Bush Shows No Remorse for Fake Newscasts

And the surprise here would be, uh...?? You know, when I was growing up, I remember my father emphasizing over and over how the "bad Communists" in Russia used propaganda to spread their message - as did the 3rd Reich, and some of the leaders of the biggest genocides in this century...well, this sounds a LOT like that propaganda ...

Attention oh ye of sheeplike mentality, why are you letting them get away with this?

From Inter Press Service, by William Fisher: bolding by Julien's List

Despite a rising chorus of condemnation from journalists and media critics, the George W. Bush administration shows no signs of abandoning its distribution of taxpayer-funded ”news” to U.S. newspapers, radio and television stations.

Free press advocates are up in arms about what they say is the covert dissemination of propaganda by government agencies.

In one case, the administration -- seeking to build support among black families for its education reform plans -- paid a prominent African American pundit, Armstrong Williams, 240,000 dollars to promote the ”No Child Left Behind” law on his nationally syndicated television show and through his newspaper column, and to urge other black journalists to do the same.

Two other nationally known journalists, Maggie Gallagher and Michael McManus, have also admitted accepting thousands of dollars to endorse government programs.

Since 2001, the Army and Air Force Hometown News Service has fielded 40 reporters, producers and public affairs specialists to create ”good military news” to be beamed to home audiences via local news stations. The service's ”good news” segments have reportedly reached 41 million Americans via local newscasts -- in most cases, without the station acknowledging their source.

More than 20 different federal agencies used taxpayer funds to produce television news segments promoting Bush administration policies. These ”video news releases,” or VNRs, were broadcast on hundreds of local news programs. without disclosing their source.

This is charming...

Regarding the VNRs, Pres. Bush said the government's practice of sending ”packaged news stories” to local television stations was legal and he has no plans to cease it.

His defense of the packages, which are designed to look like television news segments, came after the Government Accountability Office (GAO), a Congressional watchdog agency, called them a form of covert propaganda.

The administration responded that, ”Executive Branch agencies are not bound by GAO's legal advice” but should be guided by the views of the Department of Justice's Office of Legal Counsel, part of the executive branch.

Here is who you SHOULD be listening to, oh Middle Americans - and what about our university and high school students - our future leaders? Thirty-odd years ago they would be all OVER Washington protesting this...

Norman Solomon, a syndicated columnist on media and politics and founder of the Institute for Public Accuracy, said in an interview that the subterfuge involved was the most dangerous aspect.

”The 'video news releases' put out by the U.S. government are pernicious because the TV broadcasts often do not tell the viewers that the government is funding and controlling those supposed 'news' reports,” he said.

Of course, most of today's students, woefully "left behind" and with brains whittled to a single standardized test mentality, would not even know the definition of "pernicious..."

Ms. Julien pulls a "Dark Wraith" and sighs over the dumbing down of our students - and the apathy of the mainstream public.