From the Hill

[lala_rawraw]

You guys may have seen this, but I just did today and WTF???

The Bush administration is hiring more reporters. Only this time, it wants them to keep quiet.
Wanted: Journalists who can keep quiet
By Jim Snyder
http://www.thehill.com/thehill/export/TheHill/News/Frontpage/022305/homeland.html

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) last week placed a help-wanted listing on journalismjobs.com, an employment website. The department sought reporters to participate in TOPOFF 3, a biennial exercise directed by Congress that simulates a terrorist attack on the United States.

The posting, which has since been taken off the site, sought applicants who can write copy for an online news service “reporting events within the exercise for an audience of exercise participants.”

The ad follows the disclosure that two other federal agencies had hired conservative commentators Armstrong Williams and Maggie Gallagher to back administration proposals. Those contracts brought rebukes from media ethicists who said they blurred the line between journalism and propaganda.

But DHS spokesman Marc Short said the department’s job posting is “nothing like” the earlier controversies. Instead of acting as advocates, the reporters would be prohibited from relaying the results of the exercise outside of the “virtual news network” that is part of the training exercise.