Bush Defends Packaged News Stories from Government
Wed Mar 16, 2005 06:03 PM ET
By Caren Bohan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Bush said on Wednesday the U.S.
government's practice of sending packaged news stories to local television
stations was legal and he had no plans to stop it.

His defense of the packages, which are designed to look like television
news segments, came after they were deemed a form of covert propaganda by
the Government Accountability Office watchdog agency.

Some television stations have been airing such pieces without a disclaimer
saying they were produced by the government. The GAO, an arm of Congress,
said that ran counter to appropriation laws and was a misuse of federal
funds.

Bush cited a Justice Department opinion the segments were legal.

"There is a Justice Department opinion that says these -- these pieces --
are within the law, so long as they're based upon facts, not advocacy,"
the president told a news conference.

David Walker, the comptroller general who heads the GAO, said he disagreed
with Bush's stance and was "disappointed by the administration's actions."

"This is not just a legal issue, it's also an ethical matter," Walker
said. "The taxpayers have a right to know when the government is trying to
influence them with their own money."

Bush said government agencies, such as the Agriculture and Defense
Departments, had been producing such videos for a long time and that it
was appropriate so long as they were "based upon a factual report."

He said it was up to the local news stations to disclose that the segments
were produced by the government.

It was not the first time the Bush administration has been criticized for
blurring the line between media and government. Earlier this year, the
Education Department acknowledged it paid conservative commentator
Armstrong Williams $240,000 to promote the No Child Left Behind Act.

The Federal Communications Commission is investigating the Williams
incident.

Among the packages the GAO looked at was one produced by the Health and
Human Services Department to promote the Medicare prescription drug law.
The story included a paid actor who narrated the piece in a similar style
to the way a television reporter would.

"The entire story package was developed with appropriated funds but
appears to be an independent news story," the GAO said.

In a letter, Sen. Daniel Inouye, Democrat of Hawaii, asked the FCC to
investigate the government-produced videos.

He called the airing of such videos without any attribution an "alarming
practice."

"Not only does this lack of disclosure represent a serious breach of
journalistic ethics, but it also seems to violate FCC rules requiring
attribution of 'any political broadcast matter' or 'the discussion of a
controversial issue of public importance,"' Inouye said.

Reuters 2005