Bush 'planted fake news stories on American TV'

Independent Online Edition > Americas: "Bush 'planted fake news stories on American TV' | By Andrew Buncombe in Washington | Published: 29 May 2006

Federal authorities are actively investigating dozens of American television stations for broadcasting items produced by the Bush administration and major corporations, and passing them off as normal news. Some of the fake news segments talked up success in the war in Iraq, or promoted the companies' products.

Investigators from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) are seeking information about stations across the country after a report produced by a campaign group detailed the extraordinary extent of the use of such items.

The report, by the non-profit group Centre for Media and Democracy, found that over a 10-month period at least 77 television stations were making use of the faux news broadcasts, known as Video News Releases (VNRs). Not one told viewers who had produced the items.

"We know we only had partial access to these VNRs and yet we found 77 stations using them," said Diana Farsetta, one of the group's researchers. "I would say it's pretty extraordinary. The picture we found was much worse than we expected going into the investigation in terms of just how widely these get played and how frequently these pre-packaged segments are put on the air." ...

Think Progress � Loyalty to Bush is this Administration’s Affirmative Action Policy

Think Progress � Loyalty to Bush is this Administration’s Affirmative Action Policy: "

In a veiled attempt to undermine affirmative action for minorities, President Bush in 2003 assailed the University of Michigan’s law school admissions policy as unconstitutional, charging the law school with giving minorities preferential treatment in reaching diversity targets for its incoming class. This principle, however, doesn’t seem to apply to President Bush or his administration.

Blake Gottesman, a.k.a. “Peanut”, Special Assistant to the President and Personal Aide, is stepping down in August to attend Harvard Business School. It’s a great accomplishment considering the school only admits 10% to 15% of its applicants. But to even be considered for admission, the school states firmly at the top of its qualifications, a prospective student “must have completed a degree program at an accredited U.S. four-year undergraduate college/university.”

Peanut on the other hand, only attended college for one year, and never finished. He has, however, dated Jenna Bush, makes the President peanut butter-and-jelly sandwiches, and dog-sits for Miss Beazley.

It is inconceivable President Bush did not lend a helping hand in getting Peanut and Julian Flannery accepted into HBS. Loyalty is this administration’s affirmative action policy and loyalty to Bush seems to be Harvard’s too.

– Sam Davis

BluegrassReport.org: ******GRAND JURY INDICTS GOVERNOR ERNIE FLETCHER (R)******

BluegrassReport.org: ******GRAND JURY INDICTS GOVERNOR ERNIE FLETCHER (R)******: "Thursday, May 11, 2006

It's time for some accountability for those who violated our trust during the Republican Culture of Corruption.

Our incompetent and corrupt Governor Fletcher (R) has been indicted! (AP now has updated story).

Grand Jury Indicts Gov. Ernie Fletcher
Ryan Alessi, Herald-Leader

The special grand jury that’s been investigating state government hiring practices indicted Gov. Ernie Fletcher on three misdemeanors for conspiracy, official misconduct and political discrimination.

The jury also indicted former Transportation Cabinet official Sam Beverage for perjury, which is a felony.

And the jury also submitted to Franklin Circuit Judge William Graham 14 more indictments that are under seal.

Those indictments cover crimes that may have occurred before Aug. 29, 2005, when Fletcher pardoned all administration officials except himself." ...

There's no hint that, say, President Bush might have had any role: 'FEMA's senior political appointees ... had little or no prior relevant emergency-m

Sound off: Where the views and opinions of our staff and others are expressed on various topics that relate to Bush: "The Crony Fairy
by Paul Krugman | The New York Times | April 28, 2006

The U.S. government is being stalked by an invisible bandit, the Crony Fairy, who visits key agencies by dead of night, snatches away qualified people and replaces them with unqualified political appointees. There's no way to catch or stop the Crony Fairy, so our only hope is to change the agencies' names. That way she might get confused, and leave our government able to function.

That, at least, is how I interpret the report on responses to Hurricane Katrina that was just released by the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.

The report points out that the Federal Emergency Management Agency 'had been operating at a more than 15 percent staff-vacancy rate for over a year before Katrina struck' -- that means many of the people who knew what they were doing had left. And it adds that 'FEMA's senior political appointees ... had little or no prior relevant emergency-management experience.'

But the report says nothing about what caused the qualified people to leave and who appointed unqualified people to take their place. There's no hint that, say, President Bush might have had any role. So those political appointees must have been installed by the Crony Fairy.

Rather than trying to fix FEMA, the report calls for replacing it with a new organization, the National Preparedness and Response Agency. As far as I can tell, the new agency would have exactly the same responsibilities as FEMA. But 'senior N.P.R.A. officials would be selected from the ranks of professionals with experience in crisis management.' I guess it's impossible to select qualified people to run FEMA; if you try, the Crony Fairy will spirit them away and replace them with Michael Brown. But she might not know her way to N.P.R.A." ...

ABC: Homeland Inspector General says he was pressured to 'tone down' criticism of Bush before election ... "deride us and to dismiss our criticism,”

The Raw Story | ABC: Homeland Inspector General says he was pressured to 'tone down' criticism of Bush before election: "RAW STORY | Published: Monday May 1, 2006

The former inspector general for the Department of Homeland Security says he was pressured to tone down criticism of security failures in the months before the 2004 Presidential election, ABC NEWS is reporting.
...

Clark Kent Ervin says he was confronted personally by then Secretary Tom Ridge “to intimidate me, to stare me down, to force me to back off, to not look into these areas that would be controversial, not to issue critical reports.”

Ervin will appear this evening on ABC News’ Nightline in advance of the publication of his memoirs, “Open Target: Where America is Vulnerable to Attack.”

Ervin says Ridge and his top aides saw him as “a traitor and a turncoat” because of a series of reports his office delivered to Congress detailing failures by the Department of Homeland Security.

Ervin says he believes another 9/ll hijack attack could be carried out. “I am quite confident that it could be done again,” he tells ABC News.

He says Ridge and others in the Bush Administration urged him to tone down his report. “Rather than acknowledging the vulnerability, efforts were made to deride us and to dismiss our criticism,” Ervin says. ...