Last week we discussed Bush using paid actors to portray firefighters in campaign propaganda. Today it turns out that was just the beginning. The Feds are investigating government-produced "news stories" that were sent to local TV stations and aired as real news segments but that featured paid actors reading scripted words and pretending to be journalists advocating the Medicare bill.
Read on...
See
this diary post from last week regarding the paid actors portraying firemen.
Now, see today's story about paid actors playing friggin' journalists in White House propaganda meant to sell the Medicare bill.
The Bush Administration is being investigated for producing "ready made" television news packages in which actors were paid to pose as journalists, it emerged today.
"TV news releases" were sent to local stations to be run as part of main news programmes.
But Federal investigators have launched an investigation into whether the adverts were "propaganda", amid allegations that they were an attempt to "manipulate the press".
The "news" packages praised a new law, signed by the president in December, which the White House has said will make it easier for elderly American's to obtain prescribed medicines.
In some of the features, there are pictures of Mr Bush receiving a standing ovation from a crowd as he signed the "Medicare" law.
The packages were produced by the Department of Health and Human Services, but news viewers would have no way of knowing they were watching a Government-produced story, rather than an independent news report.
They have been screened in several states, including Oklahoma and Louisiana.
Two of the videos end with the voice of a woman who says: "In Washington, I'm Karen Ryan reporting."
Ethics? Integrity? Nah....