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Bush, Medicare, Government-Produced Fake News

00:44 / 19.03.04

The Bush Administration makes fake news spots and distributes them to networks in order to publicize its proposed Medicare bill. Should this not be bigger news than it is? Did I somehow miss the uproar?

Clicky clicky

Did I also miss a thread about this somewhere, since it seems to me that this raises pretty huge questions about Government as it relates to Media, etc.

Or is this not a big deal at all? In the words of Kevin Keane, assistant secretary for public affairs at the Department of Health and Human Services, "It provides factual information. I mean, that's what can't be lost here. The information in the video news release is factual".

Does the fact that the "reporters" in the 'video news releases' were actors paid by the Bush administration, who produced the segments, make the VNRs unethical? How about the lack of any advisory that the VNR is not a real news item, and is in fact a government press release?

Does this change anything, since we all know the government and major news sources lie all the time?

15:29 / 19.03.04

I'm glad to see this news story, actually. Hopefully the Dems will make an issue out of it and this will raise awareness of just how much propaganda is passed off as news. The argument that these are purely factual seems a bit thin, particularly because they somehow left off the bit that the releases were produced by the government rather than by the news agency - if there were no desire to deceive the viewer, this would have remained in place.

Also, fiscal conservatives (real ones, at least) should be dismayed that public funds are being spent on politically motivated advertising. Every bit of dissatisfaction that the Republicans in power can stir up in their fiscal conservative voter base is a good thing, particularly because the dems now have a decent record of fiscal responsibility.

15:59 / 19.03.04

"The battle for the mind of North America will be fought in the video arena..."

Sound familiar?

Professor Silly

22:22 / 19.03.04

Worth noting that the major city markets don't see these clips, as their news stations have the budgets to have their own reporters. Rural markets on the other hand have little choice, and use these clips to save money. Factor in the quality of education in rural areas and we have a significant quantity of uninformed voters.

UN-informed Voters...voting for Bush...I'm tellin' ya, he's gonna win it....