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White House rolls out Kenya propaganda plan
Aims to 'groom' journalists for favorable coverage from Nairobi to New York
WND
Steve Peacock
7/2/2012
Excerpt:
"Now that the Obama administration is pouring vast amounts of money into Kenya, it’s going to need some help selling its spending to the people.
WND has discovered the U.S. Agency for International Development has devised a sophisticated scheme to sway public opinion on U.S. “investments” in the African nation, including strategies to “groom” targeted journalists for favorable media coverage.
The USAID/Kenya Strategic Communications Plan 2012-2013 emerges at a time when the level of U.S. government projects in Kenya has outpaced agency resources. As WND reported, U.S. spending in Kenya has grown ‘exponentially’ under Obama, forcing USAID to hire contractors to oversee it all.
On June 29 USAID attached the Kenya propaganda plan – which itself is dated June 16 – as an addendum to its procurement documents.
The Kenya strategic plan maps out its intentions in the context of the White House’s position that a “stable and prosperous Kenya is central to American foreign policy.”
Indeed, the document’s first line establishes that “USAID/Kenya is playing a lead role implementing President Obama’s vision for global development, which sees development assistance as a pillar of foreign policy and crucial to America’s national security and economic interests.”
The document repeatedly asserts that helping Kenya is crucial to safeguarding those interests, claiming that “U.S. development efforts can defuse the anger and injustice that fuel conflict.” It declares that the U.S. government therefore must exert greater effort to influence how “targeted opinion leaders” in both nations portray U.S. assistance in Kenya.
The USAID/Kenya Development and Outreach Communications, or DOC, team – in conjunction with privately contracted “implementing partners” – must leverage tactics spelled out in the strategic plan to successfully sway those leaders. The agency also refers to those leaders as “message multipliers.”
“Journalists, editors and media personalities are also opinion leaders,” the document says. “They determine what gets written or talked about in the media.”
The strategic plan envisions the DOC team collaborating with groups such as the United Nations Development Program to “target specific journalists at key media outlets to be groomed to cover targeted issues over time.”
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View the complete article at:
http://www.wnd.com/2012/07/white-hou...opaganda-plan/
Aims to 'groom' journalists for favorable coverage from Nairobi to New York
WND
Steve Peacock
7/2/2012
Excerpt:
"Now that the Obama administration is pouring vast amounts of money into Kenya, it’s going to need some help selling its spending to the people.
WND has discovered the U.S. Agency for International Development has devised a sophisticated scheme to sway public opinion on U.S. “investments” in the African nation, including strategies to “groom” targeted journalists for favorable media coverage.
The USAID/Kenya Strategic Communications Plan 2012-2013 emerges at a time when the level of U.S. government projects in Kenya has outpaced agency resources. As WND reported, U.S. spending in Kenya has grown ‘exponentially’ under Obama, forcing USAID to hire contractors to oversee it all.
On June 29 USAID attached the Kenya propaganda plan – which itself is dated June 16 – as an addendum to its procurement documents.
The Kenya strategic plan maps out its intentions in the context of the White House’s position that a “stable and prosperous Kenya is central to American foreign policy.”
Indeed, the document’s first line establishes that “USAID/Kenya is playing a lead role implementing President Obama’s vision for global development, which sees development assistance as a pillar of foreign policy and crucial to America’s national security and economic interests.”
The document repeatedly asserts that helping Kenya is crucial to safeguarding those interests, claiming that “U.S. development efforts can defuse the anger and injustice that fuel conflict.” It declares that the U.S. government therefore must exert greater effort to influence how “targeted opinion leaders” in both nations portray U.S. assistance in Kenya.
The USAID/Kenya Development and Outreach Communications, or DOC, team – in conjunction with privately contracted “implementing partners” – must leverage tactics spelled out in the strategic plan to successfully sway those leaders. The agency also refers to those leaders as “message multipliers.”
“Journalists, editors and media personalities are also opinion leaders,” the document says. “They determine what gets written or talked about in the media.”
The strategic plan envisions the DOC team collaborating with groups such as the United Nations Development Program to “target specific journalists at key media outlets to be groomed to cover targeted issues over time.”
..........................................
View the complete article at:
http://www.wnd.com/2012/07/white-hou...opaganda-plan/