New low:

As it prepared to invade Iraq five years ago, the Bush administration called up retired military officers to help sell the war. Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and his propaganda team courted as many as 75 retired military officers who could best market the Pentagon line, particularly on TV. As detailed in The Times on Sunday, many of these officers used their access to Pentagon bigwigs to promote their private businesses. The deal was simple: Offer good news on Iraq, even when the news is bad.

All administrations try to spin, or even manipulate, the news media, but this White House has taken that to a new low. The Bush administration has hired actors to pose as journalists. It has produced mock news bulletins to promote its view of the Iraq war. Now, based on thousands of e-mail messages and other documents, The Times’s David Barstow has outlined how the Pentagon used a “Trojan horse” of former military officers to parrot falsely positive messages. Senator Carl Levin, Democrat of Michigan, is calling for an investigation of the propaganda purveyors, especially those with business ties to the Pentagon.

That is a start. Candidates for president should also declare their views about how to market policies to the public and the news media. Hint: the Rumsfeld propaganda show is not

the way. — The New York Times