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White House's Medicare Videos Are Ruled Illegal
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Lisa Webber
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May 21, 2004 13:09 PDT
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White House's Medicare Videos Are Ruled Illegal
May 20, 2004
By ROBERT PEAR
WASHINGTON, May 19 - The General Accounting Office, an
investigative arm of Congress, said on Wednesday that the
Bush administration had violated federal law by producing
and disseminating television news segments that portray the
new Medicare law as a boon to the elderly.
The agency said the videos were a form of "covert
propaganda" because the government was not identified as
the source of the materials, broadcast by at least 40
television stations in 33 markets. The agency also
expressed some concern about the content of the videos, but
based its ruling on the lack of disclosure.
The consequences of the ruling were not immediately clear.
The accounting office does not have law enforcement powers,
but its decisions on federal spending are usually
considered authoritative and are taken seriously by
officials in the executive branch of the government.
The decision fuels a raging political debate over the new
Medicare law. President Bush and many Republicans in
Congress say the law will provide immense assistance to
millions of elderly and disabled people. But Democrats say
the law will do little for the elderly and is so seriously
flawed that the government had to resort to an illegal
public relations campaign to sell it to voters.
The General Accounting Office said that a specific part of
the videos, a made-for-television "story package," violated
the prohibition on using taxpayer money for propaganda.
People seeing the videos in a newscast would "believe that
the information came from a nongovernment source or neutral
party," it said.
William A. Pierce, a spokesman for the Department of Health
and Human Services, who helped develop the videos, said:
"We disagree. It's not covert. TV stations knew the videos
came from us and could have identified the government as
the source if they had wanted to."
The accounting office dismissed that argument. The intended
audience, it said, was not news directors, but viewers, and
"the video news releases did not alert viewers that the
Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services was the source."
Moreover, it said, "some news organizations indicated that
they misread the label or they mistook the story package as
an independent journalist news story."
Two videos end with the voice of a woman who says, "In
Washington, I'm Karen Ryan reporting." A third video is
narrated, in Spanish, by a man who identifies himself as
"Alberto Garcia reporting." The scripts were prepared by
the Bush administration at the Centers for Medicare and
Medicaid Services, a unit of the Department of Health and
Human Services.
The accounting office said the videos were "not strictly
factual news stories" and were flawed by "notable omissions
and weaknesses" in their explanation of the Medicare law.
But the main problem, it said, is that they were
"misleading as to source."
The government, it said, served up a "purported news story"
using "alleged reporters" to read scripts prepared by the
government, but "nothing in the story packages permits the
viewer to know that Karen Ryan and Alberto Garcia were paid
with federal funds."
Federal law prohibits the use of federal money for
"publicity or propaganda purposes" not authorized by
Congress. The accounting office has found that federal
agencies violated this restriction when they disseminated
editorials and newspaper articles written by the government
without identifying the source.
The accounting office said the administration's misuse of
federal money "also constitutes a violation of the
Antideficiency Act," which prohibits spending in excess of
appropriations. Under the law, the secretary of health and
human services, Tommy G. Thompson, must report the
violation to Congress and the president, with "a statement
of actions taken" to prevent a recurrence.
The Antideficiency Act, derived from a law passed in 1870,
is one of the major statutes by which Congress exercises
its constitutional control of the purse.
Medicare officials are unlikely to face any penalties.
David M. Walker, the comptroller general of the United
States, who is head of the General Accounting Office, said,
"We do not have reason to believe that this violation was
knowing and willful, and we are not in the enforcement
business."
Senator Frank R. Lautenberg, Democrat of New Jersey, said
he was drafting legislation that would require the Bush
campaign to reimburse the Medicare trust fund for the cost
of the videos. The administration put the cost at $42,750,
but refused to provide any documentation.
Senator John Kerry, the likely Democratic presidential
nominee, said it confirmed his view that the administration
had improperly tapped the Medicare trust fund to pay for
political advertisements.
Under the Medicare law, the government is encouraging the
use of drug discount cards for the next 18 months. In 2006,
Medicare will provide insurance coverage for certain
outpatient drug costs.
The Bush administration hired Ketchum Inc. to disseminate
information about the Medicare law, and Ketchum hired
another company, Home Front Communications, to create the
videos. The materials were distributed to television
stations by satellite, mail and a syndicated news service,
CNN Newsource, the ruling said.
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/20/politics/20medicare.html?ex=1086162038&ei=1&en=780efbe207b6bf6c
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