Is it public relations or propaganda?
Mentor
Mon Mar 14, 9:40 AM ET
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By Mark Silva Washington Bureau
In the promotion of its agenda, the Bush administration has repeatedly
tested the boundaries of media manipulation.
President Bush (news - web sites)'s agencies have employed tactics
such as hiring television and newspaper columnists to promote his
programs that even the president has disavowed.
"Whether you call it news control or manipulation of information or
political spin to some degree depends on the position one is standing
in," says Bob Steele, a media scholar at the Poynter Institute in St.
Petersburg, Fla. "If we have a critical eye on the administration, we
are more likely to be pejorative with our assessment."
For a while, the administration was producing what appeared to be news
reports in support of Bush programs.
In January, the Government Accountability Office, Congress'
non-partisan investigative arm, criticized Bush's Office of National
Drug Control Policy for distributing "prepackaged news stories," which
the GAO called "covert propaganda."
In May 2004, the GAO also had criticized the Centers for Medicare and
Medicaid Services for distributing similar packages in support of the
new prescription drug benefit for Medicare.
The Health and Human Services (news - web sites) Department and the
Drug Control Office aren't the only agencies that have distributed
video materials posing as television news reports.
The New York Times has found that several agencies have engaged in a
public relations tactic that has seeped into government, with agencies
ranging from the State Department to the Agriculture Department
producing materials that local TV stations have aired as if they were
news.
GAO's conclusion
A Jan. 4 letter to congressional leaders from the GAO's general counsel
noted that "many television news organizations are willing to use
[prepackaged news stories] since they help broadcasters reduce the cost
of gathering and producing news." But the agency concluded that they
violated 55-year-old rules against government spending on propaganda.
"If the material had been identified, it wouldn't be considered
propaganda at all," said Susan Poling, GAO's assistant general counsel.
This wasn't the first time a government agency had written its own news
reports. In 1987, the State Department paid writers for newspaper
articles and opinion pieces supporting the Reagan administration's
policies in Central America.
The GAO is attempting to avert repetition of that technique, issuing a
Feb. 17 memo to all agency heads seeking "vigilance" in avoiding any
new propaganda.
That wasn't all that agencies were doing to promote the president's
agenda.
It was revealed earlier this year that the Education Department had
paid $240,000 to Armstrong Williams, a syndicated columnist, to promote
the president's education reforms.
Then came news that in 2002 the Health and Human Services Department
had paid $21,500 to Maggie Gallagher, an author on marriage, to give
talks to policymakers. She helped an assistant secretary of health
draft a magazine article.
The department also confirmed that it had paid $10,000 to Michael
McManus, a syndicated columnist and director of a non-profit group,
Marriage Savers, to help train counselors.
The GAO's Poling said her investigators are "considering" the legality
of the Williams and Gallagher cases.
The White House has maintained it was unaware of federal agencies'
hiring of columnists, and Bush has repudiated the practice.
"Our agenda ought to be able to stand on its own two feet," the
president said at a Jan. 26 news conference.
But it wasn't only mainstream media whom Bush faced in that conference.
The next question came from a writer for a conservative Web site
working under an assumed name.
For nearly two years, James Guckert had been attending briefings held
by press secretaries. But Guckert, gaining Secret Service clearance
under his own name, was writing as Jeff Gannon for online Talon News, a
venture of Bobby Eberle, a Chicago-born, Texas-based former aerospace
engineer who also operates GOPUSA.com with a goal of "bringing the
conservative message to America."
The Web sites are not affiliated with the Republican Party. And the
White House insists it was not working in concert with Eberle or
Gannon.
Senate press denies access
Concerned that Gannon was not a professional, the Senate press gallery
had denied Gannon access.
The GOPUSA name was enough to prevent Bush's former press secretary,
Ari Fleischer (news - web sites), from calling on "Gannon" during press
conferences.
But Fleischer's successor, Scott McClellan, did call on Gannon in daily
briefings. And on Jan. 26 the president called on him. Referring to
Democratic senators, Gannon asked Bush: "How are you going to work with
people who seem to have divorced themselves from reality?"
The question ended Gannon's stint in the press room. Liberal bloggers
linked Gannon to Web sites catering to gay pornography and
prostitution.
Gannon, who has declined to comment, quit Talon News on Feb. 8. Eberle,
who has declined interview requests, vowed to find a replacement.
But Talon News has gone off-line, leaving an under-construction
message: "We feel compelled to re-evaluate operations in order to
provide the highest quality, most professional product possible."
McClellan maintains it's not his job to decide which reporters attend
briefings.
"It becomes an issue of where do you draw the line?" he said.
The independent White House Correspondents' Association also refuses to
draw that line, stating that it "stands for inclusiveness . . . so that
the White House remains accessible to all journalists."
A young Web-logger named Garrett Graff has tested the open-door policy
by gaining clearance to attend briefings on behalf of his "fishbowlDC."
Democrats in Congress are pressing the GAO to investigate how Gannon
gained access to the White House. But the GAO is debating what role it
should play in examining accreditation of reporters.