05 June 2004

Marketing Medicare

The word "propaganda" evokes images of secretive governments and Cold War-era closed societies fed only news that their leaders wanted out.

But the Bush administration has engaged in its own illegal propagandizing to sell senior citizens on the new Medicare drug-discount program and other changes in the law.

That's not propagandizing from Bush-bashers; it's the conclusion of the General Accounting Office, the investigative arm of Congress.

The GAO looked into complaints from Democratic members of Congress about fliers and advertisements that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) prepared to promote the new Medicare law and concluded that those materials did not violate bans on using federal funds for propaganda.

In the course of that investigation, the GAO came across videos that a contractor prepared for the CMS that were made to look like news reports.

The videos included suggested scripts for news anchors to read plus video clips that ended with typical reporter sign-offs: "I'm Karen Ryan reporting."

The video news reports, or VNRs as they're known, indicated for news stations that they came from CMS. But nowhere did the reports let television viewers know who was behind them. And that failure to be straightforward with the public was a misuse of public funds, the GAO said in its report, issued in May.

At least 40 stations in 33 markets aired some or all of the government's VNRs, the GAO reported.

CMS has argued that the use of VNRs is standard practice in TV news. But the GAO said that "our analysis of the proper use of appropriated funds is not based upon the norms in the public relations and media industry."

Instead, the report said, "findings of propaganda are predicated upon the fact that the target audience could not ascertain the information source."

The discount drug card program, which went into effect Tuesday, has had problems, including low enrollments. The Medicare overhaul of which the drug cards are a part has been beset by controversy including evidence that the administration withheld its true cost from Congress.

Government openness and honesty are crucial to public trust.

Government skirts accountability and insults the public by trying to disguise marketing as neutral news reporting.

Star-Telegram
June 5, 2004

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