Press Release
Free Press Calls on Congress to Rein in White House Propaganda
Contact: Timothy Karr, 201-533-8838
WASHINGTON -- House Democrats today released a Government Accountability Office report chronicling more than $1.6 billion spent by the Bush administration since 2003 on public relations and advertising.
The report -- which was requested more than a year ago after commentator Armstrong Williams was exposed for being on the government payroll -- focuses on PR and other media contracts at seven federal agencies, including the Departments of Defense, Homeland Security and Health and Human Services.
Free Press Communications Director Craig Aaron made the following statement:
"The billion-dollar Bush PR machine is out of control. The scary fact is that this study is just the tip of the iceberg: The GAO didn't even look at the contracts from more than half of the cabinet-level agencies. And the public still doesn't know how many of these contracts funded illegal covert propaganda.
"We need a full accounting of the Bush administration's spending on advertising, PR and fake news. It's time for Congress to reclaim its constitutional role as a counterweight to the executive branch and permanently cut off funding for covert propaganda. We must ensure that taxpayer money isn't being spent by the White House to secretly manipulate the American public."
To see a copy of the full report, click here.
To learn more, visit www.freepress.net/propaganda
The report -- which was requested more than a year ago after commentator Armstrong Williams was exposed for being on the government payroll -- focuses on PR and other media contracts at seven federal agencies, including the Departments of Defense, Homeland Security and Health and Human Services.
Free Press Communications Director Craig Aaron made the following statement:
"The billion-dollar Bush PR machine is out of control. The scary fact is that this study is just the tip of the iceberg: The GAO didn't even look at the contracts from more than half of the cabinet-level agencies. And the public still doesn't know how many of these contracts funded illegal covert propaganda.
"We need a full accounting of the Bush administration's spending on advertising, PR and fake news. It's time for Congress to reclaim its constitutional role as a counterweight to the executive branch and permanently cut off funding for covert propaganda. We must ensure that taxpayer money isn't being spent by the White House to secretly manipulate the American public."
To see a copy of the full report, click here.
To learn more, visit www.freepress.net/propaganda
