Yesterday, we highlighted a New York Times story revealing that the Bush administration sent out taped “news segments” praising the new Medicare law, and that some local TV stations were lazy enough to run parts of the segments as news.
In response to a request from Campaign Desk, a spokesman for the Department of Health and Human Services confirmed that the following stations, among many others, had run parts of the segments:
WVUA — Tuscaloosa, AL
WHIO — Dayton, OH
WTVQ — Lexington, KY
WPTA — Fort Wayne, IN
WTVC — Chattanooga, TN
KSEE — Fresno, CA
There’s no guarantee that any of these stations included the fake “reporters” Karen Ryan and Alberto Garcia in their reports. But they did present promotional material that came direct from the federal government as news. We’ll keep you posted as we get more information.
–Z.R.
Zachary Roth is a contributing editor to The Washington Monthly. He also has written for The Los Angeles Times, The New Republic, Slate, Salon, The Daily Beast, and Talking Points Memo, among other outlets.