The Bush administration, displeased with the news coverage of the war in Iraq, has accelerated efforts to bypass the national media by telling the administration’s story directly to the American public.

Monday, Bush granted exclusive interviews to five regional broadcasting companies — an unprecedented effort to reach news organizations that do not regularly cover the White House.

The effort by Bush to reach out to some 10 million Americans through the regional broadcasters — Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and Iraq administrator L. Paul Bremer had similar sessions previously — came two days after it emerged that soldiers in Iraq have sent form letters home to local newspapers asserting that the U.S. troops had been welcomed “with open arms” in Iraq.

Identical letters to the editor from different soldiers with the 2nd Battalion of the 503rd Infantry Regiment appeared in 11 newspapers across the country, Gannett News Service reported Saturday. The news service reached six soldiers who said they agreed with the letter but had not written it, one who had not signed the letter, and one who didn’t know about the letter.

Lt. Col. Cindy Scott-Johnson, a Pentagon spokeswoman, said the form letter was similar to the “hometown news release program” and the Pentagon had raised no objection “that I know of” to the letter, apparently written by 2nd Battalion staff and distributed to soldiers.

The letter also was sent to newspapers that are not part of the Gannett chain. Several copies of the letter were received by the Los Angeles Times, but none were published. Bob Bolerjack, editorial page editor at The Herald in Everett, Wash., said his newspaper had been “duped.”

“I won’t second-guess a layman, but someone inside our business would understand that you don’t do that, that it isn’t right,” he said.

Andrew Kohut, who runs the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, said the White House is correct that viewers tend to trust their local news more than network television, and he said local news has held its own while network news has declined. Coincidentally or not, Bush’s public standing has improved. A CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll released Monday found his support had jumped to 56 percent from 50 percent in September.

Presidents for decades have courted regional and specialized media, but the Bush administration has been unusual, according to media experts. Vice President Dick Cheney, who almost never grants newspaper interviews, has been a regular on talk radio and Sunday television shows where his answers are unedited. The White House invited talk radio hosts to set up shop on the North Lawn one day, treating them to a steady stream of administration officials. And the White House Web site has hosted dozens of “Ask the White House” chats for the public.