An article in Saturday’s New York Times details a report from the Government Accountability Office which found that the administrations has been spending money to analyze news for hints of approval and to disseminate “covert propaganda”.
Lawyers from the accountability office, an independent nonpartisan arm of Congress, found that the administration systematically analyzed news articles to see if they carried the message, “The Bush administration/the G.O.P. is committed to education.”
The auditors declared: “We see no use for such information except for partisan political purposes. Engaging in a purely political activity such as this is not a proper use of appropriated funds.”
The report also sharply criticized the Education Department for telling Ketchum Inc., a public relations company, to pay Mr. Williams for newspaper columns and television appearances praising Mr. Bush’s education initiative, the No Child Left Behind Act.
No, Mr. Bush, it’s not suspicious at all that you have to pay people to fake news reports about the success of your education program. Why don’t you just skip the middleman and pay teachers to tell kids whatever you want? Oh right, you’re already trying to do that
My favorite part:
In March, the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel said that federal agencies did not have to acknowledge their role in producing television news segments if they were factual. The inspector general of the Education Department recently reiterated that position.
The administration has a clear history of misunderstanding the meaning of the word “factual”. At the very least current events mentioned above make this clear. Perhaps some government funding might be set aside for vocabulary lessons? It would be like a retroactive No Child Left Behind act.
Buying of News by Bush’s Aides Is Ruled Illegal [New York Times]
In Pennsylvania, It Was Religion vs. Science, Pastor vs. Ph.D., Evolution vs. the Half-Fish [New York Times]
