EDITORIAL – Senate stands up to pres. over fake news

Apparently, the Senate has a spine. We know, we know — we’ve heard rumors of it before,… Apparently, the Senate has a spine. We know, we know — we’ve heard rumors of it before, sometimes in conjunction with filibustering. But rarely has this elusive backbone bothered to evidence itself.

Well, last Thursday it did just that. In an outstanding 98-0 vote, the Senate elected to just say “no” to government-produced news releases. These releases masqueraded as real news and sometimes were broadcast without any disclaimer.

And President George W. Bush had the gall to defend these, putting the onus on broadcasters, not the government, to identify them as government-manufactured news — or, as we like to call it, propaganda.

In these segments, public relations professional Karen Ryan would “report” on issues for the Department of Health and Human Services of the Office of the National Drug Control Policy. Nowhere in these segments was it mentioned that the reporting was done by the government for the government.

But our newly spine-ful Senate voted to attach an amendment that prohibited using taxpayers’ money for these videos — if the videos didn’t identify themselves as government-manufactured — to a spending bill.

Way to not be evil, bumbling or petty for once, Senate. Of course, voting to protect the First Amendment always goes over well with the media. But people outside the journalism sphere should also be happy with this development because it means that, at the very least, the news they are getting isn’t propaganda they paid for.

As for the media outlets that broadcasted these segments without any warnings or disclaimers — they’re not entirely innocent either. Freedom of the press means that the press needs to be constantly vigilant. The slippery slope theory might not work for many things, but it’s applicable here: Once one media member surrenders its independence in favor of sycophantism and deception, it throws everyone’s credibility into doubt.

It also sends the government the message that the media is more lapdog than watchdog. And in times like these when our national leaders aren’t afraid to lie openly and often, this shouldn’t be the case.

Additionally, it throws into sharp relief which branches of the government have our best interests at heart and which ones simply want to cover their own asses. The General Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress, called the agencies on making their own news.

Conversely, as an Associated Press article reports, the Office of Management and Budget, which works for the White House, defended itself. It said that the GAO reports on the matter didn’t distinguish between “covert propaganda and purely informational news reports.” Excuse our ignorance, but aren’t government press releases that don’t identify themselves as being from the government “covert propaganda?”

After all this, what have we learned? At least in this instance, it boils down to a simple lesson: legislative branch good, executive branch bad. Sure, that assessment is a bit simplistic. And with primaries coming up, our legislators might be more worried about saying ‘no’ to an unpopular program than protecting the integrity of the press.

Still, 98-0 is a show of force, and one that our president might want to see to. So thank you, Senate. We appreciate your spine. Keep it up and we might just get along.