Report: Bush Spent $1.4(Taxpayer Money) Billion on ‘Spin’

[RedEarth]

Report: Bush Spent $1.4 Billion on ‘Spin’
February 14, 2006

DALLAS -- The Bush administration spent $1.4 billion in taxpayer dollars on 137 contracts with advertising agencies over the past two-and-a-half years, according to a Government Accountability Office report released by House Democrats Monday.

With spending on public relations and other media included, federal agencies spent $1.6 billion on what some Democrats called "spin."

The six largest recipients of ad and PR dollars were Leo Burnett USA, $536 million; Campbell-Ewald, $194 million; GSD&M, $179 million; JWT, $148 million; Frankel, $133 million; and Ketchum, $78 million. The agencies received more than $1.2 billion in media contracts, according to the report.

Ketchum was embroiled in a scandal last year when it was revealed that the Department of Education had paid commentator Armstrong Williams $250,000 to promote President Bush's No Child Left Behind initiative. There was no suggestion of impropriety for most of the contracts, however. GSD&M, for example, has handled advertising for the U.S. Air Force for several years, an account it won through a traditional government review.

Trends in spending on PR and ad contracts were not documented, but a prior study by the minority staff of the Government Reform Committee found that spending on public relations contracts rose rapidly under the Bush administration. That report found that spending on contracts with public relations firms had increased to $88 million in 2004 from $39 million in 2000, an increase of 128%.

http://www.brandweek.com/bw/news/recent_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001996448

[napi21]

1. Lou Dobbs had this on his show either yesterday or Monday.

He was freaking out! He said there's no reason to have spent even $1,000 let alone over a billion! He asked "How in the WORLD can they possibly justify something like that?"