US disaster agency apologizes for fake 'reporters' ... No actual reporter attended the hastily called news conference in person

US disaster agency apologizes for fake 'reporters' | Fri Oct 26, 2007 5:23pm | By Randall Mikkelsen

WASHINGTON, Oct 26 (Reuters) - The main U.S. disaster-response agency apologized on Friday for having its employees pose as reporters in a news briefing on California's wildfires that no journalists attended.
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No actual reporter attended the hastily called news conference in person, although some camera crews arrived late to film incidental shots, officials said.
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Bush spokeswoman Dana Perino said the White House did not condone FEMA's action and would not engage in such practices.

But in 2004 the investigative arm of Congress, the Government Accountability Office, accused the administration of "covert propaganda" in distributing video packages about federal health programs that looked like independent news reports.

Conservative pundit Armstrong Williams lost a syndication deal for his column in 2005 and apologized after a disclosure that he accepted $240,000 from the Bush administration to promote education legislation in his commentaries.

U.S. defense officials that year also confirmed that U.S. troops wrote articles that were planted in Iraqi newspapers in exchange for money.