Original Article Sign off, Mr. Bush Faking the news has another, uglier name: Propaganda Mar. 21, 2005 12:00 AM Polished and photogenic, the person standing before the camera with a microphone in her hand signs off: "In Princess Anne, Maryland, I'm Pat O'Leary reporting." A TV news reporter? So one might think. Indeed, the federal government very much would like you to think the hundreds of "prepackaged news" broadcasts it produces each year are something very much like a typical news report. As reported in the New York Times, at least 20 government agencies are spending millions each year to produce "reports" that lull undiscerning TV watchers into believing they are seeing real news delivered by real reporters. But they are not. Regardless of what the Bush administration (and the Clinton administration before it, the pioneers of the noxious practice) would have you believe, they are propaganda tools produced by public relations firms hired by various federal agencies to promote their policies and programs. The spots are fed to local and cable news audiences with the complicity of the broadcaster, which may or may not identify the spot as a product of the government. Financially, it is a great deal . . . for the broadcaster that saves money, for the PR firm that gets a fat federal contract to produce the broadcasts (also known as "video news releases") and, of course, for the federal agencies that get guaranteed good publicity. But it is hardly good for the citizens who are manipulated by such faux news. Mainstream media in recent years have come under much criticism - plenty of it well-earned - for slackening the principles of objective journalism. But the fast-evolving government intrusion into the media business gives viewers and readers something else entirely. And it can only come under the heading of "propaganda." Recent revelations that Bush administration agencies have paid a syndicated columnist to write favorably of its policies are of a family. Yes, the media are flawed, but one of their principal public duties continues to be standing as a watchdog for just the sort of shenanigans these government propagandists are producing. President Bush has made a concerted effort to bypass the Washington media, which he judges as biased. Fine. His choice. But the alternative is not to get into the media business himself. Prepackaged "news" and whatever other faux news the federal government is producing must stop.