NYTimes.com: The Education Department engaged in illegal ''covert propaganda''...

September 30, 2005

GAO: Education Department Broke Rules

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 6:18 p.m. ET

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Education Department engaged in illegal ''covert propaganda'' when it paid columnist Armstrong Williams to promote Bush administration policies and when it produced a video that seemed to be a news story, congressional investigators concluded Friday.

The Government Accountability Office said the public relations efforts violated the government's ''publicity or propaganda prohibition'' because the department did not clearly disclose its role to the public. The department was ordered to report the violations to Congress and the president.

The investigation was requested by Sens. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., and Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., after it was revealed late last year that the department had hired Williams, a syndicated conservative columnist and TV personality, to promote Bush's ''No Child Left Behind'' law.

In light of the GAO findings, the senators immediately sent a letter to Education Secretary Margaret Spellings urging her to abide by the law, recover the misspent dollars and meet with them on Capitol Hill.

''The Bush administration took taxpayer funds that should have gone towards helping kids learn and diverted it to a political propaganda campaign,'' Lautenberg said in a statement. ''The administration needs to return these funds to the treasury.''

Kennedy added: ''The taxpayer-funded propaganda campaign coming from the White House is another sign of the culture of corruption that pervades the White House and Republican leadership.''

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