Pro-war blog payola?

This file is getting fat: from paying favorable columnists like Armstrong Williams to having military personnel write news stories for Iraqi papers, the Bush administration's propaganda tactics now apparently include buying off bloggers. The Washington Post reports that a PR firm associated with the US Army has been offering top dollar to pro-war bloggers who write glowingly of the Iraq effort—and they're offering "exclusive content" to such bloggers. Here's an inquiry Fuzzilicious got:

Hi, Lioness. I’m writing from a PR firm on behalf of the U.S. Army. We’re contacting a few bloggers to test a new outlet for public information. The Army believes that military blogs are a valuable medium for reaching out to soldiers. To that end, the Army plans to offer you and selected bloggers exclusive editorial content on a few issues you’re likely to be interested in. If you do decide you are interested in receiving this material, whether you choose to write about what we send you is, of course, entirely up to you.

Like I said, we’re only contacting a handful of bloggers at this time. If you are interested, please let me know, and we’ll send you further information as it becomes available. Either way, thanks for your time.
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Charlie Kondek
Account Executive
Web Producer
Hass MS&L

Sploid has more.