Changes

:In May the office found that the Bush administration had violated the same law by producing television news segments that portrayed the new [[Medicare ]] law as a boon to the elderly.

*A 2006 study titled "[http://cryptome.org/covert-blogs.zip Blogs and Military Information Strategy]," which was written for the [[U.S. Special Operations Command]] (SOCOM), suggested "hiring a block of [[blogger]]s to verbally attack a specific person or promote a specific message. ... Information strategists can consider clandestinely recruiting or hiring prominent bloggers or other persons of prominence ... to pass the U.S. message." The study also suggested hacking an "enemy blog" to use it "covertly as a vehicle for friendly [[information operations]]." According to a SOCOM spokesperson, the study's suggestions "are not 'actionable,' merely thought provoking." <ref name="blogPSYOPS">Noah Shachtman, "[http://blog.wired.com/defense/2008/03/report-recruit.html Military Report: Secretly 'Recruit or Hire Bloggers']," Wired.com blog "Danger room," March 31, 2008.</ref>*[[Otto Reich]] was head of the now-defunct [[Office for Public Diplomacy]] (OPD), which the [[House Committee on Foreign Affairs ]] censured for "prohibited, covert propaganda activities" (Washington Post, 10/11/87). [http://www.fair.org/extra/0109/iran-contra.html]

*In January 2004 2005 the [[Government Accountability Office|GAO]] scolded the Bush administration a second time for distributing [[VNRvideo news releases]]s(VNRs), this time produced by the [[Office of National Drug Control Policy]] concerning the dangers of marijuana. They featured former reporter [[Mike Morris]], and were aired, at least in part, on 300 news shows. The GAO called it "illegal government propaganda". [http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/01/11/1446234]

*[[Michael McManus]] was paid $10,000 as a subcontractor for the [[Department of Health and Human Services]], to promote the Bush [[Community Healthy Marriage Initiative]]. [http://www.truthout.org/docs_05/012905Z.shtml][http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2005/01/27/mcmanus/index_np.html]*The U.S. [[Department of Defense]] sponsors two internationally-focused websites, the [http://www.setimes.com/ Southeast European Times], which focuses on the Balkans, and [http://www.magharebia.com/cocoon/awi/xhtml1/en_GB/homepage/ Magharebia], which focuses on North Africa. [[CNN ]] reported that the Pentagon paid some 50 contributors to the Balkans site, through private contractor [[Anteon International Corporation|Anteon Corporation]]. [http://www.cnn.com/2005/ALLPOLITICS/02/04/web.us/index.html] "It's not disinformation," a military spokesperson said of the North African site. Every printed word is the truth." [http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000789872]*[[Karen Czarnecki]], a top aide to Bush administration Labor Secretary [[Elaine Chao]], repeatedly appeared as a "conservative pundit" on [[Fox News]] and the [[PBS]] show "To the Contrary," without revealing her government position. [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/13/AR2006081300647.html][http://thinkprogress.org/2006/08/14/czarnecki-media/]

== Other SourceWatch Resources resources==*[[video news releases]]*[[propagandocracy]]

== External Resources links=====References===<references/> ===Articles===