GAO: Bush Team Broke Law With 'Covert Propaganda'
By E&P Staff, Editor & Publisher

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"The Bush Administration violated laws prohibiting the use of covert propaganda when it secretly paid broadcaster/ columnist Armstrong Williams to promote its education policies, and by hiring a public relations company to analyze media perceptions of the Republican Party," the U.S. Government Accountability Office said Friday.

Williams received about $240,000 from the federal Department of Education. Tribune Media Services dropped Williams' syndicated column in January when it learned about the payments.

In its account Saturday, The New York Times said the report "provided the first definitive ruling on the legality of the activities....In a blistering report, the investigators, from the Government Accountability Office, said the administration had disseminated 'covert propaganda' in the United States, in violation of a statutory ban."

The Education Department has defended its payments to Williams, saying his commentaries were "no more than the legitimate dissemination of information to the public."

The GAO's report also uncovered a previously undisclosed case in which the Education Department had commissioned a newspaper article. The article, on the "declining science literacy of students," was distributed by the North American Precis Syndicate and appeared in numerous small newspapers around the country, according to the report in the Times. The government's role in the writing of the article, which praised the department's role in promoting science education, was never disclosed.

The investigation was requested by U.S. Sens. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) and Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.) and carried out by the GAO, an independent nonpartisan arm of Congress.

Rep. George Miller, a Democrat, said in a statement Friday: "This latest report confirms that the Bush Administration broke the law when it wasted taxpayer dollars to promote its own political agenda. ... Legislation is now pending in Congress to ensure that similar abuses of the public trust do not recur, and we should pass that legislation immediately."

Government Accounting Office decision

Probe finds Education Department broke propaganda rules
By The Associated Press, 10.03.05

WASHINGTON: The Education Department engaged in illegal covert propaganda when it paid columnist Armstrong Williams to promote Bush administration policies and when it produced a video that seemed to be a news story, congressional investigators concluded.

The Government Accountability Office said on Sept. 30 that the public relations efforts violated the government's 'publicity or propaganda prohibition' because the department did not clearly disclose its role to the public. The department was ordered to report the violations to Congress and the president.

The investigation was requested by Democratic Sens. Frank Lautenberg and Edward Kennedy after it was revealed late last year that the department had hired Williams, a syndicated conservative columnist and TV personality, to promote Bush's "No Child Left Behind" law.

In light of the GAO findings, the senators immediately sent a letter to Education Secretary Margaret Spellings urging her to abide by the law, recover the misspent dollars and meet with them on Capitol Hill.

"The Bush administration took taxpayer funds that should have gone towards helping kids learn and diverted it to a political propaganda campaign," Lautenberg said in a statement. "The administration needs to return these funds to the treasury."

Kennedy added: "The taxpayer-funded propaganda campaign coming from the White House is another sign of the culture of corruption that pervades the White House and Republican leadership."

The PR effort unfolded before Spellings took the helm of the department early this year. Her spokeswoman, Susan Aspey, said, "Under Secretary Spellings' leadership, stringent processes have been instituted to ensure these types of missteps don't happen again."

"We've said for the past six months that this was stupid, wrong and ill-advised," Aspey said. "There's nothing in today's action that changes our opinion."

At issue was a $240,000 contract to have Williams, who is black, inform minorities about Bush's law by producing ads with then-Education Secretary Rod Paige. Williams also was to provide media time to Paige and to persuade other blacks in the media to talk about the law.

Nancie McPhail, Williams' chief of staff, said on Sept. 30 that he would have no comment until he had a chance to review the GAO findings. Williams previously has apologized and said that he "exercised poor judgment."

The GAO also looked at a broader Education Department contract with Ketchum, a public relations firm, to publicize the Bush education agenda. This effort included production of a 'video news release' promoting the education law that looked and sounded like a news story.

At least one television station in New York used the package in 2003, substituting its own reporter for the voiceover but followed the script and video the department provided.

Because the department's role in the production and distribution of the prepackaged news story is not revealed to the target audience, the prepackaged news story constitutes covert propaganda, the investigators wrote.

