WP: Prepackaged News Gets GAO Rebuke

[kskiska]

Walker: PR Must Be Clearly Labeled

The Government Accountability Office warned federal departments last week against using a popular public relations tool that already has landed two agencies in hot water for breaking federal anti-propaganda laws.

In a Feb. 17 memo, Comptroller General David M. Walker reminded department and agency heads that prepackaged news stories that do not identify the government as their source violate provisions in annual appropriations laws that ban covert propaganda.

"It is not enough that the contents of an agency's communication may be unobjectionable," Walker wrote. "Neither is it enough for an agency to identify itself to the broadcasting organization as the source of the prepackaged news story."

Prepackaged news stories, sometimes known as video news releases, have become an increasingly common public relations tool among government agencies and in industry. They are designed to resemble broadcast news stories, complete with narrators who can be easily mistaken for reporters and suggested introductory language for TV anchors to read. Some news organizations have run them without changes and without identifying them as government-produced.

more…
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A40318-2005Feb20.html

[dandrhesse]

1. big deal!

I'm not impressed, they need to be fined and should be impeached. It is in violation of the US Code to use any public monies to fund propaganda, these tapes certainly qualify.