@@ U.S. to spend more $ on lies @@
Arash
February 7 2005
US government ratchets up PR budget
By Holly Yeager in Washington
The U.S. government's bill for public relations [PR] does not compare with
what it spends on big-ticket items such as nuclear submarines and
presidential helicopters.
But the costs have been creeping upward - a sign that politics is being
conducted in a new way, in which the message of the day can be delivered by
ever-increasing means.
The federal government spent $88.2 million on contracts with public
relations agencies last year, according to a report last month by
congressional Democrats. That is up from $39 million in 2000.
The payments have drawn criticism since the disclosure that Armstrong
Williams, a conservative commentator, had received $241,000 from the
Department of Education to promote the administration's "No Child Left
Behind" initiative in television and radio appearances. Other such payments
have recently ome to light, including $21,500 from the Department of Health
and Human Services to a syndicated columnist to promote the president's
pro-marriage proposals.
"Presidents have found it more effective to try to sell administration
policies on Capitol Hill by combining an outside game with an inside game,"
says Anthony Corrado, a government professor at Colby College in Maine.
That strategy, of campaign directly to the public while also working inside
the Washington Beltway, is especially useful in the current political
environment, in which partisan feelings run high and few in either political
party are eager to negotiate, he said.
Such a "permanent campaign" often includes the use of cabinet secretaries to
travel around the country, boasting of administration's accomplishments and
laying the groundwork for a new agenda.
But, as the Democrats' report makes clear, the public relations spending is
not limited to high-profile agenda items such as the president's plans for
education and marriage.
Over the past 4 years, 38 federal agencies had contracts with major PR
firms. The top five spenders on public relations over that period were the
Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services ($94 million), the National
Institutes of Health ($57 million), the Minerals Management Service ($22
million), the Centers for Disease Control ($21 million), and the Health
Resources and Services Administration ($13 million).
The bulk of that spending went to four large firms -- Ketchum
Communications, the Matthews Media Group, Fleishmann Hillard, and Porter
Novelli - according to the report. And it was the PR firms who, at times,
passed the federal money on to journalists such as Mr. Williams.
President George W. Bush has ordered his cabinet secretaries to cease the
practice of paying journalists to promote administration policies. But it is
unclear what portion of current PR spending that practice represents.
While government spending on public relations is not new, "It has become
much more sophisticated in this administration," says Mr. Corrado.
Worried that the Bush administration may seek to use a variety of public
relations approaches in its push for pensions reform, House Democrats have
written to Jo Anne Barnhart, commissioner of the Social Security
Administration, seeking details of her agency's communications plan.
http://news.ft.com/cms/s/7fd51392-791f-11d9-89c5-00000e2511c8.html