More on Propaganda

So I'm digging through the NYT article Benari links to below, and one part that sticks out is the bit about the General Accounting Office's audit of the administration's "news" bit creation and packaging:

"Under the Bush administration, the federal government has aggressively used a well-established tool of public relations: the prepackaged, ready-to-serve news report that major corporations have long distributed to TV stations to pitch everything from headache remedies to auto insurance. In all, at least 20 federal agencies, including the Defense Department and the Census Bureau, have made and distributed hundreds of television news segments in the past four years, records and interviews show. Many were subsequently broadcast on local stations across the country without any acknowledgement of the government's role in their production.

[snip]

"The G.A.O. concluded that the two agencies "designed and executed" their segments "to be indistinguishable from news stories produced by private sector television news organizations." A significant part of that execution, the office found, was Ms. Ryan's expert narration, including her typical sign-off - "In Washington, I'm Karen Ryan reporting" - delivered in a tone and cadence familiar to television reporters everywhere." [emphasis mine]

Ok, so the G.A.O. sees this stuff for what it really is, and calls the administration out on it, which is exactly what the G.A.O. is supposed to do.

So what is the administration's response? Well, obviously, to ignore the G.A.O...

And on Friday, the Justice Department and the Office of Management and Budget circulated a memorandum instructing all executive branch agencies to ignore the G.A.O. findings. The memorandum said the G.A.O. failed to distinguish between covert propaganda and "purely informational" news segments made by the government. Such informational segments are legal, the memorandum said, whether or not an agency's role in producing them is disclosed to viewers. [emphasis mine]

Ah. I see. Since they don't agree with part of the G.A.O.'s findings, it's best to ignore ALL of their findings. Just like ignoring those pesky international treaties, right Mr. Attorney General?

Seriously, though, who needs accountability and oversight when you control every branch of government and have the Main Stream Media's nuts in your sweaty, vise-like grip (via Holden)? Not our current administration, that's for sure.

And Atrios correctly points out that the MSM news outlets are just as culpable. After all, they're running these propaganda packages as actual news (and could well be getting paid to do so!). How lazy and dishonest can you get?