House Hot About 'Propaganda' Info Ops

The Defense Department's budget for information operations - that's everything from plain vanilla public affairs to targeted messages and canned 'news stories" to influence audiences in Iraq and Afghanistan - has jumped a hundred fold in the past four years, from $9 million in 2005 to what the House Appropriations Committee called a "staggering" $988 million budget request for fiscal 2010.

The committee, in its report on the fiscal 2010 Defense appropriations bill, viewed these high-priced information operations with alarm, and described them as "nonmilitary propaganda, public relations and behavioral modification messaging."

The committee said it questioned the effectiveness of much of the material being produced, the supposed efforts to minimize target audience knowledge of the U.S. government sponsorship of certain production materials and the ability of the department to evaluate the impact of these programs.

Defense requested a $200 million increase in its information operations budget for fiscal 2010, but the committee said it believes many messaging projects should be "terminated immediately" and whacked $500 million from the requested budget.

I know more than a handful of "strategic communicators" who will not be thrilled by this at all.