Replies to post #7284 on Billionaire Boys Club Member Forum (BBCMF)

[mick]

PRM ,,, Agriculture Dept. Paid Freelance Writer
Wednesday May 11, 6:41 pm ET
Agriculture Department Paid Freelancer to Promote Conservation in Magazine Stories


WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Agriculture Department paid a freelance writer to produce stories promoting the agency's conservation efforts and then offer the articles to hunting and fishing magazines.
The department contracted with the writer, Dave Smith, in 2003, and three articles appeared in magazines in 2004. Smith now is a biologist for the department's Natural Resources Conservation Service in Missoula, Mont.

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President Bush ordered his Cabinet secretaries in January not to hire journalists to promote the government's agenda. At the time, Bush said his administration and the press should have "a nice independent relationship."

Bush issued the order after it was disclosed that agencies had paid one columnist, Maggie Gallagher, to promote a marriage initiative and a second, Armstrong Williams, to promote the No Child Left Behind education law.

Under Smith's contract, which is posted with other public relations contracts on the department's Web site, he was to be paid $9,375 to write five stories about conservation programs and try to get them placed in the magazines. The department said he was paid $8,625.

Three stories by Smith ran in the magazines Outdoor Oklahoma and Washington-Oregon Game & Fish. The Oklahoma publication, published by the state's Wildlife Conservation Department, identified Smith as a freelance outdoor writer and biologist working for conservation service.

A spokeswoman for the company that owns the Washington-Oregon magazine, Primedia Inc., said Smith disclosed that the Agriculture Department was paying him.

"The magazine should have disclosed the fact that Mr. Smith was working under a government grant," Primedia spokeswoman Allison Asher said.

Agriculture Department spokesman Ed Loyd said the department had expected to be identified as having paid for the articles. Loyd said the department is working on a formal policy on the issue.

"We don't think that paying journalists to promote government programs is a proper use of funds," Loyd said.

USDA contracts:

http://www.usda.gov/wps/portal/!ut/p/--s.7--0--A/7--0--1OB?contentidonlytrue&con

tentidfoia--orders.xml





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