President George W. Bush (1/5/06):
“Arabic TV does not do our country justice. They … sometimes put out propaganda that just isn’t right, it isn’t fair, and it doesn’t give people the impression of what we’re about.”
Education Dept. paid commentator to promote law (USA Today 1/7/05):
Seeking to build support among black families for its education reform law, the Bush administration paid [Armstrong Williams] $240,000 to promote the law on his nationally syndicated television show and to urge other black journalists to do the same.
Writer Backing Bush Plan Had Gotten Federal Contract (Washington Post 1/26/05):
In 2002, syndicated columnist Maggie Gallagher repeatedly defended President Bush’s push for a $300 million initiative encouraging marriage as a way of strengthening families…But Gallagher failed to mention that she had a $21,500 contract with the Department of Health and Human Services to help promote the president’s proposal.
Third columnist caught with hand in the Bush till (Salon 1/27/05):
One day after President Bush ordered his Cabinet secretaries to stop hiring commentators to help promote administration initiatives, and one day after the second high-profile conservative pundit was found to be on the federal payroll, a third embarrassing hire has emerged. Salon has confirmed that Michael McManus, a marriage advocate whose syndicated column, “Ethics & Religion,” appears in 50 newspapers, was hired as a subcontractor by the Department of Health and Human Services to foster a Bush-approved marriage initiative. McManus championed the plan in his columns without disclosing to readers he was being paid to help it succeed.
U.S. Military Covertly Pays to Run Stories in Iraqi Press (Los Angeles Times 11/30/05):
As part of an information offensive in Iraq, the U.S. military is secretly paying Iraqi newspapers to publish stories written by American troops in an effort to burnish the image of the U.S. mission in Iraq.
The articles, written by U.S. military “information operations” troops, are translated into Arabic and placed in Baghdad newspapers with the help of a defense contractor, according to U.S. military officials and documents obtained by the Los Angeles Times.