Thousands Demand Investigation into Covert Propaganda

[SOURCE: Free Press press release]
Free Press and the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) on Tuesday delivered nearly 40,000 petitions to the Justice Department and Congress, calling for an investigation into illegal "covert propaganda" produced by the Bush administration. The groups began collecting the petitions last fall after an investigation by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) found that the Department of Education illegally funneled more than $240,000 to pundit Armstrong Williams to tout Bush's education policy before the 2004 elections. The petition calls on the administration "to fully disclose all administration expenditures for publicity" and to prosecute those responsible for illegal propaganda "to the fullest extent of the law." "The American people are fed up with this administration's relentless attempts to manage and manipulate the news," said Timothy Karr, campaign director of Free Press. "The GAO report carefully itemizes this administration's preference for pre-packaged reporting at the expense of real news and information -- in a scheme to make U.S. taxpayers pay for their own deception."
http://www.freepress.net/press/release.php?id=116