfully presented PR was at a premium."
Journalist David Teather has analysed the PR companies' approach. "The Georgians, who rely on American and European aid and support, clearly have most to gain from courting public opinion in the West. Georgia wins when it is presented as Russia versus Georgia. The approach is to have [the Georgian leader] Saakashvili and Putin in the same sentence as much as possible. How Putin hates him, wants to hang him by the balls. It's PR 101. Good versus bad. Small versus big. Freedom-loving country against bully Russia. Georgia is presented as a democratic white knight and a way to check Russia."
But if the media has not the resources to find out the truth for itself, and journalists are bombarded by skilfully presented PR handouts, how is this going to affect the reporting of war? I blame, in part, those journalists who have taken what an old reporter friend of mine calls "the Walk of Shame" and abandoned their honourable craft for the better-paid job of public relations. In their new careers it is not a requirement of the job that they believe in the story their client wants to project. They are merely guns for hire to the highest bidder.
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Nothing new here and not much information. PR’s being doing it since WWI. I thought your articles were supposed to be in depth. I thought news was supposed to be … NEW(s). It was just journalist interviewing journalists.
http://theprlab.blogspot.com @prlab
In Australia, ‘journalists’ have for many years swapped jobs between Media outlets and working for pollies to actually feed the Media their garbage and PR handouts. All of these people could be called ‘prostitutes’, except I would not want to offend those professional workers.
In every PM and Premier’s Office, the largest group of people are the ‘spin’ merchants. With a very compliant Media, they can have almost absolute control of the flow of information. Or non-information!
Now, best thing is to never believe anything you see, hear or read without confirmation. And confirmation is sometimes very hard to obtain, if some are actively concentrating on hiding the truth.
Pays to be a total cynic!
(This comment has been edited to keep it on-topic.)
p.s." PR’s being doing it since WWI"
Not sure about that! The Yanks only really woke up after they lost the battle for hearts and minds at home during the Vietnam War, and LOST the war.
During the Iraq Wars and now Afghanistan, they (and Australia/Britain etc.) make sure that they control the news of War activities (and atrocities!) by having ONLY ‘embedded’ TAME ‘journalists’ anywhere near their activities.
There are some exceptions to the ‘embedded’ journalists, and these are people who can truly be called journalists, but so many now have been killed/injured by ‘friendly fire’ particularly from Yankee forces, that they have to be pretty circumspect. They also have to contend with ‘Administration Friendly’ Media editors and owners, something very noticeable in Britain, Australia and the USA!
The Human Condition???!!!
Spin, hype and beat-up are now a fact of life in the media and the only way to counter this is to hope there are enough ‘eyes and ears’ on the ground to report through free and alternative media, any of the anomolies and falsities being published by the mainstream media.
Hopefully there are enough people with a civic conscience and mobile phone to help remedy any fabrications and lies perpetuated by these ‘spin doctors’, who ironically are a part of the ‘misinformation disease’ that makes people feel sick.
In the end we might have to rely more on volunteers, amatuers and part-time reporters to be ‘Johnny on the spot’, helping to clarify or discredit the information spread by governments and multi-media corporations.
I can see a time when the majority of reporting is done by freelancing journalists that no longer need, can or want to rely on journalism for an income (due to ethical concerns) but see it as a civic duty to report the truth to their fellow citizens and the rest of the world.
Only an active civic conscience can save us from these ongoing media deceptions.
(This comment has been edited.)
And the Censorial finger strikes, and as I noted, removes all mention of one of the worst examples of Media Manipulation ever devised. So much for the Great NM!!!!! Another victim of those rancid forces.
Spin is certainly something we have become very familiar with in recent years. If journalists are taking up the PR trade, it is a shame they don’t add any benefits, like ethics.
One can say "It’s just a job", but if Rudd said that about being PM we would not be impressed.
So good to see Phillip Knightly in print again that I went back to discover the earlier article, which I recommend to all above commentators.
The sophisication of the spin machines is truely staggering @2& the notion that PR really stands for Professional Rogue should give pause to those who take this trade.
Something has changed in the way we look at our role in the world & I think it has to do with the embrace of the moral equivalence justification for any act or behavior which is questionable. i.e. ’ it’s not as bad as what is done over there’; &’someone will do it if I dont!’
There is nothing wrong with people maintaaining good relations with the public. What is reprehensible isthe manipulation of the facts, intruth just telling lies on behalf of those who do not wish the truth tobe known.
Phillip, why don’t you list "A hack’s Progress" in your bio. I had not known of your commendable in the exposure of the thalidomaide(?) travesty. Hope to to more your words
Jews in israel and all over the world have been absolute Masters of Spin and Misrepresentation for more than 60 years, ‘spinning’ the whole world with a tissue of lies to further their ambitions to destroy the Palestinians and totally take over their country.
So effective are they that whole Nations change their Laws to comply with Jewish wishes, to make it an offence punishable with fines and imprisonment to question the jewish propaganda. This is unprecedented, and has shown the way to other Nations and Dictators for controlling their populace.
Most of the world’s PR firms are owned by these people. So effective is it that most of America Joe Public would not have the faintest idea what is going on in Palestine, other than what these PR firms spread, and that is at least 90% lies.
In Australia, the same applies, possibly excepting that in the USA, where Hollywood (also almost totally Jewish owned and controlled until quite recently) has been demonizing Arabs (Muslims in particular), so that now all people of Arab appearance are treated with contempt, fear, and hatred.
So this just goes to show that the Pen (finger, cursor whatever) can indeed be mightier than the sword, especially when they are used in conjunction, as they were used in relation to Gaza, and all over Palestine.
The Jewish ‘spin machine’ has been a dominant part of the Western psyche for a lot longer than 60 years dazza, due to the immense importance of the Holy Bible.
If it was only the Jews who considered Israel the Holy Land, then the formation of the modern state of Israel would never have happened.
The fact is, that it is also a very important place for millions of devout Christians worldwide who help support the Jewish state.
So it’s obvious the Jewish/Israeli ‘spin machine’ runs a lot deeper than the political changes of the past 60 years in the Near East, something only the religious and historically informed would completely understand.
This article, written in Truthout.org by an American Jewish writer, is very relevant.
(Sorry, my Browser does not allow me to make this an active link, and they DO NOT turn into links automatically. )
http://www.truthout.org/0900509Z
See if this works. Article by Professor Ira Chernus.
He also has a personal blog. http://chernus.wordpress.com.
Denise makes an interesting but curious point
"The fact is, that it is also a very important place for millions of devout Christians worldwide who help support the Jewish state."
These people are supposed to be beyond politics and yet any five minute viewing of their television programs exposes an intertwining of scripture with "the every-day" by their preachers which is nothing short of brain-washing. Exactly what the West’s press reports goes on in some mosques. I was struck by the hostility to Obama and expect his "peace efforts" to be seriously opposed in the "soul-land".
In Western Australia the State Govt instituted a (theoretically) mandatory Lobbyists’ Register to keep tabs on who was lobbying who. Great fodder for the local rag, if nothing else.
I wonder if there’s a name-and-shame website for journos who’ve crossed to the dark side…and if not, I wonder if Reporters Without Borders would be interested in setting up a list?