Despite growing criticism of the government practice of using video news releases (VNRs) at taxpayer expense to promote the government's spin on its programs (the Medicare Modernization Act, No Child Left Behind, etc.), Medicare administrator Mark McClellan last week refused to rule out using VNRs again in the future.
In a Senate committee hearing, two Senators pressed McClellan to pledge to ban future VNR use, but he wouldn't do so.
Last year, the General Account Office held that the failure of Medicare VNRs to name Medicare as their source violated a portion of the federal Anti-Deficiency Act dealing with propaganda. The provision bans spending public funds on "materials that are self-aggrandizing, purely partisan in nature, or covert as to source," the GAO report said.
Senator Carl Levin (D-Mich.) said last week, "This type of covert journalism is just plain wrong. ... The government should be protecting the free press, not trying to buy it."
Posted by schwitz at April 11, 2005 07:41 AM