Bush Administration Broke Propaganda Rules, GAO Says - Bloomberg [View All]

[rndmprsn]

this one has kind of slipped off the radar screen...big surprise when this admin "purchases" good coverage...it can easily make sure "no" coverage happens either...we've all seen it a million times.

anyhow...what we all already knew, now is out there for everyone too see...in a ideal world the cockroaches would scatter from the light.

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http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000087&sid=aQaO48XF6TI4&refer=top_world_news

Oct. 1 (Bloomberg) -- The Bush administration broke anti- propaganda rules by using tax dollars to pay a columnist and create news video to promote the president's education policies, the investigative arm of Congress said.

The Government Accountability Office issued two reports yesterday examining Department of Education contracts with a public relations firm, Ketchum Inc. Ketchum prepared a video for use in television news programs, checked news stories to see how the Republican Party's view on education was reported and contracted with commentator Armstrong Williams, the report said.

The education department took these steps to promote President George W. Bush's No Child Left Behind law, which established new testing requirements for public schools, the report said. The news video does not say the federal government is the source of the material, nor did Williams reveal the government's connection to his comment, the report said.

``Rather than spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on producing Republican propaganda, the Administration should return those funds and live up to the promises they made to America's students and teachers,'' said Senator Edward Kennedy in a statement. The Massachusetts senator and fellow Democrat Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey had requested the Government Accountability Office look into the Ketchum contracts.