Media Manipulation

According to David Barstow and Robin Stein Writers of the article "Under Bush a New Age of Prepackaged  TV News" The Bush administration and other parts of the federal government had aggressively used a well- established tool of public relations, prepackaged ready-to-serve news had been delivered to TV stations around the nation. They say columnists were accepting payments from the government to write in support of administration policies.

This is interesting because normally a TV station would not accept pre-packaged news with out giving the name of the source which they left out the majority of the time during the Bush Administration. Also interesting is that these reports were all in support of important administrative objectives such as regime change in Iraq or Medicare reform, or less important objectives such as curbing childhood obesity or providing after-school tutoring. News television stations don't only provide Reports , they also have talk-shows that thrive on the importance of who they interview. Administration Officials would come on the show having known all the questions they would be asked as well as already prepared there "perfect" answer. This leaves little room for a truly objective conversation and news channel in general.  With government produced news segments there is a thin line between public relations and journalism. After the  stories have been put on television, sent to satellite and spread around the world; a government written, produce and influenced piece now can be called independent journalism.

This is not a new practice , presidents have been buying off networks to support their point of view for years. Interestingly enough President Bush in 2005 called for a clearer distinction between journalism and the government publicity efforts; saying "There needs to be a nice independent relationship between the White House and the press" I guess this new prohibition did not apply to the government made TV news segments.