It's that kind of spin that should put a chill down every Americans' spine.
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Officially, HHS officials say Ketchum got the new work because it already had a multiyear contract to provide public relations services for the department. The firm promised the new ads will not cross the legal line.
The Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services logo appeared prominently in an eight-page insert in Parade magazine on Sept. 25. A second insert is planned for Oct. 16.
Surveys show that seniors trust Medicare information more if they see it is from the government, Kathleen Harrington, a manager overseeing the education campaign for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, told the Washington Post, "so it's in the interest of our success to do this and to label everything appropriately."
Let's hope that's not the only reason HHS wants to do things appropriately. Let's hope it, and the rest of the Bush Administration, recognize that undocumented propaganda is the stuff of dictatorships, not democracies that value a free and independent media.
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This item first appeared at Journalists Against Bush's B.S.
Article comments
1 - 1Potato
Your link about how the GAO called Bushes ads "covert propaganda" does not link to the GAO. It links to some anti Bush website that claims the GAO stated that.
Why can't you just link the the actual GAO statement you claim they made? Can't you at least quote it?
1P
2 - david r. mark
There are several links in the piece to the GAO. There are also a couple of links to earlier items I wrote on the subject, and a link to a Washington Post article.
The GAO findings are hardly in doubt on the subject.
3 - 1Potato
Well, I doubt their existence. So I guess they are in doubt.
1P
4 - david r. mark
Then you are simply in denial. You can check the links provided, you can do a Google search, you can read one of 41 newspapers nationwide that wrote on the subject. Your choice.
But to say, "don't confuse me with the facts," is sort of ridiculous.