U.S. Is Said to Pay to Plant Articles in Iraq Papers

If true, then the NYT story of how the Pentagon is placing propaganda as news stories into Iraqi newspapers doesn't sit right with me. Once the secret gets out (as it seems to have), it will have a devastating effect on Iraqi public trust of its newspapers. It would smack of the days under Saddam where the media was state-controlled and may even put the lives of Iraqi journalists into more dangers as they may be accused of collaborating with the U.S.

I hope to see more of this story, as well as the government's response and rationale, but I can't say that this bodes well for the administration.