P-38 US Pentagon to be "correcting" wrong or bad Media NEWS...

Pentagon mounts media offensive Monday, 30 October 2006... The Pentagon has set up a new unit to focus on promoting its message across 24-hour rolling news outlets, and particularly on the internet..... The US Defence Department said it would expand its public relations work to fight "inaccurate" news stories.

Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has said media manipulation by enemies of the US is the only thing keeping him awake at night.... US officials believe bad news from Iraq gets undue coverage.....

According to the BBC's Justin Webb in Washington, the Bush administration does not believe the true picture of events in Iraq has been made public.... He says the administration is particularly concerned that insurgents in areas such as Iraq have been able to use the web to disseminate their message and give the impression they are more powerful than the US.

A Pentagon memo seen by the Associated Press news agency said the new unit will "develop messages" for the 24-hour news cycle and aim to "correct the record"..... A spokesman said the unit would monitor media such as weblogs and would also employ "surrogates", or top politicians or lobbyists who could be interviewed on TV and radio shows.
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Anti-terror plan targets internet Thursday, 26 October 2006.... Ministers from the six largest European Union countries have agreed to work together to make the internet a "more hostile" place for terrorists.

Home Secretary John Reid said they would seek to crack down on people using the web to share information on explosives or spread propaganda..... Mr Reid said the terrorism threat came "particularly from those who would through a perverted use of Islam constitute a terrorist threat"...... However, he added that "the enemy is terrorism; the enemy is not Islam".

World discusses internet future The future of the net is the ambitious topic under discussion at the first global Internet Governance Forum, being held in Athens over the next five days.