Propaganda

As has now been well established (see the post below) the entire Jessica Lynch story was a mass media fabrication intended to bolster support for "our troops."

The original "public relations" or (better yet?) "perception management" article from The Washington Post can be found here.

These things don't happen by accident. One of the original theorists behind mass media manufacture of consent was Walter Lippmann. Here is a snippet of his thinking:

"That the manufacture of consent is capable of great refinements no one, I think, denies. The process by which public opinions arise is certainly no less intricate than it has appeared in these pages, and the opportunities for manipulation open to anyone who understands the processes are plain enough.

The creation of consent is not a new art. It is a very old one which was supposed to have died out with the appearance of democracy. But it has not died out. It has, in fact, improved enormously in technic, because it is now based on analysis rather than on rule of thumb. And so, as a result of psychological research, coupled with the modern means of communication, the practice of democracy has turned a corner. A revolution is taking place, infinitely more significant than any shifting of economic power." --Walter Lippmann, Public Opinion