The Bush Administration's Rich History of Fake News

By Brigitte L. Nacos
At the heights of the California wildfires last week, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) staged a news conference with Vice Admiral Harvey E. Johnson, the deputy administrator, presiding. But instead of facing real reporters’ real questions, FEMA staged a fake news conference during which FEMA bureaucrats masqueraded as reporters and threw softball questions at Mr. Johnson so that he could praise the agency that failed so terribly before, during, and after the Hurricane Katrina disaster. FEMA invited news organizations just 15 minutes before the fake news briefing began and thus made sure that no real reporter was present during the bogus event. Some cable networks, among them MSNBC and Fox News carried part of “news conference” as breaking news live from FEMA. The visuals were of Mr. Johnson only, while the fake reporters were heard and not seen--for obvious reasons. Neither newsroom personnel at the all news networks nor their audiences had reason to suspect that this was a sham event staged in order to resurrect the agency’s damaged reputation.

When the truth came out, the White House seemed not at all disturbed. Press secretary Dana Perino assured in her mild response that "it is not a practice that we would employ here at the White House. We certainly don't condone it. We didn't know about it beforehand. . . . They, I'm sure, will not do it again."

Not do it again? Perhaps not in the same agency and in the same form. But this is not the first instance in which the Bush administration has done more than put its spin on the news. Indeed, as the New York Times reported in early 2005, 
“Under the Bush administration, the federal government has aggressively used a well-established tool of public relations: the prepackaged, ready-to-serve news report that major corporations have long distributed to TV stations to pitch everything from headache remedies to auto insurance. In all, at least 20 federal agencies, including the Defense Department and the Census Bureau, have made and distributed hundreds of television news segments in the past four years, records and interviews show. Many were subsequently broadcast on local stations across the country without any acknowledgement of the government's role in their production.”

One of the fake reporters used for this government propaganda was Karen Ryan, a one time journalist who switched into public relations and seemed especially credible, when she signed off her bogus “news” segments with words like, “In Washington, I am Karen Ryan reporting.”
If the administration deserves criticism for spending taxpayers’ money for fake news, television stations that air these segments without revealing their origin to their audiences are even more at fault here. As veteran White House correspondent Helen Thomas put it, “This practice is far over the ethical line. Shame on both the government agencies and those TV stations.”
The same is true for columnists that collect money from the administration to pitch certain policies to their readers. The most publicized case was that of Armstrong Williams who was paid $240,000 by the Department of Education to promote the “No child left behind” policy.

All administrations and all of today’s political players make great efforts to influence the news in their favor. But the fake news conference that FEMA staged last week was yet example of the Bush administration exceptionalism in this area. 

Comments

[Laurie Burns]

Hi Brigitte,

I like your work a lot.
Doing a Media Theroist paper on you right now.

FEMA should be ashamed.
as should any one who would read his "memoirs"

[Brigitte]

Tony, yes, and one way or the other, his memoirs will make him millions as will the speaking tours he is looking forward to when he is ex-president--as he said himself, to make money.

[Tony]

may I suggest a title for the Bush memoirs?

How about "Through the Looking Glass?"