FBI Radio_ Public Service or Self-Serving

8/11/2019 FBI Radio_ Public Service or Self-Serving

1/5

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 musicintroduction plays as womans officious-sounding voice begins narrating a story. In a stilted delivery that appears tomimic 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 affairs specialist.

You might call the radio spot a faux news report brought to you by the FBI. Its called FBI This Week, produced anddistributed 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 independentnews reports? And just how many tax dollars are being spent on the FBIs promotional efforts?

[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 affairs.

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?

Radio: Public Service or Self-Serving? http://dailysignal.com/2014/09/02/fbi-radio-public-service-self-serving/

9/2/2014 6:


2/5

In some cases, that may be true. But its unclear how the Aug. 15 edition of FBI This Week helps us protect ourselvesagainst crime.

Instead, it promotes FBI Director James Comeys creation of a separate Intelligence Branch. Again, mimicking a newsstory format, it includes interview excerpts with the executive assistant director of the new branch, Eric Velez-Villar. Hetells listeners in a comment pre-approved by the FBI for air: As the director says, we are a national security lawenforcement 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: alongstanding yet growing practice.

The FBI public affairs specialist who first returned my queries on this topic is Mollie Halpern: the voice on the radiospots. When I tell her that Im looking into federal agencies using public resources to create their own facilities and staff to self-produce information segments, she remarks, The FBIs been doing it longer than anybody decades anddecades and decades!

FBI radio began in 1965, according to the FBI. The first series was called FBI Washington and aired on ABC. In 1990, itwas reformatted and renamed FBI This Week. Since then, more than 1,200 one-minute spots have aired.

U.S. Office of War Information WWII-era propaganda poster.

Any hint of the governments engaging in what some might consider domestic propaganda efforts can be a sensitiveissue.


9/2/2014 6:


3/5

The Smith-Mundt Act of 1948 authorized the U.S. government to generate and disseminate programming in foreignnations 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 wasadequate dissemination by non-governmental means, such as an independent news media.

The law didnt contemplate todays dynamic in which domestic government information efforts attempt to competewith, or sometimes replace, news coverage by independent organizations.

Increasingly, federal officials are end-running reporters and taking their unfiltered messages straight to the public usingpublic resources.

Selective Information

The irony is that at the same time government public affairs departments flood the public with information they want todisseminate, they o en 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 negligibleand handled by a public affairs specialist in addition to her other public affairs related duties.

What is the budget for the FBIs Office of Public Affairs? Thats where I hit a roadblock.

A 2012 photo of FBI Office of Public Affairs employees Jeff Mazanec and Susan McKee.

(Photo: FBI.gov)

I am not in a position to comment on the Office of Public Affairs personnel numbers or budget, McKee told me viaemail.

I dont really need a comment on the budget, I replied. I just need the numbers. (Are you saying this is classifiedinformation? 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.


9/2/2014 6:


4/5

In other words, the FBI will tell you everything you didnt want to know about Comeys new Intelligence Branch, but itwont cough up a basic, public budget number. I had already searched online and it wasnt easy to find. I set off looking

once again.

On my way, I found out a lot of other things about the FBI public affairs office:

I found several postings for FBI public affairs jobs that pay salaries ranging from $56,000 to $136,000.

I found the FBI was criticized for wasting tax dollars on a public affairs program that provides FBI consultants toHollywood.

But the best resource I found was a 2008 report from the inspector general . It says that, in 2007, the JusticeDepartment, which oversees the FBI, employed 325 public affairs specialists at a cost of $33.1 million. (That doesntcount expenses and personnel devoted to community outreach, responses to public solicitations of information orcomponent museum and historian staff.) The biggest chunk of the total is attributed to the FBI which, at the time,racked up $11.9 million in public affairs expenses and employed 124 public affairs officials. Thats enough employeesin the FBIs public affairs department alone to staff the equivalent of what the government considers two largebusinesses.

Disclosure?

The Federal Trade Commission requires commercials that mimic news formats to carry conspicuous disclosures thatthey are, indeed, paid commercial advertising.

With public agencies in the quasi-news business, should their products also carry a disclosure to avoid the sameconfusion? 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 toldme. Within each program the narrator clearly identifies herself as an FBI employee and the programs are found onofficial FBI sites/pages.

In fact, in the Aug. 15 story on FBI This Week, the narrator doesnt clearly identify herself as an FBI employee. Thesegment follows a typical news format where the reporter signs off 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 affairs expenses.

Do taxpayers deserve to know the FBI is airing faux news reports?


9/2/2014 6:


5/5

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 thismonth, 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 bythe FBI, Gotcha, and Inside the FBI, is posted to FBI.gov, the FBIs Facebook page, Twitter account and uploaded toiTunes 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 DailySignal. She is the author of the forthcoming book, " Stonewalled." Learn more at SharylAttkisson.com .


Documents

FBI Radio_ Public Service or Self-Serving