Posted on 03/15/2005 9:33:46 AM PST by Ol' Dan Tucker
Bush official tells agencies to ignore GAO memo that knocks fake stories.
WASHINGTON – The White House, intent on continuing to crank out "video news releases" that look like television news stories, has told government agency heads to ignore a Government Accountability Office memo criticizing the practice as illegal propaganda.
(Excerpt) Read more at ocregister.com ...
The problem isn't advocacy. The problem that the GAO memo had with Bush's VNR was that they weren't labeled so that the viewer knew that the government, itself, was the source of the 'video news release' as was the case with the subject of the GAO memo (HHS/CMI VNR that 'sold' the public on Bush's prescription drug benefit inside the recent medicare legislation).
The fact that the government is hiding itself as the source of the video is what makes them propaganda, not that they advocate a position favorable to the government. The advocacy argument is a red herring designed to conceal this fact.
Accompanying Bolten's memo was a letter from Steven Bradbury, principal deputy assistant attorney general in the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel, who said video news releases "are the television equivalent of the printed press release."
"They can be a cost-effective means to distribute information through local news outlets," Bradbury said.
But the difference is that the printed press release handed out by the government is printed on government stationary so you always know that the government is the source of the press release. Bush's CMS video was not clearly labeled as coming from the government. That's what makes it propaganda masquerading as news.
Conclusion
Although the VNR materials were labeled so that the television news stations could identify CMS as the source of the materials, part of the VNR materials--the story packages and lead-in anchor scripts--were targeted not only to the television news stations but also to the television viewing audience. Neither the story packages nor scripts identified HHS or CMS as the source to the targeted television audience, and the content of the news reports was attributed to individuals purporting to be reporters, but actually (were actors) hired by an HHS subcontractor.
For these reasons, the use of appropriated funds for production and distribution of the story packages and suggested scripts violated the publicity or propaganda prohibition of the Consolidated Appropriation Resolution of 2003, Pub. L. No. 108-7, Div. J, Tit. VI, § 626, 117 Stat. 11, 470 (2003). Moreover, because CMS had no appropriation available to produce and distribute materials in violation of the publicity or propaganda prohibition, CMS violated the Antideficiency Act, 31 U.S.C. § 1341. CMS must report the Antideficiency Act violation to the Congress and the President. 31 U.S.C. § 1351.
Anthony H. Gamboa
General Counsel
I guess the President has changed his mind?
During his news conference, Bush described the Education Department's public relations practices as a mistake.
"All our Cabinet secretaries must realize that we will not be paying commentators to advance our agenda. Our agenda ought to be able to stand on its own two feet," the president said.
Apparently, the president's agenda may not be able to stand on it's own two feet after all. Why would Bush resort to unlabeled 'video news releases' unless he was trying to sneak something past the American people?
They will no longer be paying commentators. They will be paying PR companies to produce 'video news releases'.
Maybe next we can find out what the meaning of the word, 'is', is.
The problem won't, of course, be limited to a Bush administration. As with other Bad Ideas, just wait until a President Hillary gets hold of those tools and watch out!
This is also politically foolish for conservatives: We WIN when government is limited, whether Republicans or Democrats are in power. Trying to "win" by "controlling" a big government is doomed to fail.
What is the problem? The DNC has released propaganda to the media who has faithfully reported every word as if it were the gospel.
bookmark
I didn't catch this, so thanks for pointing it out.
I've been following this story for a while and all this time I thought they were talking about the General Accounting Office (GAO), not the Government Accountability Office.
You learn something new every day.
I agree.
I think the practice is a bad idea no matter who does it. Government should not be putting out video press releases without informing the viewer as to the source of the video and the information it contains.
What is cause for concern is that Bush just said that in January, 2005, Bush said, "All our Cabinet secretaries must realize that we will not be paying commentators to advance our agenda. Our agenda ought to be able to stand on its own two feet."
And now we find out that both the White House lawyers and the Justice Dept. lawyers agree that as long as the (unattributed) video news release don't advocate a particular position, then they don't violate any laws.
Sounds like the WH has decided that it needs to 'sell' some of the red states on more federal programs and more federal spending.
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