On Mon, 31 Jul 2000 17:10:06 -0400 FAIR-L <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
FAIR-L
Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting
Media analysis, critiques and news reports
ACTION ALERT: Drug Czar Continues Assault on First Amendment
July 31, 2000
Once again, White House Drug Czar Gen. Barry McCaffrey is using federal
funding to bribe corporations to surreptitiously insert government-approved
messages into media content.
Salon.com (1/13/00) first broke the story that McCaffrey was giving TV
networks a financial incentive to put messages about drugs into
entertainment programming. Congress authorized McCaffrey's Office of
National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) to place millions of dollars' worth of
anti-drug commercials, but with the condition that the TV industry donate
time for similar public service announcements.
McCaffrey, however, has allowed the networks to avoid giving up valuable ad
space to public service announcements by giving them "credits" for airing
entertainment programming that dealt with the issue of drugs in ways that
met with the drug czar's approval. At one point, the White House drug
office was even reviewing scripts in advance and suggesting revisions to
make sure that they conformed to the official line on drugs. Affected shows
ranged from "ER" to "Home Improvement" to "90210."
Salon later revealed (3/31/00) that magazines from Seventeen to U.S. News &
World Report were accepting the same deal-- publishing articles with
government-approved anti-drug themes in order to avoid obligations to print
free ads about drugs.
McCaffrey's office responded to the Salon articles by accusing reporter
Daniel Forbes of not being a "disinterested reporter" and asking Salon to
disclose Forbes' "bias." The evidence: Forbes has written articles that have
been reposted on the website of the Media Awareness Project, which promotes
drug policy alternatives. ONDCP denies it is trying to discredit Forbes,
just trying to get Salon to practice "honest journalism"; "I think the
reader should know," McCaffrey aide Robert Housman told the Boston Globe
(4/10/00). This sudden fondness for full disclosure seems strange, given
that that ONDCP has been very quiet about its role in the anti-drug
propaganda it encourages.
Now the White House drug office is turning its attention to film: It will
pay for trailers that urge youth not to take illegal drugs, and the theaters
will agree to run other trailers about drugs for free. If the theaters show
films with messages on drugs that the government approves of, however, they
will be free to run lucrative advertising trailers instead (Los Angeles
Times, 7/11/00).
All of these arrangements do serious damage to the First Amendment: They
give media corporations a financial incentive to transmit what is
essentially government propaganda. Unsuspecting audiences have no way of
knowing that the messages they are receiving are designed to conform to the
official federal line on drugs.
ACTION: Please call on President Clinton to rein in Drug Czar Barry
McCaffrey and insist that the White House Office of National Drug Control
Policy no longer offer financial incentives for the insertion of
government-approved messages into media content. Point out that the
promotion of undisclosed government propaganda is incompatible with the
First Amendment and the idea of a free press.
CONTACT:
President Bill Clinton
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For more background information, see:
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2000/01/13/drugs/index.html
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2000/03/31/magazines/index.html
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