"Fake news" propaganda

[Pah]

From my email inbox
Dear Bob,

It's time for an intervention. The Bush administration has
become addicted to taxpayer-funded, "fake news" propaganda. We,
and our elected representatives in Congress, must step in.

News reports have revealed that the Department of Education
used $240,000 of our taxes to hire Armstrong Williams, an
ultra-conservative black columnist and talk-show host, to
promote the controversial No Child Left Behind Act to his
readers, viewers and colleagues in the media.[1] Williams did
just as the Department asked, praising Bush's signature
education initiative in his columns as well as on his and other
television shows. Repeatedly, he failed to inform his audiences
that his comments were bought and paid for with their own taxes.

This is not an isolated incident or simply bad judgment. The
Government Accountability Office found last year that the
Department of Health and Human Services violated two federal
laws by producing propaganda videos touting Medicare's new drug
benefits which were misleadingly packaged to look like news
reports from independent journalists. Last week, the GAO
announced that the Office of National Drug Control Policy had
also potentially broken the law by using taxpayer dollars to
produce similar "fake news" video segments.[2] Both agencies
distributed the videos to news broadcasters, which in some cases
aired them without telling viewers that they were watching
government-sponsored propaganda.

Behind its rhetoric about moral values, the Bush administration
is undermining ethical standards in government and attempting to
hook the public on White House spin with undisclosed pay-offs to
journalists.

Help break the administration of its nasty propaganda habit:

1) Tell your members of Congress to call for a top-to-bottom
investigation of the Education Department's contract and all
similar schemes at other federal agencies.

http://www.pfaw.org/pfaw/general/default.aspx?oid=16842&action=1641

Tell them this isn't about right and left, it's about right and
wrong.

2) Demand that the Department of Education do everything it can
to get back the $240,000 it paid to Armstrong Williams.

http://www.pfaw.org/pfaw/general/default.aspx?oid=16842&action=1642

Remind Department officials that you paid your taxes in good
faith to fund educational programs for the children in your
community, not to pay for propaganda.

There's plenty of blame to go around, but our tax dollars are
another matter. President Bush has underfunded No Child Left
Behind by billions each year since it passed.[3] Meanwhile, his
administration has spent large sums on propaganda intended to be
fed to us as real news. They even spent our tax dollars to
produce ratings of how truly independent news organizations were
covering Bush's programs and policies.[4]

Help restore accountability, ethics and financial sanity to our
government. Write Congress and demand that they get tough with
the Bush administration. Americans shouldn't have to get their
news wondering, "How much did the government pay them to say
that?" ACTION ALERT -- People For the American Way
January 10, 2005

[1] http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2005-01-09-williams_x.htm
[2]
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A54651-2005Jan6?language=printer
[3] http://www.pfaw.org/pfaw/general/default.aspx?oid=14768
[4]
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content
_id=1000663563
________________________________________________________________

TAKE ACTION:

Urge your members of Congress to investigate the Bush
administration's unethical and potentially illegal use of
taxpayer money for "fake news" propaganda.

To write Congress, go to:

http://www.pfaw.org/pfaw/general/default.aspx?oid=16842&action=1641

Also, demand that Education Secretary Rod Paige get back the
$240,000 of our taxes used to pay Armstrong Williams for hyping
the No Child Left Behind Act.

To write Sec. Paige, go to:

http://www.pfaw.org/pfaw/general/default.aspx?oid=16842&action=1642

 

[Mr Spinkles]

News reports have revealed that the Department of Education
used $240,000 of our taxes to hire Armstrong Williams, an
ultra-conservative black columnist and talk-show host,

I realize this is off-topic, but why bother mentioning that he's black? Is it really that important?

 

[Pah]

I realize this is off-topic, but why bother mentioning that he's black? Is it really that important?

I didn't see that until you caugth it. I can't image why that is important. But I think I'll ask PAFW.

I have high regard for what those people do and I would not like to think they are any bit racist. I really hope there was a purpose!

Bob

P.S. I just sent them an email asking why.

 

[The Voice of Reason]

I think that the fact that Armstrong is black is relevant - and this is why:

The NCLB Act is not viewed as being advantageous to people that populate the inner cities. Right or wrong, this is how it is viewed. Bush (I'm sure at the behest of Karl Rove) made the decision that they wanted to capture as much of the black vote as they could - and they felt that an effective way to do that was to use a person of color (i.e. Armstrong Williams) to get their message to those in the inner cities. I fully understand their reasoning and the importance of them delivering their message from a face that most people in the inner city could relate to. The exact same reason that most toy makers now make baby dolls for little girls that represent varying ethnic backgrounds.
Therefore, I think that it is pertinent to the story that Armstrong Williams is black.

TVOR

 

[Godless Dave]

I saw a clip of the DEA piece and besides being presented dishonestly is was full of the same old anti-weed propaganda as ever. The drug czar claimed (in an "interview" with one of his own employees) that marijuana use could lead to violent behavior. In all my many years of associating with potheads I've never seen a stoned person act violent, or even energetic.

 

[Faminedynasty]

Just another example of the blatant, shameless corruption of the Bush administration. How many watergates is the man allowed before people begin to hold him accountable?