The NY Times reports today:

Pentagon Widens Its Battle to Shape News of Iraq War

WASHINGTON, Nov. 2 — The Pentagon is reorganizing its public affairs operation in an attempt to influence news coverage, amid internal frustration at the tone and substance of reporting on Iraq and on Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld.

The expanded office, which was first described by department officials in an informal press briefing on Monday, features a “rapid response unit” to react to news reports. It is also stepping up efforts to arrange appearances by department officials on talk radio and cable television, and to recruit “surrogates” who are not on the department’s payroll to defend its policies.

A dozen new staff members have started to work behind a newly installed wall in the Pentagon’s press office.

Officials involved say the new effort, which was conceived by Assistant Secretary of Defense Dorrance Smith, is not primarily a response to negative coverage but rather is aimed at more aggressively challenging articles and broadcasts deemed inaccurate and at making better use of podcasts, blogs and other new outlets.

It’s nice to see the “Paper of Record” has finally gotten around to publishing the news that we reported last Monday.

[O]fficials also concede that much of the effort so far has focused on disputing stories about the war in Iraq and about Mr. Rumsfeld that they deem to be inaccurate. Pentagon officials in recent months have issued a flood of letters to the editor taking issue with accounts of Mr. Rumsfeld’s role in setting Iraq strategy, the content of his speeches and other matters of fact and interpretation in newspapers and magazine articles.

Anything casting a bad light on the DoD or its resident Baron will be considered to be “inaccurate.”

They have also begun responding within minutes to live television reports, calling reporters and producers to challenge their accuracy.

The overhaul of the public affairs operation, has received a mixed response among some senior military officials at the department, who say it reflects frustration at coverage of the Iraq war.

If you thought our MSM flinched badly after thirty years of Republican spousal abuse, wait till you see what happens when DOD field grade officers start phoning up news yokels 25 seconds after the report goes out. This latest tactic will turn these lily-livered cowards of the MSM into screaming hysterics. It will be the most effective press censorship ever seen outside a declared dictatorship. If this works the way it's planned, news folks will be calling up asking if they're permitted to print or air a story.

I can understand the reported “frustration” about Iraq war coverage. After all, the US hasn’t lost a war in 30 years.

Facts have a known liberal bias.