Media Manipulation

The attempts to manipulate the media by various means since they took office, to me, are one of the most troubling acts that the Bush administration has committed. The General Accounting Office has in the past found similar acts by other agencies to be a violation of regulations against using public funds for "publicity or propaganda" purposes. I will sum up the Bush administration's efforts here:

2002: The Office of Strategic Influence was created by the Department of Defense for the purpose of feeding misinformation to foreign press to attempt to improve the image of the United States abroad, specifically in Muslim countries. The program was officially disbanded in February 2002, but not for moral reasons, but rather because the public attention focused on the program had compromised its effectiveness. Essentially, according to Rumsfeld, misinformation is only effective if the press that is being manipulated is not aware that the information in not genuine. He also states that although the office itself was officially closed, its programs will continue under various other functions within the Department of Defense.

2004: The Department of Health and Human Services, through the production company, Home Front Communications, produced a video intended to appear as an actual news broadcast, promoting the Bush administration's Medicare plan. The video, with a voice-over by "reporter" Karen Ryan, depicted George W. Bush receiving standing ovations for his Medicare plan. Karen Ryan is not a reporter, but an actress hired by Home Front Communications. The press release also included a suggested script for news anchors to read when introducing the video.

2004: Dick Cheney's office refused to allow reporters access to a press briefing without first signing a "loyalty oath" stating that they support George W. Bush in the presidential election.

2005: Conservative columnist Armstrong Williams accepted $241,000 to help promote the Bush administration's No Child Left Behind program. This was part of a $700,000 payment to the public relations firm Ketchum, Inc. The firm also produced a video on No Child Left Behind which was used by some television news programs as if it were an actual news report.

2005: Right wing "reporter" James Guckert, presumably working for the Bush administration directly, received a press pass and was admitted to White House briefings under the pseudonym Jeff Gannon. His purpose seems to have been to ask the questions that White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan wanted to have asked. He posed as a homosexual, apparently so that any criticism of him could be dismissed as simply anti-homosexual.

These are just the events that I can recall specifically. I think that what is most disturbing is the media's complicity. I know something is horribly wrong when I routinely see stories which reflect badly on the Bush administration on the Daily Show before they make it into the mainstream press. The only mainstream media coverage I saw regarding the loyalty oaths was when CNN showed part of The Daily Show's story about it, focusing only on the spelling and grammatical errors in the oath as a sort of comical mistake, and essentially dismissing the oath itself as being un-newsworthy.