You Don't Have to Lie about Good Ideas...

The Alternate Brain links to a NY Times article reporting the Government Accountability Office has found that the Bush administration violated federal law by producing and distributing television news segments about the effects of drug use among young people. What law did they violate? The prohibition on using taxpayer money for propaganda.

The accountability office said the videos "constitute covert propaganda" because the government was not identified as the source of the materials, which were distributed by the Office of National Drug Control Policy. They were broadcast by nearly 300 television stations and reached 22 million households, the office said.

[…]

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

I wonder how all the rightwingers who are mad that their tax dollars are going to tsunami relief feel about them going to illegal government-sponsored propaganda instead.

Meanwhile, if the Democrats don’t pull this troubling story together with the Armstrong Williams debacle, and use them to point out loudly and repeatedly how corrupt and morally bankrupt this administration actually is, then they truly are a useless bunch of wankers.