Chutzpah

The White House sees nothing wrong with making its own propaganda and distributing it to news organzations:

The White House on Monday defended the administration's use of video news releases that are sent to television stations across the country and frequently used without any acknowledgment of the government's role in their production.

In an opinion last week, the Justice Department concluded that the practice was appropriate as long as the videos presented factual information about government programs. The memo was sent to heads of federal departments and agencies.

"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," according to the Justice Department memo.

The advice conflicts with the opinion of the Government Accountability Office, which is the investigative arm of Congress. The GAO says that video news releases amount to illegal "covert propaganda" when they fail to make plain that the government is behind the releases.

Questions have been raised about government media practices after the revelation that conservative columnists were paid to promote administration policies and did not tell their audiences that they had received federal money. President Bush, after the practice was disclosed, said it was wrong and ordered that it stop.

The video news releases — from the Pentagon, Agriculture Department, Census Bureau and other agencies — have the appearance of other segments in news programs and frequently are not identified by local stations as being produced by the government.

White House press secretary Scott McClellan suggested the lack of disclosure was the fault of the broadcasters, not the government.

Another example of the "culture of responsibility" the Administration wants to foster...in everyone else.