Tipsheet

Issa: Stimulus Website is 'Propaganda'

Sen. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., is taking the Obama administration to task over alleged misuse of government-sponsored ".gov" websites, misuse Issa claims straddles the line of propaganda.  Yesterday, the GOP Senator released a 37-page report laying out possible misconduct by the Obama administration in several of its new media outlets.  The Hill reports:

Issa called on the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to investigate the allegations and determine if the administration violated federal law by using taxpayers' dollars for political purposes.

Specifically, the report points to websites it claims contain false or misleading information, such as Recovery.gov and HealthReform.gov, as well as to a conference call during which a White House staff member urged artists and entertainers to support President Obama's agenda.

Rather than serve as a tool for strong oversight and transparency, "Recovery.gov became a taxpayer-funded tool to promote false and misleading propaganda to support the Democrat-backed stimulus," the report states. "The manifest inaccuracies in the data the White House used to justify its economic policies constitutes the dissemination of false propaganda by the federal government." ...

The report also accuses President Obama and Vice President Joe Biden of leveraging their White House platform "to promote websites designed to disseminate propaganda." It argues the claims made on Recovery.gov about jobs saved or created by the stimulus are fictitious and misleading, citing news reports and individual instances in which the displayed figures appeared to be incorrect.

Issa's calling it "propaganda."  Meanwhile, the administration is calling it a "new level of transparency" that is "inspiring real transformation in the federal government."

What do you think?