If they don’t care what the law says, it doesn’t help to point it out

We learned this week that the Government Accountability Office (GAO), responding to a complaint filed by Rep. Louise M. Slaughter (D-N.Y.), has agreed to launch investigation into dubious contracts between Bush administration agencies and various media outlets.

“I am pleased to see the GAO has decided to move forward with my request for an investigation,” Slaughter said in a release. “We deserve to know if the White House and its cabinet level departments have engaged in this outrageous abuse and manipulation of the free press.”

In a letter released by Rep. Slaughter, the GAO said that it would focus its review on seven different departments within the Executive Branch: Commerce, Defense, Health and Human Services, Homeland Security, Interior, Treasury and Veterans Affairs. Within each agency, the GAO will identify the contracts with media entities and what the purpose and type of work to be performed was in each contract.

“I am glad that we are finally going to get some real answers to our questions. This administration should not be able to pass off its misinformation as impartial news,” said Rep. Slaughter. She continued, “I look forward to seeing the results of this report and will work to ensure that taxpayer dollars are not used to fund Administration publicity,” Rep. Slaughter said.

The GAO is expected to report back with a written statement by October 17, 2005.

At first blush, I’m delighted. The administration’s fondness for fake-news is one of the more offensive practices embraced over the last five years and a GAO investigation will help highlight the legal prohibitions on publicly-funded propaganda.

My satisfaction, however, is tempered by my recollection that the GAO has already conducted a similar investigation and already highlighted conflicts between administration policy and existing law — but the White House doesn’t care.

The Bush administration, rejecting an opinion from the Government Accountability Office, said last week that it is legal for federal agencies to feed TV stations prepackaged news stories that do not disclose the government’s role in producing them.

That message, in memos sent Friday to federal agency heads and general counsels, contradicts a Feb. 17 memo from Comptroller General David M. Walker. Walker wrote that such stories — designed to resemble independently reported broadcast news stories so that TV stations can run them without editing — violate provisions in annual appropriations laws that ban covert propaganda.

But Joshua B. Bolten, director of the Office of Management and Budget, and Steven G. Bradbury, principal deputy assistant attorney general at the Justice Department, said in memos last week that the administration disagrees with the GAO’s ruling.

That’s quite a drawback, isn’t it? In this case, the GAO conducted an inquiry and found that the administration was violating legal prohibitions on covert government propaganda. The administration reviewed the GAO’s findings and effectively said, “Thanks, but we think you’re wrong, so go away.”

In response, the GAO did … nothing in particular. The GAO is Congress’ investigative arm and it has no enforcement mechanisms. All it can do is conduct investigations and point to the law. If the subject of the investigation ignores the result, it’s up to Congress to follow up. Of course, because Republicans don’t believe in administrative oversight or accountability (so long as it’s a Republican president), the GAO’s findings on covert propaganda were promptly ignored and nothing happened.

And yet, here we are again. Dems find wrongdoing again, the GAO will investigate again, and a report will probably draw attention to Bush administration misconduct. Again. The fact remains that nothing will change.

The problem is that we’re dealing with an administration that treats laws as suggestions.

Don’t get me wrong, Rep. Slaughter’s diligence on this has been great and I’m delighted the GAO has agreed to look into the matter. But until we have an administration that takes legal transgressions seriously, a Congress that believes in accountability, and/or a media that finds this scandalous, the fake-news team at the White House will continue unabated.