GAO Says HHS Broke Laws With Medicare Videos
By Amy Goldstein
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, May 20, 2004; Page A01
The Bush administration violated two federal laws through part of its publicity campaign to promote changes in Medicare
The General Accounting Office concluded that the Department of Health and Human Services illegally spent federal money on what amounted to covert propaganda by producing videos about the Medicare changes that were made to look like news reports.
…the GAO’s legal opinion was not prompted by Democratic complaints. GAO officials said yesterday that they had decided on their own to examine the legality of the videos…
…the GAO decision said the [news report segments] ran afoul of the law forbidding federal spending on covert propaganda because “in each news report, the content was attributed to an individual purporting to be a reporter but actually hired by an HHS subcontractor.”