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Some of you may recall a few months back when papers across the US all ran identitical letters praising Bush which were supposedly written by GIs serving in Iraq. It turned out the letter was actually written by the White House Press Office and then were sent to military commanders in Iraq to pass out to soldiers so they could sign them. the signing was volintary but tax dollars were used to produce these partisan letters and the legality of the White House attempting to use official military channals to pump its political adgenda was highly questionable.
Links to that story:
Now we have another case which looks suspeciously similiar. Newpapers across the country have begun running nearly identical editorials praising the Bush Administrations handling of the Katrina disaster and there decision to end minimium wage laws on Federal reconstruction efforts. Journalism schools teach that it is a major no-no for newspapers to attempt to pass off outside articles as in house editorials without declaring who wrote the piece and where it came from yet here we have virtually identical articles appearing across the country.
What do all of those articles have in common? All of them are unsigned editorials, which makes it look like they're original opinion pieces for each paper. The Colorado Springs Gazette even says it's "our view."
I'd like to know if once again the Bush Adminstration is using tax dollars to advance their partisan adgenda while attempting to hide that they are the source. If so it needs to stop. If it is just a partisan but nontax dollar funded organization then fine but newspapers really should inform readers who wrote the editorial and where it came from at least if they want to be considered a quality journalism source. I think it does say something about the state of journalism in the US that such obvious talking points are just reprinted in supposedly reputable papers without a word advising readers where they came from.
Links to that story:
Now we have another case which looks suspeciously similiar. Newpapers across the country have begun running nearly identical editorials praising the Bush Administrations handling of the Katrina disaster and there decision to end minimium wage laws on Federal reconstruction efforts. Journalism schools teach that it is a major no-no for newspapers to attempt to pass off outside articles as in house editorials without declaring who wrote the piece and where it came from yet here we have virtually identical articles appearing across the country.
What do all of those articles have in common? All of them are unsigned editorials, which makes it look like they're original opinion pieces for each paper. The Colorado Springs Gazette even says it's "our view."
I'd like to know if once again the Bush Adminstration is using tax dollars to advance their partisan adgenda while attempting to hide that they are the source. If so it needs to stop. If it is just a partisan but nontax dollar funded organization then fine but newspapers really should inform readers who wrote the editorial and where it came from at least if they want to be considered a quality journalism source. I think it does say something about the state of journalism in the US that such obvious talking points are just reprinted in supposedly reputable papers without a word advising readers where they came from.
The propaganda machine continues. Do you know where that Iraqi Minister of Information went? He's writing those letters 
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