http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0610/30/sitroom.03.html
ZAHN: And Wolf, part of any modern campaign is the war room, a high pressure operation that monitors media critics and responds with a rapid fire public relations blitz. Now Republicans and Democrats both use war rooms. Now the Pentagon is launching its own media war for that. We go to Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr.
BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Paula, the Pentagon has begun what they call a new rapid response operation to respond quickly to stories in the news media that they believe are either critical of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld or the war in Iraq. Now the operation is similar to political boiler rooms that we have all seen in campaigns where they mount a very rapid response to any assertions out in public that those campaigns don't like.
Here in the Pentagon they're calling it actually a "bullpen". They say it is not being started up right now because of the growing criticism of the war. That this is something that they intended to do for some time. The Pentagon won't say how many people are involved or what the operation is going to cost. It was confirmed however by officials that some of the employees will actually be political appointees who will run the new operation.
Defense Secretary Rumsfeld of course has been very critical of the news media for some time. Believing that there is too much focus on what he calls "the bad news" coming out of Iraq not enough focus on the good news. And he is also been very concerned, he says, about the use of the Internet and videos by groups like al Qaeda, something that he doesn't believe the U.S. government is really prepared to deal with. So this new operation will reach out to some new media. Those involved in everything from pod-casting to YouTube. Paula?
ZAHN: And Wolf, part of any modern campaign is the war room, a high pressure operation that monitors media critics and responds with a rapid fire public relations blitz. Now Republicans and Democrats both use war rooms. Now the Pentagon is launching its own media war for that. We go to Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr.
BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Paula, the Pentagon has begun what they call a new rapid response operation to respond quickly to stories in the news media that they believe are either critical of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld or the war in Iraq. Now the operation is similar to political boiler rooms that we have all seen in campaigns where they mount a very rapid response to any assertions out in public that those campaigns don't like.
Here in the Pentagon they're calling it actually a "bullpen". They say it is not being started up right now because of the growing criticism of the war. That this is something that they intended to do for some time. The Pentagon won't say how many people are involved or what the operation is going to cost. It was confirmed however by officials that some of the employees will actually be political appointees who will run the new operation.
Defense Secretary Rumsfeld of course has been very critical of the news media for some time. Believing that there is too much focus on what he calls "the bad news" coming out of Iraq not enough focus on the good news. And he is also been very concerned, he says, about the use of the Internet and videos by groups like al Qaeda, something that he doesn't believe the U.S. government is really prepared to deal with. So this new operation will reach out to some new media. Those involved in everything from pod-casting to YouTube. Paula?