"Multiple Conservative bloggers, writers engaged in paid propaganda for the Malaysian government"

Multiple Conservative bloggers, writers engaged in paid propaganda for the Malaysian government

by Hunter for Daily Kos

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/03/01/1190808/-Multiple-conservative-bloggers-writers-engaged-in-paid-propaganda-for-Malaysian-government?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+dailykos%2Findex+%28Daily+Kos%29

"SNIP....................................................


A range of mainstream American publications printed paid propaganda for the government of Malaysia, much of it focused on the campaign against a pro-democracy figure there.

The payments to conservative American opinion writers — whose work appeared in outlets from the Huffington Post and San Francisco Examiner to the Washington Times to National Review and RedState — emerged in a filing this week to the Department of Justice. The filing under the Foreign Agent Registration Act outlines a campaign spanning May 2008 to April 2011 and led by Joshua Trevino, a conservative pundit, who received $389,724.70 under the contract and paid smaller sums to a series of conservative writers.

The posts were in defense of the Malaysian government and in specific opposition to the pro-democracy opposition. Other "subcontractors" on the deal include Ben Domenech, paid $36,000, and Red State writer Brad Jackson, $24,700. Trevino had previously denied the association, but now says it was "a fairly standard PR operation." If possible, doesn't that make it worse? (Trevino, for his part, was fired from the Guardian last year, allegedly also in association with nondisclosure of links to Malaysian interests.)

What we have here is a situation in which a group of 10 conservative bloggers and writers were writing pro-Malaysian government pieces for multiple years as paid propaganda for those interests (and getting paid quite handsomely for it, no less!). Now we hear that it was a "fairly standard PR operation"? Really? So how many of these are out there, on the conservative side?

..................................................SNIP"