Yahoo! News - Senate May Ban Releases That Imitate News

Link: Yahoo! News - Senate May Ban Releases That Imitate News.

enate May Ban Releases That Imitate News

Thu Apr 14, 6:56 PM ET

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By LAURIE KELLMAN, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - The Senate passed a measure Thursday that would stop government agencies from using taxpayer funds to disguise video press releases as real news, putting the brakes on a product Democrats call propaganda.

President Bush cautioned that some responsibility for full disclosure rests with news outlets.

"It's deceptive to the American people if it's not disclosed," Bush told the American Society of Newspaper Editors on Thursday. "But it's incumbent upon people who use them to say, 'This news clip was produced by the federal government.'"

Senators voted 98-0 to attach the measure, sponsored by Sen. Robert Byrd (news, bio, voting record), D-W.Va., to the $80.6 billion emergency spending bill to fund the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Under it, taxpayer funds would be prohibited from being used for prepackaged news stories unless those stories contain "clear notification within the text or audio of the prepackaged news" that discloses it was prepared or funded by a federal agency.

That way, said Appropriations Committee Chairman Thad Cochran, R-Miss., the authors of the packages cannot be held liable for news outlets that do not disclose the funding source on their own.

The amendment writes into law a Government Accountability Office opinion that said the Bush administration has violated rules against "publicity and propaganda" with releases from several agencies.

More at link above detailing a few of the things the Bush adminstration did to make propaganda appear to be "news".

**Stay tuned...even if the only disclaimer here might be "Republicans specialize in toxic solutions to non-existent problems"...--Doug Wiken