Bush Breaks Law

[TexasTiger 12,956]

Buying of News by Bush's Aides Is Ruled Illegal

By ROBERT PEAR

Published: October 1, 2005

WASHINGTON, Sept. 30 - Federal auditors said on Friday that the Bush administration violated the law by buying favorable news coverage of President Bush's education policies, by making payments to the conservative commentator Armstrong Williams and by hiring a public relations company to analyze media perceptions of the Republican Party.

In a blistering report, the investigators, from the Government Accountability Office, said the administration had disseminated "covert propaganda" in the United States, in violation of a statutory ban.

The contract with Mr. Williams and the general contours of the public relations campaign had been known for months. The report Friday provided the first definitive ruling on the legality of the activities.

Lawyers from the accountability office, an independent nonpartisan arm of Congress, found that the administration systematically analyzed news articles to see if they carried the message, "The Bush administration/the G.O.P. is committed to education."

The auditors declared: "We see no use for such information except for partisan political purposes. Engaging in a purely political activity such as this is not a proper use of appropriated funds."

The report also sharply criticized the Education Department for telling Ketchum Inc., a public relations company, to pay Mr. Williams for newspaper columns and television appearances praising Mr. Bush's education initiative, the No Child Left Behind Act.

When that arrangement became public, it set off widespread criticism. At a news conference in January, Mr. Bush said: "We will not be paying commentators to advance our agenda. Our agenda ought to be able to stand on its own two feet."

But the Education Department has since defended its payments to Mr. Williams, saying his commentaries were "no more than the legitimate dissemination of information to the public."

The G.A.O. said the Education Department had no money or authority to "procure favorable commentary in violation of the publicity or propaganda prohibition" in federal law.

The ruling comes with no penalty, but under federal law the department is supposed to report the violations to the White House and Congress.

In the course of its work, the accountability office discovered a previously undisclosed instance in which the Education Department had commissioned a newspaper article. The article, on the "declining science literacy of students," was distributed by the North American Precis Syndicate and appeared in numerous small newspapers around the country. Readers were not informed of the government's role in the writing of the article, which praised the department's role in promoting science education.

The auditors denounced a prepackaged television story disseminated by the Education Department. The segment, a "video news release" narrated by a woman named Karen Ryan, said that President Bush's program for providing remedial instruction and tutoring to children "gets an A-plus."

Ms. Ryan also narrated two videos praising the new Medicare drug benefit last year. In those segments, as in the education video, the narrator ended by saying, "In Washington, I'm Karen Ryan reporting."

The television news segments on education and on Medicare did not state that they had been prepared and distributed by the government. The G.A.O. did not say how many stations carried the reports.

The public relations efforts came to light weeks before Margaret Spellings became education secretary in January. Susan Aspey, a spokeswoman for the secretary, said on Friday that Ms. Spellings regarded the efforts as "stupid, wrong and ill-advised." She said Ms. Spellings had taken steps "to ensure these types of missteps don't happen again."

The investigation by the accountability office was requested by Senators Frank R. Lautenberg of New Jersey and Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts, both Democrats. Mr. Lautenberg expressed concern about a section of the report in which investigators said they could not find records to confirm that Mr. Williams had performed all the activities for which he billed the government.

The Education Department said it had paid Ketchum $186,000 for services performed by Mr. Williams's company. But it could not provide transcripts of speeches, articles or records of other services invoiced by Mr. Williams, the report said.

   

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/01/politics...serland&emc=rss

[Auburn85 432]

Well this happened a while back, and I think the piling on of criticism is worse than just fining out it was illegal. That dang Bush has done it again.

This wasn't right....and even if dems have done this, then so what? It's wrong either way....oh do we need to have impeachment hearings over this?

[Piglet 0]

Well this happened a while back, and I think the piling on of criticism is worse than just fining out it was illegal. That dang Bush has done it again.

This wasn't right....and even if dems have done this, then so what? It's wrong either way....oh do we need to have impeachment hearings over this?

185353[/snapback]

Laws are for Democrats and "little people". If you're a big important Republican, you don't have to be bothered by a buncha stupid rules. You think the President should have to ask for a permission slip from his lawyers before doing whatever he Cheneying well pleases?

[AURaptor 1,125]

Laws are for Democrats and "little people". If you're a big important Republican, you don't have to be bothered by a buncha stupid rules. You think the President should have to ask for a permission slip from his lawyers before doing whatever he Cheneying well pleases?

If it was wrong, it was wrong. But I find it curious that while the Left has such willing accomplices in the mainstream media to promote THEIR ideas, the Right has to resort to paying off a couple of commentators.

[TexasTiger 12,956]

Laws are for Democrats and "little people". If you're a big important Republican, you don't have to be bothered by a buncha stupid rules. You think the President should have to ask for a permission slip from his lawyers before doing whatever he Cheneying well pleases?

If it was wrong, it was wrong. But I find it curious that while the Left has such willing accomplices in the mainstream media to promote THEIR ideas, the Right has to resort to paying off a couple of commentators.

185518[/snapback]

First of all, that's crap. For example, listen to the mainstream media refer to the estate tax as the death tax and successfully convince almost all Americans that they are taxed when they die. Republicans control talk radio and at least their share, or more, of the editorial pages and cable tv news.

[Tigermike 3,039]

Laws are for Democrats and "little people". If you're a big important Republican, you don't have to be bothered by a buncha stupid rules. You think the President should have to ask for a permission slip from his lawyers before doing whatever he Cheneying well pleases?

If it was wrong, it was wrong. But I find it curious that while the Left has such willing accomplices in the mainstream media to promote THEIR ideas, the Right has to resort to paying off a couple of commentators.

185518[/snapback]

First of all, that's crap. For example, listen to the mainstream media refer to the estate tax as the death tax and successfully convince almost all Americans that they are taxed when they die. Republicans control talk radio and at least their share, or more, of the editorial pages and cable tv news.

185524[/snapback]

So now talk radio is the "mainstream media" that Raptor was talking about? You know it's not, but nice try.

So now you are hijacking your own thread???? Why is referring to the estate tax as the death tax such a bad think?

[WarTim 3,456]

How dare the American people ELECT all of these Republicans. What were they thinking?