My favorite article today was from the New York Times. Its about the administrations creation of TV segments featuring paid actors posing as journalists praising the Presidents Medicare bill I guess thats one way to get around that pesky media filter that the President is always complaining about just create a new reality on a soundstage where the media asks all the right questions and never questions what its told. Heres a clip from the article:
Federal investigators are scrutinizing television segments in which the Bush administration paid people to pose as journalists praising the benefits of the new Medicare law, which would be offered to help elderly Americans with the costs of their prescription medicines.
The videos are intended for use in local television news programs. Several include pictures of President Bush receiving a standing ovation from a crowd cheering as he signed the Medicare law on Dec. 8.
The materials were produced by the Department of Health and Human Services, which called them video news releases, but the source is not identified. Two videos end with the voice of a woman who says, “In Washington, I’m Karen Ryan reporting.”
But the production company, Home Front Communications, said it had hired her to read a script prepared by the government.
Another video, intended for Hispanic audiences, shows a Bush administration official being interviewed in Spanish by a man who identifies himself as a reporter named Alberto Garcia.
The government also prepared scripts that can be used by news anchors introducing what the administration describes as a made-for-television “story package.”
In one script, the administration suggests that anchors use this language: “In December, President Bush signed into law the first-ever prescription drug benefit for people with Medicare. Since then, there have been a lot of questions about how the law will help older Americans and people with disabilities. Reporter Karen Ryan helps sort through the details.”
Fed up? Go here to contribute to John Kerrys campaign. (Something really rubs me the wrong way about sending my hard-earned money to a wealthy guy like Kerry, but desperate times call for desperate measures and I’m taking out my credit card.)
