Agencies Can Distribute Video "News", White House Insists March 15, 2005
News Summary
Government agencies can continue to produce ersatz news stories without disclosing their source, the Bush administration insists despite a Government Accountability Office (GAO) ruling to the contrary.The Washington Post reported March 15 that the Justice Department and the Office of Management and Budget circulated memos to federal agencies saying that the GAO did not have binding authority over agency actions. OMB Director Joshua Bolten said in the memo that he disagrees "with GAO that the covert propaganda prohibition applies simply because an agency's role in producing and disseminating information is undisclosed or 'covert,' regardless of whether the content of the message is 'propaganda.'"
"Our view is that the prohibition does not apply where there is no advocacy of a particular viewpoint, and therefore it does not apply to the legitimate provision of information concerning the programs administered by an agency," said Bolten.
Agencies like the Office of National Drug Control Policy have distributed the prepackaged news segments to local TV stations and the Department of Health and Human Services to tout the Bush administration's anti-drug strategy and Medicare drug benefits. The administration said it is up to broadcasters to disclose the source of the segments. "As long as they are providing factual information, it's okay," said White House spokesperson Scott McClellan of the video segments.
GAO Comptroller General David M. Walker replied that the administration is violating federal appropriations law and acting unethically. "This is more than a legal issue. It's also an ethical issue and involves important good-government principles, namely the need for openness in connection with government activities and expenditures," Walker said. "We should not just be seeking to do what's arguably legal. We should be doing what's right."
Walker said that either Congress or the courts will have to clarify the rules. Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.), a critic of the administration's stance on the videos, said he will try to do so by attaching legislation to an upcoming appropriations bill.
COMMENTS ON THIS ARTICLE: