Government voice sneaks inside your news

The Misanthrope by ETHAN CHATAGNIER

If you want to hear all the good things the university has to say about itself, go to www.fresnostatenews.com. It shouldn’t surprise anyone that the school’s personal publicity outlet isn’t reporting on scandals inCollegianOpinionGovernmentvoicesneaksinsideyournews.htm the athletic department.

What comes as more of a surprise is news of government agencies using public news stations the same way Fresno State uses www.fresnostatenews.com. The U.S. departments of Agriculture and State have been doing just that, and the Schwarzenegger administration recently owned up to making similar tapes.

Here’s the trick: They produce news segments designed to fit well into local broadcasts and they sell them to stations. There is often nothing at all to indicate, in these segments, that the government played a role in manufacturing them.

The Schwarzenegger administration, for example, designed videos pushing some of his pet projects, like merit-based teacher pay and cuts to nursing staff. Tapes from the federal government include farming segments and airport safety.

All this leads to the government’s voice being slipped quietly into the news you watch on TV. So quietly, you don’t notice. I can’t say the news I’ve watched hasn’t been seasoned with segments of this propaganda. Neither can you.

Of course, when the government isn’t busy selling its message, it’s buying opinions of media pundits.

Armstrong Williams, a noted right-wing commentator, was fired by Tribune Media Services when news broke that he had accepted $240,000 from the Department of Education to publicly support the No Child Left Behind Act.

Beyond this, the strange case of James Guckert has arisen. Guckert, a minor leaguer, at best, in the realm of journalism, was a mainstay in the White House press room under the false name of Jeff Gannon. When questions to the president got too hot to handle, Guckert could be counted on to ask a question angled to alleviate the pressure.

Playing the press is a skill any public personality will develop, but these tactics employed by our current government go beyond tailoring to outright manipulation, bribery and propaganda.

It’s no wonder with this government presence in the press (and who knows how much more that has yet to come to light), that so many still believe Saddam Hussein was behind September 11 and weapons of mass destruction were found in Iraq.

A critical mind knows not to believe everything it sees on TV, but historically we’ve held our news programs above that watchful eye. As it turns out, some of that news is Uncle Sam in disguise. In the ocean of information that is modern TV, print and Internet, there’s no certainty that what you think is news isn’t really the administration’s agenda being whispered softly in your ear.