Buying of News by Bush's Aides Is Ruled Illegal, page 1

Washington - Federal auditors said on Friday that the Bush administration violated the law by buying favorable news coverage of President Bush's education policies, by making payments to the conservative commentator Armstrong Williams and by hiring a public relations company to analyze media perceptions of the Republican Party

In a blistering report, the investigators, from the Government Accountability Office, said the administration had disseminated "covert propaganda" in the United States, in violation of a statutory ban.

The contract with Mr. Williams and the general contours of the public relations campaign had been known for months. The report Friday provided the first definitive ruling on the legality of the activities.

But the accountability office said on Friday: "The failure of an agency to identify itself as the source of a prepackaged news story misleads the viewing public by encouraging the audience to believe that the broadcasting news organization developed the information. The prepackaged news stories are purposefully designed to be indistinguishable from news segments broadcast to the public. When the television viewing public does not know that the stories they watched on television news programs about the government were in fact prepared by the government, the stories are, in this sense, no longer purely factual. The essential fact of attribution is missing."

Congress tried to clarify the ban on "covert propaganda" in a bill signed by Mr. Bush in May. The law says that no federal money may be used to produce or distribute a news story unless the government's role is openly acknowledged.

New York Times

Interestng Article.

The Bush Administration was found Guilty of "Buying News" to Fool the Public.

They Meida was basicly "Selling" the News to the People of America, that the Goverment "Sold" to them - in both cases they Lied:

The auditors denounced a prepackaged television story disseminated by the Education Department. The segment, a "video news release" narrated by a woman named Karen Ryan, said that President Bush's program for providing remedial instruction and tutoring to children "gets an A-plus."

Typical - a Cheater and a Liar and when he is not Kissing Babys, he is steaing their Lollipops.

Welcome to the Bush Administration:

We don't Care - but we will make ourselves Look like we DO!

And that is only the Department of Education - I wonder what goes on in the Department of DEFENCE.

As long as Bush is Buying News, he is also Buying for some OTHER News to be Censored, that should make the Headlines. Check it out at:

Project Censored: The News that did not Make News