Giving Information Ministers a Bad Rep

Cholera is a calculated, racist attack on Zimbabwe by the unrepentant former colonial power, which has enlisted support from its American and Western allies so that they can invade the country.

Sikhanyiso Ndlovu, Zimbabwe Information Minister (CNN, 15 December 2008)

There are no American troops in Baghdad! The infidels are committing suicide by the hundreds on the gates of Baghdad.  We slaughtered them.

Mohammad Saeed al-Sahhaf, aka "Baghdad Bob," Iraq Information Minister (USA Today, April 2003)

It's unfair to all those earnest information ministers out there in the world to quote two of the most notorious deniers-of-reality of this century.  Just Google ministry of information and see what you come up with.  Links to information ministries in all manner of countries with little or no press, free or otherwise, but a helpful ministry to provide whatever meets their approved version of reality.

During the two World Wars, Britain had a Ministry of Information, which, according to the UK National Archives, was "the central government department responsible for publicity and propaganda."

The United States has no such "central government department," though some would argue that it needs one.  Public Diplomacy, the responsibility of the State Department, vies with "Strategic Communication," which increasingly has a military accent.  In such quality blogs as "Mountain Runner," observers like Matt Armstrong engage readers to ponder what institutional and legislative arrangements best suit the U.S.  Ex-USIA officers Patricia Kushlis and Patricia Lee Sharpe in Whirled View show how much of the experience acquired under the defunct United States Information Agency has been lost after its forced absorption into the State Department almost a decade ago.

This post is not really intended to give proper treatment to a very weighty subject (Matt is doing that in a big way next month in a conference in Washington).  But last week's outburst from the Zimbabwe Information Minister blaming cholera on everyone but his own president's misrule underlined again that it's not the messenger, nor the medium, but the underlying reality that counts.

America's progress in "the war of ideas" will depend - as has its failure in the last eight years - on the content of its policies.  Garbage in, garbage out.  Practice what you preach.  What goes around, comes around.  Reap what you sow.

It matters much less whether the Minister of Information or the White House Spokesman provides the (dis)information.  Credibility, once lost, takes ages to restore. Among the many things that must be done starting January 20, restoring America's reputation will take everything that a President Obama can give it.