Relax. Jon Stewart is safe! This is about real fake news – not fake fake news.

A la Boston Globe:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. House of Representatives approved a provision on Thursday designed to bar government agencies for one year from hiring journalists and public-relations firms to secretly tout policies as news.

Lawmakers agreed by voice vote to toughen the law on government publicity and propaganda after the Bush administration came under fire for paying media commentators like Armstrong Williams, who spoke out repeatedly in favor of the president’s education policies.

Well, that’s comforting, isn’t it? One whole year of no propagandizing.

Don’t we wish!

The new amendment, attached to an annual spending bill and sponsored by New York Democratic Rep. Maurice Hinchey, would bar agencies from hiring private contractors to promote policies as news.

Because the measure is attached to a spending bill, the provision would last only one year, starting Oct. 1, if it becomes law.

“A properly functioning democracy depends on a news media that is free of any conflicts-of-interest, especially with the government that it is supposed to be holding accountable,” Hinchey said in a statement.

The provision would have to be adopted in the Senate and President Bush would have to sign it before it could become law.

“A news media that is free of any conflicts-of-interest”

A gal can dream, can’t she?

Wishing…dreaming…that’s all we can really do about propaganda under this administration. The media is so far up Bush’s butt, it’s amazing they can find their way out to actually type up articles on any given day. Maybe they use walkie-talkies. Who knows?

What we do know is that free media is a farce in the United States and that’s not going to change anytime soon.

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