PUBLIC RELATIONS AND US MEDIA:
The ease with which the Gulf War propaganda was accepted by the general American population was the outcome of a concerted effort on the part of military and government, Department of Defense contractors, and oil conglomerates, with the mainstream media conglomerates as an important mechanism in the defining and targeting of enemies for US Public consumption. All these institutions were the main beneficiaries, if not instigators, of the dissemination of materials and ideology that propagated the necessity of the War; as well as of the defined parameters in which information about the War was allowed for public consumption.
Public relations companies hired by the US and Kuwait government swayed popular support for the War. The American public did not see how US and allied bombing relegated Iraq to a pre-industrial age, leaving some 72,000 Iraqi civilians homeless, killing over 150,000, and injuring over 300,000.
A pre-war propaganda spectacle took place courtesy of Hill & Knowlton, one of the largest, most politically connected, and most influential public relations firms in the world. They helped create a national outrage against Iraq. This outrage was exacerbated by the recounting of horrifying events supposedly caused by Iraqi soldiers in Kuwait.
A young woman named Nayirah claimed in Congressional testimony, and before a national audience, that she saw "Iraqi soldiers come into the [Kuwait] hospital with guns, and go into the room where 15 babies were in incubators. They took the babies out of the incubators, and left the babies on the cold floor to die." What the public was not told is that Nayirah was the daughter of Sheikh Sand Nasir al-Sabah, Kuwait's Ambassador to the US. The public also wasn't told that her performance was coordinated by the White House and choreographed by the US public relations firm Hill & Knowlton on behalf of the Kuwait government.
Furthermore, Hill & Knowlton used $10.8 million, paid by the exiled Kuwait government, to create a benign image of Kuwait, a country with a totalitarian ruling class and an atrocious human rights record. The Hill & Knowlton team launched a Kuwait Information Day on college campuses and churches nationwide where they distributed free bumper stickers, T-shirts, and press packets that created an extremely positive image of Kuwait. Also Hill & Knowlton's Lew Allison, who had formerly produced CBS and NBC news shows, created 24 video news releases from the Middle East, some of which purported to depict life in Kuwait under the Iraqi boot.
The American public was also not made aware that the US/Kuwait-financed public relations firm Hill & Knowlton's connections to the Bush Administration ran straight to the top. Craig Fuller, Hill & Knowlton's Washington-based President and Chief Operating Officer, was also Vice-President Bush's Chief of Staff. Further, there were over 119 Hill & Knowlton executives in 12 offices throughout the US working on developing public opinion in favor of a Gulf War.
So why wasn't the media coverage of war preparations, and then of the War, truthful about how the American public was being manipulated? In fact, why did the media participate directly in the manipulation of the American public? The answer to these questions can be found when an investigation into the intricate connections between the Department of Defense, the top media conglomerates, and the oil industry is made.
The following is a list of the interlocking board members between Department of Defense contractors, oil conglomerates, and media conglomerates:
·ABC has two ties to Caltex and two ties to Texaco.
·CBS has one tie to Hill & Knowlton, Inc.
·Gannett Newspaper Co., Inc. has one tie each to McDonnell Douglas and Phillips Petroleum.
·NBC (wholly owned by Department of Defense contractor General Electric) has one tie each to British Petroleum, and the Washington Post.
·Knight-Ridder, Inc. has two ties to Raytheon.
·The New York Times has one tie each to Caltex, General Dynamics, and Texaco.
·Time-Warner has four ties to Mobil Oil and has one tie to Tribune Company.
·Times Mirror has one tie to Rockwell International.
·The Tribune Co. has one tie to Amoco and one tie to Time-Warner.
·The Washington Post has one tie to Ashland Oil and one tie to General Electric/NBC.
So, what is the importance of these connections between the Department of Defense and its contractors, the media, and oil companies? The importance lies in the fact that these powerful segments have the money and resources to articulate their desires repeatedly to the American people until those desires become "self- evident truths" and "conventional wisdoms." A concerted effort on the part of the military and government, media conglomerates, Department of Defense contractors, and oil conglomerates ensured that its Gulf War propaganda was accepted by the general American population.
-From Censored Alert, Spring 2000, Vol. 4, Issue 1