What if there were more than just the Dept of Education ?

[kentuck]

Since it was the Dept of Education that funneled money to Armstrong Williams and others, to promote the No Child Left Behind? But what if the Dept of Labor, and the Dept of Commerce, and the Dept of Defense were all involved in scheming off tax dollars for propaganda purposes? Would it be a scandal? Since reportedly the Clinton Administration did the same thing - just not on the scale of the Bush Administration? Would that be a big deal?

But not content to simply filter money to different spokespeople, a la Williams, they decided to go "straight to the people"? They would put their own reporters in the White House press room? And suppose that Guckert/Gannon was an employee of the CIA? If the "intelligence agencies" of this government were attempting to legitimize and promote a political agenda, oil and war in Iraq, i.e. - with the blessings and encouragement of the VP and President in the White House - would that be a big deal? At what point does it come patently and obviously criminal?

[Eric J in MN]

1. It already is.

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050219/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/fake_news_2

The White House Office of National Drug Control Policy was criticized last year for a series of video news releases in which a narrator, sometimes identified as "Karen Ryan" or "Mike Morris," said she or he was "reporting" on the office's activities. The tapes were sent to local television stations for use in news programs.

In a second case criticized by the GAO last year, the Health and Human Services (news - web sites) Department's Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services produced video news releases touting changes to Medicare. Those productions were also narrated by "Karen Ryan" and were offered to local TV news operations.

In both cases, Walker wrote Thursday, "television-viewing audiences did not know that stories they watched on television news programs about the government were, in fact, prepared by the government. We concluded that those prepackaged news stories violated the publicity or propaganda prohibition."

The GAO letter did say video news releases could be used without violating the law if it was clearly disclosed to the viewing audience that the material was prepared by the government.