ECONOMY NEWS

Sharyl Attkisson / @SharylAttkisson / September 02, 2014

Listen to the radio and you might run across a segment that sounds something like a news report. A newsy music
introduction plays as womans oficious-sounding voice begins narrating a story. In a stilted delivery that appears to
mimic that of a news anchor, the woman states, In a move demonstrating the FBIs valuable role of protecting national
security, Director James Comey creates a separate Intelligence Branch
It turns out this isnt a news report at all. And the news anchor is actually a public afairs specialist.
You might call the radio spot a faux news report brought to you by the FBI. Its called FBI This Week, produced and
distributed regularly on the radio, via podcasts and on the Internet along with three other FBI productions.
Is this a much-needed public service? Or self-serving propaganda? Are the segments masquerading as independent
news reports? And just how many tax dollars are being spent on the FBIs promotional eforts?
[T]he programs that we produce are ultimately designed to aid and assist the public in protecting itself against crime,
says Susan McKee, the FBIs chief of investigative publicity and public afairs.
FBI Director James Comey (Photo: James Borchuck/Tampa Bay Times/ZUMAPRESS.com)
How many tax dollars are being spent for the FBI to promote itself?
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In some cases, that may be true. But its unclear how the Aug. 15 edition of FBI This Week helps us protect ourselves
against crime.
Instead, it promotes FBI Director James Comeys creation of a separate Intelligence Branch. Again, mimicking a news
story format, it includes interview excerpts with the executive assistant director of the new branch, Eric Velez-Villar. He
tells listeners in a comment pre-approved by the FBI for air: As the director says, we are a national security law
enforcement organization that uses, collects, and shares intelligence in everything we do.
Long History of Government Information Activities
The FBI is just one of many federal agencies using tax dollars to engage in this sort of information activity: a
longstanding yet growing practice.
The FBI public afairs specialist who first returned my queries on this topic is Mollie Halpern: the voice on the radio
spots. When I tell her that Im looking into federal agencies using public resources to create their own facilities and staf
to self-produce information segments, she remarks, The FBIs been doing it longer than anybody decades and
decades and decades!
FBI radio began in 1965, according to the FBI. The first series was called FBI Washington and aired on ABC. In 1990, it
was reformatted and renamed FBI This Week. Since then, more than 1,200 one-minute spots have aired.
U.S. Ofice of War Information WWII-era propaganda poster.
Any hint of the governments engaging in what some might consider domestic propaganda eforts can be a sensitive
issue.
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The Smith-Mundt Act of 1948 authorized the U.S. government to generate and disseminate programming in foreign
nations to combat widespread misinformation about U.S. policies, but it specifically forbade creation of programming
for U.S. audiences. Furthermore, it directed the U.S. government to reduce its information activities where there was
adequate dissemination by non-governmental means, such as an independent news media.
The law didnt contemplate todays dynamic in which domestic government information eforts attempt to compete
with, or sometimes replace, news coverage by independent organizations.
Increasingly, federal oficials are end-running reporters and taking their unfiltered messages straight to the public using
public resources.
Selective Information
The irony is that at the same time government public afairs departments flood the public with information they want to
disseminate, they ofen withhold public information requested by the public or the news media.
I asked the FBIs McKee about the cost of producing the FBIs various radio segments. She told me the cost is negligible
and handled by a public afairs specialist in addition to her other public afairs related duties.
What is the budget for the FBIs Ofice of Public Afairs? Thats where I hit a roadblock.
A 2012 photo of FBI Ofice of Public Afairs employees Jef Mazanec and Susan McKee.
(Photo: FBI.gov)
I am not in a position to comment on the Ofice of Public Afairs personnel numbers or budget, McKee told me via
email.
I dont really need a comment on the budget, I replied. I just need the numbers. (Are you saying this is classified
information? If not, how can I find them?)
Three days passed with no answer, so I probed again.
McKee finally answered, No, the number is not classified. You can find the budget numbers on-line.
Federal law makes it illegal for the government to engage in domestic propaganda.
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In other words, the FBI will tell you everything you didnt want to know about Comeys new Intelligence Branch, but it
wont cough up a basic, public budget number. I had already searched online and it wasnt easy to find. I set of looking
once again.
On my way, I found out a lot of other things about the FBI public afairs ofice:
I found several postings for FBI public afairs jobs that pay salaries ranging from $56,000 to $136,000.
I found the FBI was criticized for wasting tax dollars on a public afairs program that provides FBI consultants to
Hollywood.
But the best resource I found was a 2008 report from the inspector general. It says that, in 2007, the Justice
Department, which oversees the FBI, employed 325 public afairs specialists at a cost of $33.1 million. (That doesnt
count expenses and personnel devoted to community outreach, responses to public solicitations of information or
component museum and historian staf.) The biggest chunk of the total is attributed to the FBI which, at the time,
racked up $11.9 million in public afairs expenses and employed 124 public afairs oficials. Thats enough employees
in the FBIs public afairs department alone to staf the equivalent of what the government considers two large
businesses.
Disclosure?
The Federal Trade Commission requires commercials that mimic news formats to carry conspicuous disclosures that
they are, indeed, paid commercial advertising.
With public agencies in the quasi-news business, should their products also carry a disclosure to avoid the same
confusion? Should they clearly tell listeners that the message is generated using their tax dollars?
The only thing were promoting is public awareness so, no, I dont think there is a need for a label, the FBIs McKee told
me. Within each program the narrator clearly identifies herself as an FBI employee and the programs are found on
oficial FBI sites/pages.
In fact, in the Aug. 15 story on FBI This Week, the narrator doesnt clearly identify herself as an FBI employee. The
segment follows a typical news format where the reporter signs of with the location of the assignment and the title of
the feature. But to those who are listening closely, the positive message is the clue that theres a government sponsor.
>>> Listen to the Intelligence Branch segment
In 2007, the FBI racked up $11.9 million in public afairs expenses.
Do taxpayers deserve to know the FBI is airing faux news reports?
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FBI headquarters in Washington, D.C. (Photo: Creative Commons)
The first class of intelligence analysts to graduate from the FBI Academy since sequestration reports to duty this
month, says Halpern in the report. From FBI Headquarters, Im Mollie Halpern with FBI This Week.
FBI This Week airs on ABC Radio as a public service on a space-available basis. This program, along with Wanted by
the FBI, Gotcha, and Inside the FBI, is posted to FBI.gov, the FBIs Facebook page, Twitter account and uploaded to
iTunes at no cost.
This is a Daily Signal special feature.
@SharylAttkisson
Sharyl Attkisson, an Emmy award-winning investigative journalist, is a senior independent contributor to The Daily
Signal. She is the author of the forthcoming book, "Stonewalled." Learn more at SharylAttkisson.com.
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