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Pentagon nominee aims for more positive Iraq stories ByAndreaShalal-EsaWASHINGTON, Oct 25 (Reuters) - President George W.Bushsnominee to be the Pentagons chief public affairs officialtoldCongress on Tuesday he hoped to encourage more positivestoriesabout the Iraq war by encouraging the practice of ddingreporterswith U.S. troops in Iraq.Dorrance Smith, a formertelevisionproducer who spent nine months in Iraq as a senioradviser forformer ambassador Paul Bremer, also defende
d hiscontroversialarticle in the Wall Street Journal in April, in whichhe saidextremists like Osama bin Laden had a partner inAl-Jazeera, andby extension, most networks in the U.S.In thearticle, Smithconcluded that the United States waslosing badlythe battle forthe hearts and minds of the Iraqi people, and saidethicalquestions were raised by the practice of U.S. networksairingvideos of hostages obtained by Al-Jazeera, a popularArab-languagetelevision channel.He told the Senate Armed ServicesCommittee oneway to get out more positive stories about U.S. troopsin Iraqwould be toreinvigorate the Pentagons practice ofddingreporters with military units, which was widely used duringtheinvasion of Iraq 2-1/2 years ago but is done onlysporadicallynow.Weve got to analyze the security situation as itrelates tothe communications environment to see what we can do toget thesestories out in an open and honest way and a timelyfashion, Smithsaid.Sen. Carl Levin, the ranking Democrat on thecommittee,grilledSmith repeatedly about the Wall Street Journalarticle,but Smithsaid he still believed it was center to questionrelations betweenU.S. networks, Al-Jazeera and extremist groups.Ithink that itsfair to say that the terrorists understand that byhaving filmshown on Al-Jazeera it will then be shown on thenetworks, hesaid.But he declined to say the U.S. networks wereaiding andabetting terrorism -- a question that he had raised inthe Journalpiece -- by airing the videos and failing to report onQatarsfinancial support for Al-Jazeera.Al-Jazeera has often shownvideoof hostages pleading at gunpoint for their respectivegovernmentsto withdraw troops.It does not broadcast footage ofkillings, whichare posted on the Internet by militants. Washingtonhas accused thechannel of biased reporting on Iraq.Levin said heremained troubledby Smiths replies, and would oppose hisnomination.Republican Sen.James Inhofe of Oklahoma blasted U.S.media coverage of the war inIraq, saying that it focused mostly onbad news, and said he hopedSmith could somehow shame the pressinto providing more positivecoverage.Democratic Sen. Ben Nelson ofNebraska bristled atInhofes charges, saying, I think the mediahas done and continuesto do a remarkable job of telling us what wecannot see.
新华网消息据路透社报道，25日，美国总统布什提名的五角大楼公共事务部主任多兰斯·史密斯建议国会，鼓励美军的随军记者增加对伊战的积极宣传。
多兰斯认为，两年前，在美军刚进入伊拉克时，随军记者还发回不少正面报道，但是现在却很少见了。“我们要达到正面宣传的目的，就必须分析安全形式，使随军记者的报道及时公开的发表出来。”
俄克拉荷马州的共和党参议员詹姆斯·英赫夫对美国媒体关于伊战的报道十分不满，觉得大部分报道都令人感觉不太舒服，他希望史密斯不管是因为羞愧还是因为压力，能多提供些正面的报道。
内布拉斯加州的民主党参议员本·纳尔逊对詹姆斯·英赫夫的话感到十分愤怒，“我认为媒体在提供给我们无法亲自获知的信息方面已经非常尽职尽责了。”（高颖）（专稿）
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