10-02-05, 9:13 am

While the Bush administration has consistently accused democratically elected President Hugo Chávez of 'weakening democratic institutions' such as a free media in Venezuela, an audit released last week by the bi-partisan Government Accountability Office (GAO) shows that Bush administration's policy of paying media personalities to promote its programs was 'covert propaganda' and illegal.

Revelations late last year that far right-wing talk-show-host-for-hire Armstrong Williams accepted $240,000 from the Department of Education to promote the administration's anti-public education No Child Left Behind Act sparked scrutiny of the administration's relationship to the media.

The GAO also found that the administration had White House staff that analyzed newspaper articles for a pro-Bush spin.

When the Armstrong scandal broke, Bush's first instinct was to lie about it. He told the public: 'We will not be paying commentators to advance our agenda. Our agenda ought to be able to stand on its own two feet.' A White House spokesperson insisted that the President had nothing to with the deals particular departments made.

The White House failed, however, to reveal its true connection to Williams, according to the findings of the GAO. Unbeknownst to the public, the Department of Education also asked Ketcham Inc., the public relations company that had been contracted by Bush (the contract has Bush's signature on it) to promote the No Child law, to pay Williams for pro-Bush newspaper columns and television appearances that advocated the education policy.

When it became publicly known that the Department of Education had in fact paid Williams and that denials were no longer viable, the administration changed its story. White House officials distributed memos to various departments and staff claiming that there was nothing wrong with paying media personalities to promote administration policies. The White House went on to block initial investigations into the White House's relationship to Williams.
The GAO found differently, however. A federal department has no authority to use taxpayer dollars buy favorable press, publicity or propaganda. It is illegal.

In addition to the Williams debacle, the GAO found new evidence of a previously undisclosed incident where the Education Department had paid for another article advancing its views. The GAO also exposed as illegal the production of pre-packaged video segments billed as 'news' that promoted different aspects of the education program and sent to local television news stations. The same tactic was used to promote the controversial Medicare drug policy last year.

Investigations so far have not shown whether or not the administration used similar tactics to promote the war in Iraq, tax breaks for the rich, Social Security privatization and other unpopular policies.

In addition to producing and disseminating 'covert propaganda,' the administration has sought to weaken a free press in the US by planting pro-Bush reporters in the White House press corps. James Gannon (aka Jeff Guckert), a former male prostitute and frequent overnight visitor at the White House, was exposed in February 2005 as a 'plant' after asking factually incorrect questions and 'softball' questions aimed at criticizing Democrats. Gannon attended press corps briefings for two years.

So who is weakening democracy? In Venezuela, democratic participation, despite the US government’s best efforts to thwart it, has grown. In 1998, about 7 million people participated in the presidential election; in 2004, 10 million voted in the recall referendum. The government’s aim is to increase it by millions in the next election.

In the US, the Bush administration’s manipulation of the media along with massive corruption at all levels of the Republican Party have been aimed at continuing one-party control of government and tearing the democratic fabric we love to claim.



--Reach Joel Wendland at jwendland@politicalaffairs.net.