Illegal propaganda: Dept of Ed/Williams and. Libby/Russert

[babylonsister]

We need NEW RULES!

If hiring Williams by the Dept. of Ed. is deemed illegal, why are federal employees allowed to engage journalists for the purposes of spreading propaganda? This has got to stop!

http://www.walb.com/Global/story.asp?S=3980099&nav=5kZQ

Review of Armstrong Williams contract referred to U-S attorney's office

WASHINGTON The Education Department may have more trouble ahead. Already, the agency has been at the center of a congressional audit about whether it hired conservative commentator Armstrong Williams illegally.
The auditors say the department engaged in "illegal propaganda" when it hired Williams to promote the No Child Left Behind Act. He was not required to tell anyone he was being paid by the government.

Now, two Democratic senators say questions of fraud remain. New Jersey Senator Frank Lautenberg and Massachusetts Senator Edward Kennedy have written to the attorney general about their concerns.
...more


And from DUer The Backlash Cometh:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x5224750

I think we may have overlooked something important. Re: Russert.

Once we learned that Libby failed in his attempt to pin the source of the leak on Russert, we just moved on to other things without looking deeper into this contact that Libby had with Russert. It's on the msnbc webpage. In Russert's own words, he says that Libby called him to COMPLAIN ABOUT A CABLE PROGRAM and that Russert remembered the event because he contacted the cable program to share in that complaint.

Wait for it...

What this means is that we were right all along. Russert was a media whore, a mouthpiece for the White House.

Here's the exercept and link:

MSNBC: So, your sole contact with Scooter Libby in the period in question here was he called to complain about programming, something that was said or covered on one of NBC’s cable news programs.

Russert: Correct. And that was the extent of it. I immediately, obviously, called to the president of NBC News and shared the complaint — which is why it was memorable in my mind.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5961048/

[tularetom]

1. Yeah - I happened to see this

and that's exactly what I thought. Why did Libby call Russert? Why didn't he just call the pres of NBC? After all here's a powerful govt official who could get anyone to take his calls, why did he call a "journalist" unless he already had an ongoing relationship with that "journalist". My theory is that russert is merely an embedded propaganda tool like Judith Millwhore at the NYT and his role was to disseminate, as news or opinion, the pro-bush bullshit that was fed to him by Libby Cheney and others. Libby called him because russert was on Libby's payroll.

[babylonsister]

2. This proves the journalists are being manipulated by

the White House and I think it should be illegal!

[SoCalDem]

3. Politics is an Industry, and the "players" move in and out of MANY

endeavors.. Politics, DC Style, are a springboard.. The players bounce back and forth to business, media, and publishing. They use the contacts they make in all the venues, to promote themselves.

A "former" staffer is a valuable commodity to a news organization because he/she is assumed to have many inside connections..and a former news person is also valuable, because they have connections to getting a point of view "out there"..

It's an incestuous relationship all around..

[babylonsister]

4. That's a good point, but I still maintain it

should be illegal because the government is creating the news and molding it to their viewpoint without allowing many other voices to be heard.
Also, why would the Dept. of Ed's actions be considered illegal propaganda, but the wh's mouthpieces can get away with it?
I would be interested to know if other administrations went to the same trouble to influence the media as this one has.
The media's complicity is also at fault. It appears they've been getting their marching orders, so there was no need to dig up any of their own 'facts'.

[second edition]

5. Actually, I believe it was Kerry and Lautenberg who worked on this. n/t