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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: GUSTAVE JAEGER who wrote (249801)	9/6/2005 8:23:22 AM
From: bentway	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1574679

Military releases seep into Katrina news articles RAW STORY rawstory.com Some articles written surrounding Hurricane Katrina disaster relief have lifted directly from U.S. military press releases, a RAW STORY examination has found. Though the mainstream media's aggressive reporting from the storm-ravaged Gulf Coast has been demonstrably critical of President Bush, federal officials, and the speed of disaster relief, some reporters have taken to drawn military press releases rather than filing first-hand reports. An Associated Press article Saturday, "Air Force Sending 300 Home From Iraq, Afghanistan," refers to a "statement." A Saturday United Press International article refers to an Air Force "news release." A CNN.com piece Sunday mentions "an Air Force command statement" and "a news release." A Reuters article published in the L.A. Times closes the third paragraph with "the Air Force said in a statement released in Qatar." Most of the articles above draw upon a single press release issued by the Air Force in Southwest Asia: "Hurricane-affected Airmen to redeploy." The release was posted on the Air Force website Sept. 3. The release is credited to Air Force Print News, "the Air Force news wire service providing Air Force and Department of Defense news and information, with daily updates from around the world." A New York Times piece published in March brought new attention to the pervasive use of military and government news releases prepackaged as news and carried onto an unwitting American public by an "unbiased" news media. Times reporters David Barstow and Robin Stein wrote of "a world where government-produced reports disappear into a maze of satellite transmissions, Web portals, syndicated news programs and network feeds, only to emerge cleansed on the other side as 'independent' journalism." The aforementioned AP, UPI, CNN and Reuters stories are not an anomaly. Over the last week, myriad mainstream articles relied on military "news releases." An Air Force Material Command News Service "news release" attributed to the 96th Air Base Wing Public Affairs, "Eglin rations gas to ensure fuel availability," was cited in the AP article "Fla. Panhandle base cancels plan for 1,000-person tent city." An Army News Service statement also played in Jason Reed's Reuters article "New Orleans makes 'desperate SOS' relief plea." Military "news articles," which differ from news releases in that they appear to be more "objective," also draw on releases from the Air Force Print News syndicate, blurring the line between reporting and PR. Large parts from the AFPN release were included in a "news article" written by Capt. Steve Alvarez for the Armed Forces Press Services and posted at the United States Department of Defense Website. According to the dateline, Captain Alvarez, a public affairs officer and Iraq veteran, filed his article, "Gulf Coast Evacuees Find Relief at Maxwell" from Maxwell Air Force Base in Alabama Sept. 3. The release, however, was dispatched from Southwest Asia. A Google News search conducted Sunday revealed that there were hundreds of articles related to the AFPN news release. Six remain current as of the time this piece was published. Ron Brynaert contributed the research for this article.