9. Bush PR spending up 80%.
While bragging about how tight his new budget is (a $2.57 TRILLION budget that increases the deficit by $42 billion - http://apnews.myway.com/article/20050208/D884313O0.html ), President Bush has increased spending on his public relations by 80% since taking office.
Never mind the burden the war on terror has added to the budget, Bush's IMAGE has to be maintained. It takes a lot of money to fool people who should know better, into believing he is a good Christian and conservative.
Recently it was uncovered that the Bush administration has been paying at least two media personnel to report favorably on his programs, and at least one of them was a homosexual (#'s 52, 80, & 98). On the day Bush ordered his aides to stop the payoffs, the second offense was discovered.
http://news.ft.com/cms/s/7fd51392-791f-11d9-89c5-00000e2511c8.html
US government ratchets up PR budget
By Holly Yeager in Washington :
February 7 2005
But the costs [of PR] have been creeping upward - a sign that politics is being conducted in a new way, in which the message of the day can be delivered by ever-increasing means.
The federal government spent $88.2m on contracts with public relations agencies last year, according to a report last month by congressional Democrats. That is up from $39m in 2000.
The payments have drawn criticism since the disclosure that Armstrong Williams, a conservative commentator, had received $241,000 from the Department of Education to promote the administration's "No Child Left Behind" initiative in television and radio appearances.
Other such payments have recently come to light, including $21,500 from the Department of Health and Human Services to a syndicated columnist to promote the president's pro-marriage proposals.
Never mind the burden the war on terror has added to the budget, Bush's IMAGE has to be maintained. It takes a lot of money to fool people who should know better, into believing he is a good Christian and conservative.
Recently it was uncovered that the Bush administration has been paying at least two media personnel to report favorably on his programs, and at least one of them was a homosexual (#'s 52, 80, & 98). On the day Bush ordered his aides to stop the payoffs, the second offense was discovered.
http://news.ft.com/cms/s/7fd51392-791f-11d9-89c5-00000e2511c8.html
US government ratchets up PR budget
By Holly Yeager in Washington :
February 7 2005
But the costs [of PR] have been creeping upward - a sign that politics is being conducted in a new way, in which the message of the day can be delivered by ever-increasing means.
The federal government spent $88.2m on contracts with public relations agencies last year, according to a report last month by congressional Democrats. That is up from $39m in 2000.
The payments have drawn criticism since the disclosure that Armstrong Williams, a conservative commentator, had received $241,000 from the Department of Education to promote the administration's "No Child Left Behind" initiative in television and radio appearances.
Other such payments have recently come to light, including $21,500 from the Department of Health and Human Services to a syndicated columnist to promote the president's pro-marriage proposals.
posted by T.G. at 5:29 AM
<< Home