Groupthink

In "Firm That Planted Stories Gets Deal," the Los Angeles Times reports that the once-disgraced company and frequent Virtualpolitik target The Lincoln Group has once again received a lucrative government contract, this time for media analysis of Iraqi news coverage. Nice that it's the same month that Harper's is running an article by former employee Willem Marx about his experiences working for the public diplomacy conglomerate formerly known as "Iraqex." In "Misinformation Intern," Marx describes the kleptocracy of his fellow government contractors in Iraq and how what he thought would be a stepping stone to an honorable journalism career degenerated into pistol-packing and thuggish intimidation of the corrupt locals who cooperated in his news planting schemes, most of which were cooked up by military strategists.