Disinformation idea met with skepticism

Governments setting up ministries of propaganda, as Walter Jajko proposes the U.S. should do (Opinion, Dec. 2), is exactly how such dictators and tyrants as Mussolini, Hitler and Stalin took control of mass populations.

Jajko’s conclusion that we must openly sanction the dissemination of propaganda to “preserve democratic governance [and] a free society” is perhaps the most contradictory statement ever penned in the history of newspaper publishing. It is by all known logic impossible for lies to set anyone free, as by definition lack of truth, according to the fundamental theory of education, is what keeps us from being free.

RICHARD ABERDEEN

Nashville, Tenn.

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Re Jajko’s article: I think you misspelled the columnist’s last name. I believe the correct spelling is “Goebbels.”

CRAIG LOFTIN

Los Angeles

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Should we be distressed that the Pentagon is not ceding the media playing field to Zarqawi and Al Jazeera in Iraq and the Middle East? Part of winning any war is making certain that factual, positive information available to the populace by whatever media are available. If that is called propaganda by the enemy, that’s irrelevant.

LAURELLA A. CROSS

Irvine

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I suspected Jajko was pulling my leg, but when he suggested a cabinet-level Ministry of Propaganda, my outburst of laughter startled my dog. There is disinformation aplenty already flowing from the Bush administration. If we are attempting to teach folks in Iraq and environs about the virtues of democracy and the importance of a free press, being dishonest about it is not the proper object lesson.

JEROME S. KLEINSASSER

Bakersfield

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Re “Probe Sought Into Stories Planted in Iraqi Media,” Dec.1

Why should we be surprised that the Bush administration is paying for good-news stories in Iraqi newspapers? It has already admitted to paying American journalists for publishing articles favorable to the administration in our own press.

This administration has demonstrated that it is morally bankrupt. We do not need it to invent the news. All we ask of our leadership is honesty and integrity -- qualities sorely lacking in this White House. The administration would be wise to heed the words of George Orwell: “In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act.”

MAJ. ROBERT TORMEY

U.S. Air Force, Retired

Escondido