For Immediate Release: 10/11/2004
Contact: Peter Montgomery
People For the American Way Foundation
email: media@pfaw.org
phone: 202-467-4999

Department of Education Funds Propaganda

The U.S. Department of Education used taxpayer dollars to fund a "video news release" designed to look like a television news report touting the benefits of the No Child Left Behind law, according to materials obtained by People For the American Way Foundation through a Freedom of Information Act request.

The same Department of Education contract also provided for ratings of journalists' coverage of education issues. Among the criteria used in rating stories were whether the story depicted the Bush Administration and the Republican Party as committed to education.

"The Bush administration seems to have made a habit of using taxpayer dollars to pay for partisan propaganda," said People For the American Way Foundation Education Policy Director Nancy Keenan, noting that PFAWF has also documented the Department of Education's spending of millions of dollars in discretionary funding to support groups promoting the administration's political agenda.

The phony news story was prepared by the same company, using the same "reporter," as a similar video news release about Medicare issues that was determined earlier this year by the General Accounting Office to have violated federal anti-propaganda laws. When one television station used Education Department's release, but had its own reporter re-record the audio, the Department posted the resulting story as news on its website.

October 16, 2004
Study for U.S. Rated Coverage of Schools Law
By DIANA JEAN SCHEMO, NY TIMES

WASHINGTON, Oct. 15 - An essay written by a third-grade teacher and published in The Portland Oregonian that criticized the federal No Child Left Behind law got one of the lowest ratings: a negative 60.

An article in The Akron Beacon Journal that credited No Child Left Behind with driving schools to close the achievement gap was praised, earning a score of 55 points.

The gold medal?

That went to a piece that ran in The Seattle Times, signed by Education Secretary Rod Paige himself, who "specifically credits President Bush for championing" No Child Left Behind. It got a near-perfect 95.

"The article would have rated an ideal 100 points if it had appeared in a more prominent newspaper," said the evaluation of newspaper coverage commissioned by the federal Education Department.

The department paid $700,000 to Ketchum, a public relations and marketing firm, to rate newspaper coverage of the education law in 2003 and to produce two video press releases in the format of news articles. The videos were reminiscent of videos about Medicare that were sent to television stations around the country and criticized by federal budget monitors this year as violating the federal law barring the use of Congressional appropriations "in a general propaganda effort designed to aid a political party or candidate."

The Education Department contract has come under fire from Senators Frank R. Lautenberg of New Jersey and Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts, both Democrats, who asked the Government Accountability Office to determine if the department broke the law.

In their letter to the agency, the senators wrote that the contract represented "an illegal use of taxpayer funds."

"A comprehensive, nationwide media study identifying journalists and news organizations writing favorable stories on President Bush and his political party's commitment to education has only a political purpose," they wrote.

The articles were ranked by how frequently and favorably they mentioned 11 features of the new law, and according to the company's written description, whether or not they portrayed "the Bush administration/the G.O.P. as committed to education."

Susan Aspey, a spokeswoman for the Department of Education, said the videos were done before the Government Accountability Office issued its ruling and were no longer in use, but she defended them as an effort to publicize the new law.

She said, however, that the rankings did not influence the department's treatment of reporters. She also defended the rating of reporters in part on their friendliness to the Bush administration and the Republican Party, saying, "The fact of the matter is that this president and this administration championed and led the No Child Left Behind Act."

"Our general counsel reviewed everything that we have done," said Ms. Aspey. She rejected criticism of the contracts as "purely politics."

The videos and evaluations were obtained by People for the American Way, a nonprofit organization, under the Freedom of Information Act. The Associated Press first reported on the contract earlier this week.

AP article:

Democrats Ask GAO to Probe Schools Budget
AP Online; 10/15/2004; BEN FELLER, AP Education Writer
Dateline: WASHINGTON

Two Democratic senators have asked for an investigation into whether the Education Department spent public money on political propaganda for President Bush.

Sens. Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey and Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts on Thursday asked the Government Accountability Office to review whether the department illegally spent money on a video promoting Bush's education law _ and on news coverage ratings that gave points to stories that made Bush and the Republican Party look good.

The GAO is the investigative arm of Congress.

The lawmakers took issue with two aspects of a $700,000 contract the department awarded to the public relations firm Ketchum in 2003. Both emerged through a Freedom of Information Act request by a liberal interest group and were reported Sunday by The Associated Press.

One is a video that comes across as a news story, touting the benefits of tutoring offered under the No Child Left Behind law. But the story fails to make clear it came from the government and that the person who says she's reporting is not a reporter.

The GAO said in May that a video news release that used similar tactics to promote the Bush administration's Medicare law was covert propaganda that violated two federal laws. The Education Department says it has stopped using video releases since that report.

The senators also questioned Ketchum's 2003 evaluation of news coverage and individual reporters, which judged whether stories put Bush's law in a positive light.

One of 11 ways stories could gain points in the analysis was by sending a message that "The Bush Administration/the GOP is committed to education."

"There is no legitimate informational or policy reason for the Department of Education to be evaluating perceptions of the Republican Party or President Bush's strengths or weaknesses as a political candidate," the senators wrote to Comptroller General David Walker, the head of the GAO.

The video, the senators said, violates the legal standard set in the Medicare case. They asked the GAO to recover whatever money was spent on the video and the news ratings.

Department spokeswoman Susan Aspey said the request for a GAO investigation was "purely politics and an attempt to distract attention from President Bush's great record on improving public education."

The department says the video was clearly marked as a product of the agency when it was sent to TV stations, and that it was meant to help parents understand the law. Aspey said the media ratings were a worthwhile snapshot of how the law was perceived but had "little or no benefit as far as how we treat reporters, because we treat all press the same."

About a third of the $700,000 was spent on video releases and media analyses, she said.

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