White House: Guilty of Propaganda

If you’ve browsed the media section of my web site, you might have read the section where I highlight the Bush administration’s illegal funneling of taxpayer money toward fake news stories, and the phony reporters who push them like vials of crack to the American neighborhood of media consumers.

The long list of propaganda includes fake reports and op-ed columns from Maggie Gallagher, Armstrong “Dynamite!” Williams, and Michael McManus, all of whom were caught accepting your tax payer dollars in order to push the Bush agenda in the media – without disclosing they were doing so (Fox News has yet to be indicted).

The incidents also include, but were not limited to, actual pre-packaged news stories aired as if independent reporters were actually give us the viewers, real information.

For example – as your family gathered around the 60 inch plasma during leftover sloppy Joe night to watch the nightly news, you might see a story detailing the Bush “No Child Left Behind.” The reporter would not report any type of significant, balanced chronicle, but instead would read a report written by a P.R. firm, with phrases such as, “Republicans are committed to education. Reporting from Washington, I’m Karen Ryan.”

And all along the administration has denied any wrong doing whatsoever.

Well yesterday, the Office of Government Accountability said the White House is full of shit, and that the government was in absolute “violation of the publicity or propaganda prohibition"

In their report, the Office stated the following:

"The failure of an agency to identify itself as the source of a prepackaged news story misleads the viewing public by encouraging the audience to believe that the broadcasting news organization developed the information. The prepackaged news stories are purposefully designed to be indistinguishable from news segments broadcast to the public. When the television viewing public does not know that the stories they watched on television news programs about the government were in fact prepared by the government, the stories are, in this sense, no longer purely factual...Engaging in a purely political activity such as this is not a proper use of appropriated funds."

In other words - what you're doing is propaganda, it is a total abuse of power, and unless you've suddenly bought all the shares of Fox News, you're in total violation of the law.

Read the entire report from the GAO here.

Also, be sure to check out the Daily Show's take on the Bush administration's fake news, which includes clips of the actual propaganda pieces themselves, by clicking here.