Here, the VOA can't send a QSL card to Dubuque, because it might
promote a propaganda service to Americans. But Federal agencies are
busy feeding "news" videos to TV, as if TV news doesn't already have
sufficient credibility problems.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/19/politics/19gao.html?

The New York Times
February 19, 2005
Administration Is Warned About Its 'News' Videos
By ANNE E. KORNBLUT

WASHINGTON, Feb. 18 - The comptroller general has issued a blanket
warning that reminds federal agencies they may not produce newscasts
promoting administration policies without clearly stating that the
government itself is the source.

Twice in the last two years, agencies of the federal government have
been caught distributing prepackaged television programs that used
paid spokesmen acting as newscasters and, in violation of federal law,
failed to disclose the administration's role in developing and
financing them.

And those were not isolated incidents, David M. Walker, the
comptroller general, said in a letter dated Thursday that put all
agency heads on notice about the practice.

In fact, it has become increasingly common for federal agencies to
adopt the public relations tactic of producing "video news releases"
that look indistinguishable from authentic newscasts and, as
ready-made and cost-free reports, are sometimes picked up by local
news programs. It is illegal for the government to produce or
distribute such publicity material domestically without disclosing its
own role.

Mr. Walker, who as comptroller general is chief of the Government
Accountability Office, Congress's investigative arm, said in his
letter: "While agencies generally have the right to disseminate
information about their policies and activities, agencies may not use
appropriated funds to produce or distribute prepackaged news stories
intended to be viewed by television audiences that conceal or do not
clearly identify for the television viewing audience that the agency
was the source of those materials."

"It is not enough," he added, "that the contents of an agency's
communication may be unobjectionable."

Mr. Walker's letter was made available late Friday afternoon by
Democrats on Capitol Hill. Asked for a response Friday night, the
White House had no immediate comment.

The two best-known cases of such video news releases - one concerning
the new Medicare law, the other an antidrug campaign by the Bush
administration - drew sharp rebukes from the G.A.O. after separate
investigations last year found that the agencies involved had violated
the law.

Those cases were followed by disclosures that the government had paid
at least one conservative commentator, Armstrong Williams, to promote
the administration's No Child Left Behind education measure and had
put two other conservative writers on the federal payroll to help
develop programs. These episodes have prompted calls from Democrats
for stricter oversight of the administration's publicity practices,
which have cost millions of dollars of federal revenue.

In the Medicare case, a video made in the style of a newscast featured
a spokeswoman named Karen Ryan who claimed to be reporting from
Washington on Medicare law changes strongly backed by the
administration but opposed by many Democrats, who consider them a
windfall for the pharmaceutical and insurance industries. In part of
one script, she said that "all people with Medicare will be able to
get coverage that will lower their prescription drug spending."

Often there is an intermediary in the process: a public relations firm
hired by a government agency to produce a polished video and direct
other aspects of a publicity drive.

One centrally involved firm is Ketchum, a giant in the public
relations industry whose representatives arranged for both the
Medicare video and the contract with Mr. Williams, a pact that is now
under investigation by three government agencies. Ketchum has received
$97 million in government public relations contracts since 2001.

The G.A.O. letter did not caution agencies to curtail their publicity
practices, telling them simply to adhere to disclosure requirements.

"Prepackaged news stories," Mr. Walker wrote, "can be utilized without
violating the law, so long as there is clear disclosure to the
television viewing audience that this material was prepared by or in
cooperation with the government department or agency."

But Democrats said they hoped the letter would lead to tougher
scrutiny of what they describe as an aggressive publicity machine
within the administration.

"The G.A.O. is sending a clear message to the Bush administration:
shut down the propaganda mill," Senator Frank R. Lautenberg of New
Jersey said in a statement on Friday. "The G.A.O. is simply telling
the White House to stop manipulating media, stop paying journalists
and be straight with the American people."