As part of its contract, Ketchum also rated various news stories and individual reporters on how favorable their education reporting was to Bush and the Republican Party. The GAO said this effort was part of a broader media analysis that was otherwise acceptable and required little added expense.

"Nevertheless, we caution that, if the department chooses to conduct media analyses in the future, it be more diligent in its efforts to ensure that such analyses be free from such explicit partisan content," the investigators wrote.

The GAO also notified the department that it should look into whether there was another violation of the propaganda ban when Ketchum arranged for the North American Precis Syndicate to write a newspaper article entitled "Parents want science classes that make the grade."'The article appeared in numerous small papers around the country and did not disclose the department's role, the investigators said.

The video and reporter rankings came to light through a Freedom of Information Act request by People for the American Way, a liberal group that contended the department was using tax dollars to promote a political agenda.

Elliot Mincberg, the group's counsel, said the GAO findings "confirm the concern about the impropriety of what the Department of Education did." He said he hoped the findings would help deter any further violations from occurring throughout the government.

Aly Colon, who teaches ethics at the Poynter Institute, a school for journalists, said the GAO ruling could be seen as a victory for both the press and the government if it helps to reinforce a standard that "whatever information is presented to the public is done in the most transparent way possible."

Both sides benefit when the public is clear on where information is coming from, he said.

In a related matter, the GAO also looked into a Health and Human Services Department contract with syndicated columnist Maggie Gallagher to help promote a marriage initiative. The GAO said the Gallagher contract did not violate the propaganda ban "because the services provided were not covert, self-aggrandizing or purely partisan."

Gallagher said in an interview that her main work for the past decade has been research and education on ways to strengthen marriage. "I'd like to take this opportunity to again apologize to my readers for an oversight in not disclosing that I had done a small amount of work for the government in my specialty."

October 1, 2005
Buying of News by Bush's Aides Is Ruled Illegal
By ROBERT PEAR, NY TIMES

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WASHINGTON, Sept. 30 - Federal auditors said on Friday that the Bush administration violated the law by buying favorable news coverage of President Bush's education policies, by making payments to the conservative commentator Armstrong Williams and by hiring a public relations company to analyze media perceptions of the Republican Party.

In a blistering report, the investigators, from the Government Accountability Office, said the administration had disseminated "covert propaganda" in the United States, in violation of a statutory ban.

The contract with Mr. Williams and the general contours of the public relations campaign had been known for months. The report Friday provided the first definitive ruling on the legality of the activities.

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.

When that arrangement became public, it set off widespread criticism. At a news conference in January, Mr. Bush said: "We will not be paying commentators to advance our agenda. Our agenda ought to be able to stand on its own two feet."

But the Education Department has since defended its payments to Mr. Williams, saying his commentaries were "no more than the legitimate dissemination of information to the public."

The G.A.O. said the Education Department had no money or authority to "procure favorable commentary in violation of the publicity or propaganda prohibition" in federal law.

The ruling comes with no penalty, but under federal law the department is supposed to report the violations to the White House and Congress.

In the course of its work, the accountability office discovered a previously undisclosed instance in which the Education Department had commissioned a newspaper article. The article, on the "declining science literacy of students," was distributed by the North American Precis Syndicate and appeared in numerous small newspapers around the country. Readers were not informed of the government's role in the writing of the article, which praised the department's role in promoting science education.

The auditors denounced a prepackaged television story disseminated by the Education Department. The segment, a "video news release" narrated by a woman named Karen Ryan, said that President Bush's program for providing remedial instruction and tutoring to children "gets an A-plus."

Ms. Ryan also narrated two videos praising the new Medicare drug benefit last year. In those segments, as in the education video, the narrator ended by saying, "In Washington, I'm Karen Ryan reporting."

The television news segments on education and on Medicare did not state that they had been prepared and distributed by the government. The G.A.O. did not say how many stations carried the reports.

The public relations efforts came to light weeks before Margaret Spellings became education secretary in January. Susan Aspey, a spokeswoman for the secretary, said on Friday that Ms. Spellings regarded the efforts as "stupid, wrong and ill-advised." She said Ms. Spellings had taken steps "to ensure these types of missteps don't happen again."

