MassLive.com

Don't like the news? Don't make your own

Thursday, March 17, 2005

When the Government Accountability Office took a look at "video news releases" prepared by government agencies and distributed for broadcast on hundreds of TV stations across the land, what it saw was illegal taxpayer-funded propaganda.

The faux news reports were both illegal and unethical, said Comptroller General David Walker of the GAO.

But the White House last week told federal departments and agencies to ignore the findings of the investigative arm of Congress and to keep on producing the reports.

The ersatz news, produced by at least 20 federal agencies, was distributed to hundreds of television stations and was seen by millions of viewers who had no way of knowing that the reports they were watching had been prepared by the government. That ought to fit nearly anyone's definition of propaganda.

And since the taxpayers footed the bill - to the tune of a reported $254 million in Bush's first term - it's a violation of the law.

But the White House is determined to keep the machine running full speed ahead.

By law, the executive branch is not bound by the findings of the GAO. But the White House shouldn't simply turn its back on a memo from the nonpartisan panel.

Said White House spokesman Scott McClellan: "It's very clear to the TV stations where they are coming from."

That's not the point.

It's not at all clear to the TV viewers where they are coming from.

And that's a problem.

This administration has paid columnists and television commentators to push its positions. It has allowed a man working for a Web site funded by a pro-Republican group to obtain press credentials and ask questions at White House news briefings. And it has produced reports on its own activities that unsuspecting viewers think is actual news.

All modern administrations attempt to control the message of the day. But not like this. It's as if someone in the White House turned on the TV one day and didn't like what he saw. So he decided to do it himself.

If you work for the federal government and don't like the kind of news coverage you are getting, you have many recourses. One of them is not producing your own "news" on the taxpayers' dime. This show must not go on.

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