E-Z-B
CAGiversary!
WASHINGTON — House Republicans Wednesday soundly rejected an effort by Democrats to ban the Department of Education from spending money on "covert propaganda."
The House voted 224 to 197 against a measure, championed by Reps. Rosa DeLauro, D-3, and George Miller, D-Calif., aimed at blocking the department from creating sham news stories or hiring columnists to promote policies.
The lawmakers had hoped to attach the ban to legislation on vocational education that was debated Wednesday in the House.
They had previously sponsored a bill seeking a government-wide ban after it was revealed in a series of news reports that the Bush administration had used taxpayer dollars to finance covert propaganda campaigns.
In January, USA Today was first to report that the Bush administration paid Armstrong Williams $240,000 to promote the No Child Left Behind Act on his syndicated television show, and to urge other black journalists to do the same.
Last month, the department's inspector general issued a "very troubling" report on the contract, Miller said.
"It appears likely that substantial sums were paid not only for commercials that were never produced, but for Mr. Williams' political commentaries," he said.
The Bush administration has also hired actors to pose as journalists in videos promoting its Medicare and drug-control policies.
The videos aired on television stations across the country, and viewers at home were never told that what they were seeing was paid for with their own tax dollars, Miller said. And, the administration paid a syndicated columnist more than $40,000 for advice on its marriage initiatives while she also promoted the initiative in her syndicated column.
"Covert propaganda has no place in our democracy," DeLauro told her colleagues Wednesday. "This is a dangerous precedent. Our government's agenda should be able to stand on its own two feet."
http://www.connpost.com/news/ci_2709446
So this means that the Neocons have given the blessing to propaganda on America.
The House voted 224 to 197 against a measure, championed by Reps. Rosa DeLauro, D-3, and George Miller, D-Calif., aimed at blocking the department from creating sham news stories or hiring columnists to promote policies.
The lawmakers had hoped to attach the ban to legislation on vocational education that was debated Wednesday in the House.
They had previously sponsored a bill seeking a government-wide ban after it was revealed in a series of news reports that the Bush administration had used taxpayer dollars to finance covert propaganda campaigns.
In January, USA Today was first to report that the Bush administration paid Armstrong Williams $240,000 to promote the No Child Left Behind Act on his syndicated television show, and to urge other black journalists to do the same.
Last month, the department's inspector general issued a "very troubling" report on the contract, Miller said.
"It appears likely that substantial sums were paid not only for commercials that were never produced, but for Mr. Williams' political commentaries," he said.
The Bush administration has also hired actors to pose as journalists in videos promoting its Medicare and drug-control policies.
The videos aired on television stations across the country, and viewers at home were never told that what they were seeing was paid for with their own tax dollars, Miller said. And, the administration paid a syndicated columnist more than $40,000 for advice on its marriage initiatives while she also promoted the initiative in her syndicated column.
"Covert propaganda has no place in our democracy," DeLauro told her colleagues Wednesday. "This is a dangerous precedent. Our government's agenda should be able to stand on its own two feet."
http://www.connpost.com/news/ci_2709446
So this means that the Neocons have given the blessing to propaganda on America.