The investigation by the accountability office was requested by Senators Frank R. Lautenberg of New Jersey and Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts, both Democrats. Mr. Lautenberg expressed concern about a section of the report in which investigators said they could not find records to confirm that Mr. Williams had performed all the activities for which he billed the government.

The Education Department said it had paid Ketchum $186,000 for services performed by Mr. Williams's company. But it could not provide transcripts of speeches, articles or records of other services invoiced by Mr. Williams, the report said.

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.

But the accountability office said on Friday: "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. The essential fact of attribution is missing."

The office said Mr. Williams's work for the government resulted from a written proposal that he submitted to the Education Department in March 2003. The department directed Ketchum to use Mr. Williams as a regular commentator on Mr. Bush's education policies. Ketchum had a federal contract to help publicize those policies, signed by Mr. Bush in 2002.

The Education Department flouted the law by telling Ketchum to use Mr. Williams to "convey a message to the public on behalf of the government, without disclosing to the public that the messengers were acting on the government's behalf and in return for the payment of public funds," the G.A.O. said.

The Education Department spent $38,421 for production and distribution of the video news release and $96,850 for the evaluation of newspaper articles and radio and television programs. Ketchum assigned a score to each article, indicating how often and favorably it mentioned features of the new education law.

Congress tried to clarify the ban on "covert propaganda" in a bill signed by Mr. Bush in May. The law says that no federal money may be used to produce or distribute a news story unless the government's role is openly acknowledged.

Commentator Says He May Return Fees
Submitted by editor5 on October 3, 2005 - 1:54pm.
By Greg Toppo, Source: USA TODAY

Commentator Armstrong Williams said Sunday that he is in negotiations to return some of the money he received under a Bush administration contract to promote the president's education law.

Federal investigators, in reports issued Friday, said the contract violated a government ban on "covert propaganda." Investigators said the Williams contract and others  including a government-produced video made to look like a news report  were illegal because the government's role wasn't made clear.

Williams, a prominent conservative columnist and pundit, said he was discussing returning some of his fees because he didn't promote the law or ask others to do so, as the contract required.

The three reports issued Friday by the Government Accountability Office, Congress's non-partisan watchdog, come nearly six months after the Education Department's inspector general criticized the Williams deal. Under the agreement, Williams was to promote the No Child Left Behind law on his syndicated TV show  and to encourage others to promote the law. One of the reports cited monthly summaries submitted by Williams' company that Education Department investigators said showed he promoted the law at least 168 times, in syndicated columns, on radio and on TV, in addition to ads he was paid to produce. The department did not provide transcripts, recordings or other records, and GAO investigators could only find a few newspaper columns.

But in an interview Sunday, Williams said the monthly reports merely logged his media appearances in general. "There was this confusion that we were talking about No Child Left Behind ... in those instances," he said. "That was just not the case."

Williams said he was paid only to produce ads and said negotiations to return part of his fees stem from the fact that he didn't fulfill the part of the contract requiring him to promote the law, a provision that he says he had asked to be removed. "I've said all along that there were things that they asked me to do that was clear in the beginning that I would not do."

In January, when USA TODAY first reported on the deal, Williams said he promoted No Child Left Behind because "it's something I believe in."

Education Department officials earlier said they had merely purchased Williams' services to produce a pair of television ads, but Education Department spokeswoman Susan Aspey on Friday offered no defense of the $240,000 contract. "We've been saying for the past six months that this was stupid, wrong and ill-advised," she said in a statement. "There's nothing in today's action that changes our opinion."

GAO investigators also considered cases that did not involve Williams. They said a media analysis paid for by the Education Department, which rated coverage of No Child Left Behind on a 200-point scale, was "within its authority," but a questionable use of taxpayer funds. And Anthony Gamboa, the GAO's general counsel, said a prepackaged video news release promoting free tutoring available through No Child Left Behind constituted covert propaganda because it didn't disclose that it had been produced by the government. The media analysis and video release cost taxpayers $135,272.

In another case, the GAO found that a news article on the decline of scientific literacy in schools, contracted to the North American Precis Syndicate by the Education Department, constituted covert propaganda.

