Attack on White House Propaganda

There is growing momentum in Washington for a crackdown on government-issued information. Because of a small addition to a bill that passed the House of Representatives, the inspector general of the Department of Defense (DOD) and the Government Accountability Office (GAO) may be joining the FCC in investigating the Bush administration's “embedded analyst” program. On April 20, The New York Times reported that the Pentagon regularly brought in retired military officers who as media analysts could relay government viewpoints about the war in Iraq on news programs. After the disclosure, the department suspended the practice. The House has passed a bill that would formally end the program. It passed, virtually unnoticed as an amendment to a much larger defense authorization bill. If the amendment survives a conference between different House and Senate versions of the defense bill, it would prevent any DOD funding from being used for propaganda. It would also require the GAO and the DOD's inspector general to determine whether the care and information-feeding of analysts was an effort to educate, as the department says, or instead violated existing laws against domestic propaganda.The House amendment passed by a voice vote just before legislators left for Memorial Day and was buried deep in the document.
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