Props to NO Prop

LA Times: House aims at Pentagon 'propaganda' on Iraq war - An amendment to a defense policy bill would forbid efforts to plant upbeat news stories.

The House of Representatives moved Thursday to crack down on a Pentagon program that Democrats say planted false and overly optimistic news stories about the Iraq war, using military analysts who appeared regularly on television.

Acting on a 2009 defense policy bill, lawmakers forbade the Defense Department from engaging in "a concerted effort to propagandize" the American people over the war.

Its the Congressional to Pentagon version of truth in advertising.

Sell people tobacco, but make sure you tell them they can get all sorts of god awful cancer, all sorts of major health issues, and that its addictive. Do not tell them cigarettes will make you healthy. (Advertisers did do this in the 50s.)

Now, its sell people war, but tell them that your reasons for undertaking the war are sketchy, the results are questionable, and its probably going to cost years worth of treasure in people and money. Do not tell them it will stop terrorism, that it will pay for itself, that it will be short and sweet, that the end product will create a civil democratic society, and that if you object to this pretext then you might be a terrorist - do not say these things because you are essentially clueless and have ulterior and secret motives.