Free Press : Payola and Propaganda

This link came in my e-mail today, and I had to laugh out loud. These guys are complaining about a practice that the courts have already deemed legal, as long as the departmental press releases are factual in content -- that of departments giving pre-packaged news and video to the media.

What's more, this has been going on since at least the 1980s (with text releases), and, in fact, commissioning film releases was common practice under the Clinton Admin.


So, what they want is for the government offices to have NO say in what gets said about their activities, their projects, their interests, meanwhile not taking to task the thousands of tv and radio stations, papers, and such, whose news editors allow press releases to be made public without their having to assign genuine reporters to do the dirty work of REAL JOURNALISM.

They also decry the presence of "Jeff Gannon" in the press room, on his day pass, since he's "only a blogger", as the "real journalists" have said... and, besides, he's an apologist for the prez, not one of one of the rabid mob who are so earnestly trying to find fault with absolutely everything the prez does, instead of focusing on his ACTUAL failings (border control, immigration reform, overspending, overspending, overspending...) "Gannon's" presence was silly, not criminal. and, compared to some of the infractions by the MSM (the "free press" these guys seem to be endorsing), The "Gannon" issue is a gnat on the ear of MSM's elephant.

And, they are shocked -- shocked! - by the idea that some people who own some media outlets may have received advertising moneys from the various government agencies, while at the same time issuing editorial comments in favor of those agencies' programs. People CAN actually believe in things they're paid to advertise, and, according to the First Amendment, they can even say so. The only issue that should have been raised is the failure of the individuals to provide full disclosure, that they received payment, at the beginning. Like when the tv "news" programs spend a quarter hour promoting one of their parent company's film releases...

Freepress had this choice tidbit to offer:
"What we are witnessing is a systemic pattern of abuse by an executive branch that is siphoning up taxpayer money to covertly manipulate the Fourth Estate."


Well, fellas, the Fourth Estate has been manipulating itself for more than a generation, now. Don't you think it's time they took responsibility for their own lazy thinking and half-apertured approach to providing coverage of events not directly related to the hot-button topics, when they choose to run press releases without saying that's what they are? It's easy to blame the bringer of gifts for spoiling a child. But the news media are grownups (in theory), so they need to take responsibility for their own inactions.

Personally, I don't mind some of the taxpayers' money going to providing FACTUAL information on what various departments within each administration are doing. What I DO mind is being told that this is some sort of evil conspiracy that began during this administration to destroy our freedom.



Hey, freepress.net! When you start tossing around the inflammatory word "propaganda", I suggest you look in the mirror.