The Education Department promoted the No Child Left Behind law with a video news release featuring "reporter" Karen Ryan. The VNR, which "comes across as a news story but fails to make clear the reporter involved was paid with taxpayer money," is similar to the Health and Human Services Department's Medicare VNRs, which were found to be "propaganda in violation of federal law" by the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office. The VNR and rankings for newspaper and reporter coverage of No Child Left Behind were part of a $700,000 contract with the Ketchum PR firm. The Education Department said it stopped using "narration-styled" VNRs after the Medicare ruling. [from PRWatch.org]
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