Bush Admin. spent over $1.6 Billion on advertising and P.R. since 2003

[kpete]

Bush Admin. spent over $1.6 Billion on advertising and P.R. since 2003, GAO finds
RAW STORY
Published: February 13, 2006

#
Today Rep. Henry A. Waxman, Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, Rep. George Miller, Rep. Elijah E. Cummings, and other senior Democrats released a new Government Accountability Office report finding that the Bush Administration spent more than $1.6 billion in public relations and media contracts in a two and a half year span.

"The government is spending over a billion dollars per year on PR and advertising," said Rep. Waxman. "Careful oversight of this spending is essential given the track record of the Bush Administration, which has used taxpayer dollars to fund covert propaganda within the United States."



"No amount of money will successfully sell the Bush Administration's failed policies, from the war in Iraq, to its disastrous energy policy, to its confusing Medicare prescription drug benefits," said Democratic Leader Pelosi. "The American people know the Bush Administration is on the wrong track and the White House PR machine won't change that fact."

"The extent of the Bush Administration's propaganda effort is unprecedented and disturbing," said Rep. Miller. "The fact is that after all the spin, the American people are stuck with high prescription drug prices, high gas prices, and high college costs. This report raises serious questions about this Administration's priorities for the country and I would hope that my colleagues on both sides of the aisle would agree that changes need to be made to reign in the President's propaganda machine."

"It is unbelievable that the Administration, on several occasions, has used limited taxpayer dollars to secretly promote initiatives such as No Child Left Behind, while underfunding money for our schools, books, technology, and after school programs," said Rep. Elijah E. Cummings.

Democrats requested that GAO conduct the study after evidence emerged last year that the Bush Administration had commissioned "covert propaganda" from public relations firms. Several federal departments had hired firms to develop "video new releases" to promote department initiatives which appeared to television viewers to be independent newscasts. Other revelations that triggered the GAO report included the disclosure that the Department of Education paid conservative commentator Armstrong Williams to promote the No Child Left Behind Act on the radio and in his columns.

To conduct its study, GAO obtained information from seven federal departments on all public relations, advertising, and media contracts during 2003, 2004, and the first two quarters of 2005. GAO found that during that time:

* The Administration spent $1.6 billion on contracts with advertising agencies ($1.4 billion), public relations firms ($197 million), and media organizations and individual members of the media ($15 million).

* The Department of Defense spent the most on media contracts, with contracts worth $1.1 billion. The Department of Health and Human Services spent more than $300 million on these contracts, the Department of Treasury spent $152 million, and the Department of Homeland Security spent $24 million during this period.

.................

For a fact sheet on the GAO report and the report itself, visit www.democrats.reform.house.gov

http://rawstory.com/news/2005/Bush_Admin._spent_over_1.6_Billion_0213.html

[LiberalEsto]

1. Are there comparison figures

for what other administrations spent on PR? That's what I want to see.

[BlueEyedSon]

2. Too bad it wasn't spent on education, programs for the elderly poor, etc

[corporate_mike]

3. link to entire GAO report

http://www.gao.gov/financial/fy2005/05frusg.pdf

[entanglement]

4. pig, lipstick and all that

n/t

[CornField]

5. Karen Ryan sure does cost a lot

Especially for an actress playing a journalist

[Coexist]

6. think of how many initiatives that actually helped people besides Bush

that this money could have been used for.

Next time someone says that they don't want their tax dollars used for abortion, I am going to YELL at them about this. I will be an ANGRY democrat.

[BrotherBuzz]

7. I think Sal Russo is feeding in this trough and flying under the radar

You remember Sal Russo started that the fake grassroot movement (astroturf) that attacked Michael Moore film Fahrenheit 911 and formed that astroturf movement to counter Cindy Sheehan's protests in Texas (Move American Forward). Well, it looks like "the Kurdistan Regional Government has hired Republican lobby firm Russo Marsh & Rogers to get 'free media' to promote the interests of the Kurds in the post-Saddam Hussein Iraq."

One goal of the Kurdish leaders is "the return of Kirkuk," an oil-rich northern Iraqi city populated by Kurdish and Turkmen people. O'Dwyer's notes that the head of RM&R, Sal Russo, is no stranger to international politics, having "worked on the campaign of Violetta Chamorro in Nicaragua." The Kurdish contract was announced as Move America Forward, a group RM&R helped found and whose "chief strategist" is Russo, is going to Iraq. Move America For ward's "Truth Tour" is bringing conservative talk radio hosts to Iraq, to "report the good news on Operation Iraqi Freedom you're not hearing from the old line news media."  (http://www.odwyerpr.com/members/0705kurds.htm)

RM&R principal Joe Wierzbicki told journalist Bill Berkowitz that his firm's Kurdish campaign "will thank the American people for supporting the war in Iraq, and encourage Americans to visit and invest in the Kurdish region." Wierzbicki said RM&R is "not advocating an independent Kurdistan," but "the Kurds would like the rest of the country to look at the Kurdish region and see it as a model" for Iraq. The Kurdish campaign will likely be a short-term effort, including television and print ads, that will start in the late summer or early fall of 2005. "It's important to recognize that the Kurds are not hostile to the West," Wierzbicki added.  (http://www.workingforchange.com/article.cfm?ItemID=19468)


http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Russo_Marsh_and_Rogers

Prove me wrong, but I don't think for one minute the Kurds would waste their own money to hire an American PR firm. I could believe the Kurds took US money with an agreement to kickback money earmarked 'Russo'.