Study Details $1.6B in Govt. Ad/PR Spending

[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
According to a Government Accountability Office, the Bush Administration has spent $1.6 billion on advertising and public relations since 2003 on everything from video news releases to embroidered bowling bags. The report was called for by Democrats and prompted by revelations about payments to conservative broadcaster Armstrong William to plug the Department of Education's No Child Left Behind policy on-air. Ad agencies got the lion's share of the dollars at $1.4 billion, with PR firms getting $197 million and media companies $15 million, and individual members of the media $100,000. Campaigns included pushing the administration view if the war on terror and warning of the dangers of importing prescription drugs from outside the country. The Defense Department spent the most at $1.1 billion. Health and Human Services was next at more than $300 million; followed by Treasury at $152 million; and Homeland Security at $24 million. Another of the key findings, according to the Democrats, was that $50 million (76 contracts) was allocated without competitive bids. Craig Aaron, communications director of media reform group Free Press, reacted to the report: “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.”
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6307445.html?display=Breaking+News&referral=SUPP
(free access for Benton's Headlines subscribers)

* Free Press Calls on Congress to Rein in White House Propaganda
http://www.freepress.net/press/release.php?id=115

* Update: Prepackaged News
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/13/AR2006021301897.html
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See GAO report:

* Media Contracts: Activities and Financial Obligations for Seven Federal Departments. GAO-06-305
http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-06-305
Highlights - http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d06305high.pdf