PROPAGANDA WARS: * launches dozens of faux TV ads in support of CAFTA

[paineinthearse]

With CAFTA shaping up to be the first major trade deal since WWII to fail in Congress, - http://www.americanprogressaction.org/site/pp.asp?c=klLWJcP7H&b=807215#2 - the Bush administration is turning to the Armstrong Williams approach. "The U.S. Department of Agriculture has churned out three dozen radio and television news segments since the first of the year that promote controversial trade agreement with Central America opposed by labor unions, the sugar industry and many members of Congress, including some Republicans," the Chicago Tribune reports.

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http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-0506160132jun16,1,6096846.story?coll=chi-business-hed&ctrack=1&cset=true

USDA plants its own news
Critics liken radio, TV spots to propaganda; agency defends use

By Andrew Martin and Jeff Zeleny
Washington Bureau
Published June 16, 2005


WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Department of Agriculture has churned out three dozen radio and television news segments since the first of the year that promote a controversial trade agreement with Central America opposed by labor unions, the sugar industry and many members of Congress, including some Republicans. Amid an intense debate over government-funded efforts to influence news coverage, the prepackaged reports have been widely distributed to broadcast outlets across the country for easy insertion into newscasts.

About a third of the reports deal specifically with the politically powerful sugar industry, which has emerged as the major obstacle to the Central American Free Trade Agreement, or CAFTA. In one radio segment, Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns said that passing CAFTA should be an easy decision for members of Congress. "I can't imagine how any senator or House member from ag country could stand up and vote against CAFTA," Johanns said. "It makes no sense to me. It's voting against our producers." In another radio segment promoting CAFTA, Allen Johnson, a top U.S. trade official, dismissed the sugar industry's "dire forecasts" about CAFTA's impact as "a Chicken Little sort of thing that isn't real."

The issue of the government's vast public relations apparatus trying to influence the public is hardly new. The Bush administration has taken that practice to aggressive levels on issues ranging from the war in Iraq to education and trade policy. The USDA's CAFTA reports were produced while the administration was dealing with the fallout over its payments to journalists to tout its policies. One television commentator, Armstrong Williams, was paid $240,000 to champion the administration's education plans.

Critics contend that such policies blur the line between government propaganda and legitimate reporting, and the Government Accountability Office described the prepackaged news reports as "covert propaganda" if the government agency does not clearly identify its role in the production of the report.

more.....

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[xxqqqzme]

1. what??? the sugar industry

hasn't been filling the gop coffers fast enough? neo-cons culling the industries not displaying the appropriate supplication. Wonder who makes these decisions? Who IS the head neo-con - norquist? or is there a triumvirate? norquist, poppy & cheney? or a council? Who are the REAL masters of the puppets?

[paineinthearse]

2. Haven't Rep. Waxman and the CBO called for an end to this propaganda?

:shrug:

* sails obliviously on into his destiny.

[paineinthearse]

3. evening

:kick:

[stickdog]

4. CAFTA sucks and so does fake "news"