The Bush Propaganda Machine

The NY Times has an eight page article about the government creating fake news segments designed to make Bush and his buddies look good and delivering this propaganda to news outlets.

I didn't read the whole eight pages, due to my short attention span and an irritating boss that thinks I should be working during the day. But the Carpetbagger sums it up pretty well.

It's truly breathtaking. The Bush gang creates fake news segments
that make the administration look great, package them neatly for news
outlets (including handy pre-written scripts for anchors), and viewers
are none the wiser. In all, the administration spent $254 million in its
first term on these public relations contracts.

[...]

But here's the funny part: the Bush administration has announced
that it doesn't care.

[O]n 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 added)