Too often, the government uses its information machinery to try to persuade

Re:Too often, the government uses its information machinery ... by JackFr on Saturday September 26, 2015 @11:23PM (#10285323)

"Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton’s 1791 report on manufacturing promoted policies to grow the nation into a commercial republic. President Woodrow Wilson’s Committee on Public Information recruited 75,000 members of the public to give speeches in favor of such World War I measures as Liberty Bonds and the draft, blanketed the nation with pamphlets and posters, and generally set in motion the modern publicity apparatus that exists today

A decade ago, the Government Accountability Office faulted the second Bush administration’s Department of Health and Human Services for overselling the benefits of the new Medicare law."

Hardly a propaganda essay discrediting the liberal executive branch.

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Re:Too often, the government uses its information machinery ... by geofft on Sunday September 27, 2015 @12:01AM (#10285409)

Well, if you want to draw partisan lines on content, all of those are seemingly big-government actions (which is natural, for things that government would want to propagandize): governmental policies to influence the market to behave in certain ways, intervention in foreign wars, and centralized, taxpayer-funded healthcare that was controversial within the Republican ranks.

This is metapolitics, designed to poison the well about all government actions and support conservative/libertarian positions in general. It's fine and useful to appear to be independent of partisan politics.

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Re:Too often, the government uses its information machinery ... by dropit_sphere on Sunday September 27, 2015 @05:44AM (#10286005)

Is an opinion still valid if Republicans happen to share it?

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Re:Too often, the government uses its information machinery ... by mattsahr on Sunday September 27, 2015 @09:26AM (#10286413)

Absolutely. But a think tank is an opinions-for-hire racket, whether conservative or liberal. So it's useful to note the source.

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