Pentagon's PR Machine and Baseball Game Text Messages

Perhaps you've been at a baseball game this year where the announcer asked everyone to use their cell phone to send a text message showing support of US troops as part of the "America Supports You" campaign. And perhaps, in a moment of patriotism and compassion for our young soldiers, you tapped out a message. Where did it go? According to today's NPR Morning Edition report by Martin Kaste, it not only didn't reach the troops, it went nowhere. Except to the Pentagon.

Chris Moore, who left America Supports You a month ago, says text messages from ball parks don't actually go anywhere. They don't appear on the site, they aren't sent to the troops.

So what's the point of spending tax dollars on a Pentagon campaign to count text messages?

Kaste says those text messages are just being used as a barometer of public sentiment about the war, and not being sent anywhere beyond the Pentagon.

Much of the Pentagon's publicity work has been farmed out to a private firm, Susan Davis International. For the first year of America Supports You, Kaste reports, the firm signed Pentagon contracts for at least $2.7 million. The firm's response to Kaste's inquiry? "No comment."

Via Stan Vornovitsky

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Posted by: Mike Driehorst at July 14, 2006 8:48 AM

Posted by: Mike Driehorst at July 14, 2006 11:20 AM

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