In prepared testimony to the Senate commerce, science and transportation committee, Government Accountability Office (GAO) Associate General Counsel Susan Poling explained the agency’s legal opinions that unattributed government video news releases (VNRs) violate government prohibitions against covert publicity or propaganda.
Poling says that the two legal opinions GAO issued last year declaring two Health and Human Services VNRs illegal were based upon the fact that “television-viewing audiences did not know that stories they watched on television news programs about the government were, in fact, prepared by the government [emphasis hers].”
“Furthermore,” she said, “because the agencies had no appropriation available for covert propaganda, HHS and ONDCP also violated the Antideficiency Act, which prohibits obligations in excess of available budget authority.” (ONDCP is the Office of National Drug Control Policy, which also produced covert VNRs.)
In other words, unless Congress changes the prohibition against covert propaganda and specifically appropriates money for the purpose of spreading it, video news releases that do not explicitly identify the video as the product of whatever US government agency produces it are illegal on two counts: the covert nature of them and spending money on activities outside an agency’s approved budget.
Although the administration is at odds with the GAO position — Attorney General Alberto Gonzales issued an opinion to the effect that identifying VNRs as government products is not the government’s responsibility — the recently passed Iraq appropriations package includes a one-year prohibition against the production and distribution of government VNRs that aren’t clearly identified as such, and two senators plan to introduce legislation making the ban permanent.
What the GAO hasn’t addressed to this point is the propriety and legality of paying video news syndication services, such as those operated by CNN, NBC and CBS (ABC has a policy against carrying government VNRs) to distribute the unattributed video news releases.
BTC News has a request pending with the Department of Health and Human services regarding the number of VNRs produced during the past two years and the cost of distributing them via the news syndication services.
GAO: Unattributed Prepackaged News Stories Violate Publicity or Propaganda Prohibition
In prepared testimony to the Senate commerce, science and transportation committee, Government Accountability Office (GAO) Associate General Counsel Susan Poling explained the agency’s legal opinions that unattributed government video news releases (VNRs) violate government prohibitions against covert publicity or propaganda.
Poling says that the two legal opinions GAO issued last year declaring two Health and Human Services VNRs illegal were based upon the fact that “television-viewing audiences did not know that stories they watched on television news programs about the government were, in fact, prepared by the government [emphasis hers].”
“Furthermore,” she said, “because the agencies had no appropriation available for covert propaganda, HHS and ONDCP also violated the Antideficiency Act, which prohibits obligations in excess of available budget authority.” (ONDCP is the Office of National Drug Control Policy, which also produced covert VNRs.)
In other words, unless Congress changes the prohibition against covert propaganda and specifically appropriates money for the purpose of spreading it, video news releases that do not explicitly identify the video as the product of whatever US government agency produces it are illegal on two counts: the covert nature of them and spending money on activities outside an agency’s approved budget.
Although the administration is at odds with the GAO position — Attorney General Alberto Gonzales issued an opinion to the effect that identifying VNRs as government products is not the government’s responsibility — the recently passed Iraq appropriations package includes a one-year prohibition against the production and distribution of government VNRs that aren’t clearly identified as such, and two senators plan to introduce legislation making the ban permanent.
What the GAO hasn’t addressed to this point is the propriety and legality of paying video news syndication services, such as those operated by CNN, NBC and CBS (ABC has a policy against carrying government VNRs) to distribute the unattributed video news releases.
BTC News has a request pending with the Department of Health and Human services regarding the number of VNRs produced during the past two years and the cost of distributing them via the news syndication services.