Bush’s ‘War on Terrorism’ Propaganda Scores Big in RP

In two separate media studies conducted last April and May, a group of graduate students from the University of the Philippines’ College of Mass Communication and journalism students from Bicol University (BU) doing summer practicum with the same college revealed that the U.S. military along with the pro-war Arroyo administration scored high in the war reportage of the country’s five leading broadsheets. In particular, both the government and the U.S. military dominated the sources of news used by the broadsheets.

By Bobby Tuazon

Bulatlat.com

In the military strategy of Pentagon, war involves not only defeating your enemy militarily – it is as much a battle of winning the “hearts and minds” of the world. The Americans learned a big lesson in their debacle in Indochina during the 1960s-1970s – they lost the war, partly because they lost the support of American and world public opinion.

When U.S. President George W. Bush launched his “global war on terrorism” in October last year – a war which his vice president, Dick Cheney, said would take more than a lifetime – the propaganda mills of the Pentagon, state department and 38 other agencies which coordinate the “Operation Enduring Freedom” began working. Right inside the White House, a public information “war room” was created to coordinate the administration’s daily messages both at home and abroad. The state department created its public diplomacy office while the Pentagon deployed a secret “office of strategic influence” hiring a professional PR firm to help in its propaganda campaign.

Such war propaganda efforts by the Bush administration could be paying off – at least in the Philippines, where the U.S. opened its “second front” – that of flushing out the small bandit group, Abu Sayyaf, which is said to have links with the Al Qaeda. One way of finding out the impact of such efforts is to determine how Bush’s war in the Philippines including the Balikatan “counter-terrorism” war exercises, were covered by the local media.

In two separate studies conducted last April and May, students of the University of the Philippines’ College of Mass Communication and journalism students from Bicol University (BU) doing summer practicum with the same college revealed that the U.S. military along with the pro-war Arroyo administration scored high in the war reportage of the country’s five leading broadsheets. In particular, both the government and the U.S. military dominated the sources of news used by the broadsheets.

On the negative side, however, the studies raised questions whether the newspapers conformed to the standard ethics of journalism through fair, accurate and balanced reporting on the issue particularly in accommodating the dissenting voices. There was also a question whether newspaper readers – consumers who make the newspapers survive - were given full and comprehensive accounts of the issue.

The first study, titled “The GMA Public Relations Campaign: A Study on the Effectiveness of President Arroyo’s PR Strategies,” was prepared by a group of UP-CMC graduate students, Datu Jamal Ashley Abbas, Fredalina Dado, Lilian Jatayna, Angelo Morales and Laura Osero. The study used content analysis on war-related reports published in the Philippine Star, Today, Philippine Daily Inquirer, Manila Times and Bulletin. The analysis was followed by an opinion survey focusing on the credibility of the president’s PR strategies. The students also interviewed known PR practitioners, both media- and academe-based.

The second study involved conducting content analysis of the war-related reports and photos published in the Star, Bulletin and PDI, from February to early May 2002. The seven BU practicum students who prepared the report were also asked to interview editors of the three newspapers. Despite persistent efforts, the students could only interview a Bulletin reporter; a deskperson of PDI faxed an unspecific reply to the questionnaire. All that the students needed was to validate their findings in the content analysis and ask other clarificatory questions.

Inside page

The UP-CMC study noted that “pro-Balikatan articles appeared” in all the five newspapers especially in the front pages. But it also revealed that generally, “anti-Balikatan stories even in the Inquirer, were not featured in the front pages” noting, in particular, that a 16-km march by some 5,000 anti-Balikatan protesters could only merit a space in the inside page.

If “anti-administration” articles are published, these are generally relegated to back pages, the same study said. “Statements attributed to authority figures are given prominence, thus minimizing any chance for statement of non-government people and ensuring the further marginalization of groups not in favor of the status quo,” the UP-CMC study said.

The BU report, on the other hand, found that for three months as much as 85% of the information carried by the reports of PDI, Star and Bulletin came from government and U.S. military sources. From the government side (60%), the leading sources of news included Arroyo, National Security Adviser Roilo Golez, Gen. Roy Cimatu and Defense Secretary Angelo Reyes. The U.S. military, a second major source with 25%, was usually represented by the ground commanders in Basilan and sites of joint war exercises and their “official spokesperson,” Maj. Cynthia Terame.

Militant groups and NGOs opposed to the Balikatan and the war in Basilan could only merit a dismal average of 4%. As noted by Bulatlat.com, these groups were as active in emailing and faxing daily press releases on the issue as they were in marching in the streets. The other sources were individuals from the academe and other sectors and non-affiliated individuals.

Lack of depth

Both studies also found that majority of the reports (71%, according to the BU group) were written as news although the Star tried to supplement its coverage with more news features (37%) compared with the other papers. They lamented the evident lack of backgrounders, indepth reports and analyses in the reportage of the five dailies on such a major issue as the U.S. military presence and the “war on terrorism.” And yet sources for this type of information were ample enough and were accessible to the press.

Photographs published in the newspapers were overwhelmingly in favor of the war in Basilan and the Balikatan exercises. As the UP-CMC study stated, “The public is bombarded with giant photographs of American soldiers in varying degrees of undress involved in such dangerous activities as strolling in the jungle or lying in a hammock or brushing their teeth. Apparently, the Burson-Marsteller (a giant PR company hired by the Arroyo administration) PR campaign is to ‘package’ the U.S. Marines as harmless and friendly folk out to help a friend in need (the Filipinos).”

Concerned journalists particularly those based in Mindanao have criticized the subtle censorship and disinformation waged by administration authorities and their U.S. counterparts. In particular, they complain that in covering the war in Basilan and the joint exercises, information is centralized and reporters are barred from going to the field for “security reasons.” War reporters receive their daily fare of press releases – and nothing more. Occasionally, U.S. field commanders give sanitized interviews.

When asked to mention who the “main sources” of information his newspaper uses for its coverage, the Bulletin reporter interviewed by the BU group cited military sources, such as Camp Aguinaldo or the Southern Command headquarters in Zamboanga City. Reporters “get the fair view of the events,” he said. Asked what issues need clarified to enlighten the public, he answered: “I don’t think things need to be clarified.”

In their current joint military affairs, both Philippine and U.S. governments have established the Exercise Directorate in Zamboanga and at Camp Aguinaldo in Quezon City. Aside from its spokespersons, the U.S. forces have put up the Combined Joint Information Bureau (CJIB) for accreditation prior to coverage at the former Clark airfield. Both governments also maintain another main source of news of reporters – the “Exercise Balikatan 2002” website which is posted from Honolulu.

Incidentally, the Philippines’ defense department on May 2 hired the PR services of Weber Shandwick to keep in touch with the White House, Pentagon and various federal agencies of the Bush administration. The two-year contract is worth P24 million. Weber Shandwick is Asia’s lading PR agency while Burson-Marsteller, which is under a $800,000 publicity and lobby contract with the Arroyo government, is attached to a PR conglomerate said to be the world’s No. 1. (More on this in next week’s Bulatlat.com issue.) Bulatlat.com

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