And now, the news. Or something like it.

Bush and his friends have repeated had their hands slapped for purchasing fake news and opinion pieces supporting their policies here in the United States. It should therefore come as no surprise to anyone that they've been engaging in far more blatant press rigging in the unsupervised environment of Iraq. This from the L.A. Times.

As part of an information offensive in Iraq, the U.S. military is secretly paying Iraqi newspapers to publish stories written by American troops in an effort to burnish the image of the U.S. mission in Iraq.

The articles, written by U.S. military "information operations" troops, are translated into Arabic and placed in Baghdad newspapers with the help of a defense contractor, according to U.S. military officials and documents obtained by the Los Angeles Times.

Many of the articles are presented in the Iraqi press as unbiased news accounts written and reported by independent journalists. The stories trumpet the work of U.S. and Iraqi troops, denounce insurgents and tout U.S.-led efforts to rebuild the country.

A free press in Iraq? Let's see... we alrady shut down one television station that was broadcasting stories which were critical of the invasion. Several papers condemning America have been closed down. And now we find out that, of the papers which remain open, the owners are taking money to run ginned up propaganda pieces trumpeting the United States.

Freedom of the press. I guess that one didn't make it into the new Iraq constitution.