Here's an excerpt from today's New York Times concerning the Medicare videos
discussed in last month's "Ethics Corner." Thought you might be interested.

WASHINGTON, May 19 - The General Accounting Office, an investigative arm of
Congress, said on Wednesday that the Bush administration had violated federal
law by producing and disseminating television news segments that portray the
new Medicare law as a boon to the elderly.

The agency said the videos were a form of "covert propaganda" because the
government was not identified as the source of the materials, broadcast by at
least 40 television stations in 33 markets. The agency also expressed some
concern about the content of the videos, but based its ruling on the lack of
disclosure.

....

The General Accounting Office said that a specific part of the videos, a
made-for-television "story package," violated the prohibition on using
taxpayer money for propaganda.

People seeing the videos in a newscast would "believe that the information
came from a nongovernment source or neutral party," it said.

William A. Pierce, a spokesman for the Department of Health and Human
Services, who helped develop the videos, said: "We disagree. It's not covert.
TV stations knew the videos came from us and could have identified the
government as the source if they had wanted to."

The accounting office dismissed that argument. The intended audience, it said,
was not news directors, but viewers, and "the video news releases did not
alert viewers that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services was the
source."

Moreover, it said, "some news organizations indicated that they misread the
label or they mistook the story package as an independent journalist news
story."
....

The accounting office said the videos were "not strictly factual news stories"
and were flawed by "notable omissions and weaknesses" in their explanation of
the Medicare law. But the main problem, it said, is that they were "misleading
as to source."

The government, it said, served up a "purported news story" using "alleged
reporters" to read scripts prepared by the government, but "nothing in the
story packages permits the viewer to know that [the "reporters"]were paid with
federal funds."

Federal law prohibits the use of federal money for "publicity or propaganda
purposes" not authorized by Congress. The accounting office has found that
federal agencies violated this restriction when they disseminated editorials
and newspaper articles written by the government without identifying the
source.
....

Medicare officials are unlikely to face any penalties. David M. Walker, the
comptroller general of the United States, who is head of the General
Accounting Office, said, "We do not have reason to believe that this violation
was knowing and willful, and we are not in the enforcement business."

....

The Bush administration hired Ketchum Inc. to disseminate information about
the Medicare law, and Ketchum hired another company, Home Front
Communications, to create the videos. The materials were distributed to
television stations by satellite, mail and a syndicated news service, CNN
Newsource, the ruling said.

Susan G. Barnes, APR
Director of Development
College of Communication & Information
The University of Tennessee
293 Comm-UEB
Knoxville, TN 37996-0332
(865) 974-7074
FAX (865) 974-4879
Cell (865) 387-5141