ADMINISTRATION REJECTS RULING ON PR VIDEOS

GAO Called Tapes Illegal Propaganda

The Bush administration, rejecting an opinion from the Government
Accountability Office, said last week that it is legal for federal agencies
to feed TV stations prepackaged news stories that do not disclose the
government's role in producing them. That message, in memos sent Friday to
federal agency heads and general counsels, contradicts a Feb. 17 memo from
Comptroller General David M. Walker. Walker wrote that such stories --
designed to resemble independently reported broadcast news stories so that
TV stations can run them without editing -- violate provisions in annual
appropriations laws that ban covert propaganda.

But Joshua B. Bolten, director of the Office of Management and Budget, and
Steven G. Bradbury, principal deputy assistant attorney general at the
Justice Department, said in memos last week that the administration
disagrees with the GAO's ruling. And, in any case, they wrote, the
department's Office of Legal Counsel, not the GAO, the investigative arm of
Congress, provides binding legal interpretations for federal agencies to
follow.

The legal counsel's office "does not agree with GAO that the covert
propaganda prohibition applies simply because an agency's role in producing
and disseminating information is undisclosed or 'covert,' regardless of
whether the content of the message is 'propaganda,' " Bradbury wrote. "Our
view is that the prohibition does not apply where there is no advocacy of a
particular viewpoint, and therefore it does not apply to the legitimate
provision of information concerning the programs administered by an agency."

The existence of the memos was reported Sunday by the New York Times.

Supporters say prepackaged news stories are a common public relations tool
with roots in previous administrations, that their exterior packaging
typically identifies the government as the source, and that it is up to
news organizations, not the government, to reveal to viewers where the
material they broadcast came from.

Critics have derided such video news releases as taxpayer-financed attempts
by the administration to promote its policies in the guise of independent
news reports.

Within the last year, the GAO has rapped the Department of Health and Human
Services and the Office of National Drug Control Policy for distributing
such stories about the Medicare drug benefit and the administration's
anti-drug campaign, respectively.

In an interview yesterday, Walker said the administration's approach is
both contrary to appropriations law and unethical.

"This is more than a legal issue. It's also an ethical issue and involves
important good government principles, namely the need for openness in
connection with government activities and expenditures," Walker said. "We
should not just be seeking to do what's arguably legal. We should be doing
what's right."

White House spokesman Scott McClellan said yesterday that federal agencies
have used video news releases for years. "As long as they are providing
factual information, it's okay," he said.

Walker said that even by that standard, some prepackaged news stories are
out of bounds.

"Congress has got to settle it -- either Congress or the courts," Walker
said. "Congress may need to provide additional guidance with regard to
their intent in this overall area."

Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) said through a spokesman yesterday that he
will try to attach language to an appropriations bill to clarify that
taxpayer money cannot be spent on such productions. He and fellow
Democratic Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (Mass.) wrote to President Bush yesterday
asking him to pull back the new memos from Justice and the OMB.

They noted that following revelations this year that the Education
Department had paid conservative commentator Armstrong Williams to promote
the No Child Left Behind law, Bush had directed agencies to abandon such
clandestine public relations practices.

"Whether in the form of a payment to an actual journalist, or through the
creation of a fake one, it is wrong to deceive the public with the creation
of phony news stories," the lawmakers wrote.