Normally, I would not write a political editorial, but something that I read in the New York Times has spurred me to action.
Yesterday, I read a March 15 article titled “U.S. Videos, for TV News, Come Under Scrutiny.”
The article was about videos in which the Bush administration paid people to pose as journalists praising the benefits of the new Medicare law.
These videos were intended to be used in local television news programs.
As a journalist and a citizen ,I was immediately shocked by the intended deception by our government and most importantly the president.
The fact that the president would pay someone to use this country’s number one source of news to deceive the general public is mind-numbing.
As a journalist, I am taught to uphold certain principles.
Among those are telling the truth and to be the watchdog of the government.
The article says “one question [about the videos] is whether the government might mislead viewers by concealing the source of the Medicare videos, which have been broadcast by stations in Oklahoma, Louisiana and other states.”
Of course it would mislead viewers.
The public depends on and trusts journalists to tell the truth. When Jayson Blair was caught fabricating sources, he was immediately fired and his newspaper, the New York Times, then ran a correction from every story he misreported in.
Every newspaper corrects every mistake that is made in the issue so that we can give our readers the most accurate information possible.
For someone to take the principles in which journalism is grounded and use that to their own personal gain is manipulative, deceptive and just wrong.
The president and his administration should be ashamed of using the public’s reliance on the media to pass controversial information off as accurate and fair and balanced journalism.
Bill Kovach, chairman of the Committee of Concerned Journalists, told the New York Times that “those [videos] to me are just the next thing to fraud.” And that is exactly what it is.
The president can run paid advertisements about the benefits of Medicare, but they need to say they are a paid advertisement somewhere.
But, these videos actually had a woman who says, “in Washington, I’m Karen Ryan reporting.”
If someone were to pass by and hear that, they would take it for fact, and it is not.
Kevin W. Keane, a spokesman for the Department of Health and Human Services, told the New York Times “the use of video news releases is a common, routine practice in government and the private sector.”
I agree with Mr. Keane that their use is a routine practice, but stations can use the video and write their own scripts, but the government left nothing to chance and wrote suggested scripts for them.
Video news releases are typically used for movie promotions or for celebrations, not something as controversial as a new Medicare law.
Most Democrats would say Bush deceives the public on a daily basis, but that is the topic of a different column.
These actions alone are manipulative, deceptive, and should make every person take a strong interest in the upcoming presidential election.
Who knows what else the government and our president may have manipulated?