The Bush administration’s penchant for publicly-financed advertising is well known, but I had no idea it was this expensive.
…Rep. Henry A. Waxman, Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, Rep. George Miller, Rep. Elijah E. Cummings, and other senior Democrats released a new Government Accountability Office report finding that the Bush Administration spent more than $1.6 billion in public relations and media contracts in a two and a half year span. […]
“The extent of the Bush Administration’s propaganda effort is unprecedented and disturbing,” said Rep. Miller. “The fact is that after all the spin, the American people are stuck with high prescription drug prices, high gas prices, and high college costs. This report raises serious questions about this Administration’s priorities for the country and I would hope that my colleagues on both sides of the aisle would agree that changes need to be made to reign in the President’s propaganda machine.”
A few thousand for a conservative pundit here, a few thousand for a conservative pundit there, pretty soon we’re talking about real money.
The full report (.pdf) is online.
Update: Ted Barlow, in comments and at Crooked Timber, suggests my post is incomplete. He raises a good point, so allow me to clarify.
I highlighted some of the infamous “pundit payola” examples as instances of administration abuse when it comes to these lucrative public-relations contracts. My intention was not to suggest that the entire $1.8 billion was inherently wasteful, only that far too much of the appropriations went towards a long-time administration goal: using public funds to advance political ends that ultimately intend to boost the administration’s public standing. (Long-time readers know that I was particularly troubled throughout 2004 by the series of fake-news segments sent to local news stations to be aired as legitimate news stories.)
The full report (.pdf), which is worth reading, points to some legitimate advertising costs. $1.8 billion worth? Abuse-free? I think not. But if the post gives the impression that all $1.8 billion is being spent on Armstrong Willliams-like fraud, that is certainly incorrect.