Since January, several other news agencies revealed that freelance commentators wrote pieces promoting administration policies on marriage and on the environment without disclosing they had received government funds to write the pieces or to support their interest groups. The GAO concluded that one such contract with syndicated columnist Maggie Gallagher, a marriage advocate, did not constitute covert propaganda because "the services provided were not covert, self-aggrandizing, or purely partisan."

Campaign to Stop News Fraud from the Free Press

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Ghosts in the Media Machine
"State-run media" is a phrase normally reserved for regimes such as North Korea that manipulate and censor all public information. Media in the United States were thought to be immune to such autocratic control, but recent maneuvers by the Bush administration should make Americans wonder how free our press actually is.

Earlier this year, several "journalists" were exposed as propagandists on the White House payroll. We then learned that broadcasters routinely air government-funded video news releases without disclosing their source; the White House has set aside a quarter billion taxpayer dollars to hire public relations firms and infiltrate our news system with fake news.

Free Press is leading the campaign to reveal the extent to which government propaganda has compromised media newscasts and press lawmakers to enforce laws banning the covert distribution of fake news.

Propaganda 101
2005 has been a banner year for propaganda. In early January, the $240,000 Armstrong Williams took from the Department of Education headlined national news. Covertly paying journalists to flack for government policies is not only outrageous, it's illegal. The Williams case sparked a public outcry, compelling more than 40,000 people to join Free Press and demand that the FCC launch a probe. Other journalists have since admitted being on the take.

In March 2005, the New York Times ran a front page article documenting widespread government efforts to create official video news releases that are cloaked as real news and broadcast to millions of unsuspecting Americans. At least 20 federal agencies have used this tactic distributing hundreds of government-produced news segments via local TV outlets. Learn more about propaganda in US media.

1. A Propaganda Slush Fund Courtesy of U.S. Taxpayers
2. Jeff Gannon's White House Maneuver
3. Armstrong Williams and the White House Payola Trail
4. Propagandists on the Pentagon Payroll
5. The Demise of FOIA and the Special Prosecutor

Propaganda Policy
A Sept. 30 report by the Government Accountability Office found the White House violated federal law by buying favorable news coverage in advance of the 2004 elections. This is the fourth time the GAO has uncovered the White House's illegal use of taxpayer money to produce "covert propaganda."

These violations may just form the tip of the iceberg. The administration has more than doubled its public relations budget, tapping a quarter billion in taxpayer dollars since Bush came into office. And while the report is damning, the GAO doesn't have enforcement powers to reveal the full extent of the abuse.

Some in Washington have taken up the call for investigations. But they have yet to raise this issue beyond a probe into a few bad actors -- such as Williams -- to finger the real source of the problem. In April, Senator Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) introduced the "Truth in Broadcasting Act" that would ensure that all propaganda contains announcements to inform viewers that it is a product of the US Government. Learn more about actions you can take to force the government to disclose propaganda abuses and enforce the law.

Call for prosecution of White House propaganda crimes.
Support the Truth in Broadcasting Act.
Urge the FCC and Congress to investigate fake news

Breaking Washington's Silence
Minority calls for a propaganda probe have sounded a hollow echo through the Justice Department. Washington remains under the thrall of the majority Republican Party, which would rather ignore this simmering scandal.

GAO and the Justice Department, the administration's controlling legal authority, have not seen eye to eye on covert propaganda in the past, specifically on the issue of unidentified packaged video news releases. GAO says VNRs are illegal; Justice says the releases are not, so long as they are fact-based. Worseover, Alberto Gonzalez's Justice Department appears unwilling to take the next step: a criminal investigation into the administration's use of millions of taxpayer dollars to push fake news upon Americans.

The official silence speaks volumes. Without popular dissent, an emboldened White House will continue to throw up obstacles to full disclosure. It is now up to the public to do what our elected officials are unwilling or unable to: pressure our government to enforce the law and stop propaganda crimes.

Read the Washington Timeline.

Calling All Deep Throats: We Need to Stop Fake Government News

Armstrong Williams: Education Propaganda, Payola, or Whatever You Call it, is Still False ADvertising and Political Misconduct

Taxpayer-Funded Political PR: Bush Administration Pays Media Commentator to Support No Child Left Behind