God, I love the Bushies

Fuckup #17812347134789:

Seen on The Daily Show…

WTVF, Nashville TN:

Reporter: When President Bush signed the Medicare Prescription Drug Improvement & Modernization Act into law last month, millions of people who are covered by Medicare began asking how it can help them. The new law, say officials, simply offers people with Medicare ways to make their healthcare more affordable. In Washington, I’m Karan Ryan reporting.

Jon Stewart, Daily Show: Wow, that news report really makes me feel like the Medicare bill is a positive thing. Here’s the problem — there’s no such person as Karen Ryan and that news report is completely fake. The White House produced so-called “news packages” on the Medicare bill and sent them to local TV news stations with actors playing the roles of reporters. 33 of those stations then aired them as if they were actual news reports. I mean, honestly people, fake news?

…

Anyway, the faux-journalism gained furthered legitimacy by featuring an interview with Secretary of Health & Human Services Tommy Thomson, “This is the same Medicare system only with additional benefits for those seniors, plus some additional choices that each senior will be able to have.”

Well, that was some really heart-felt reading. Basically, this new Medicare bill is so good, the guy in charge of it can’t say anything nice about it without a tele-prompter. Even the General Accounting Office, an independent agency responsible for monitoring White House Spending, has faulted the ads as containing “notable admissions and other weaknesses.” But a spokesman for Tommy Thompson defended the fake news spots, noting, “Anyone who has questions about this practice needs to do some research on modern public information tools.”

…

Stewart: C’mon, it’s all there in the handbook. [cut to shot of 1984 by George Orwell.]

The scary thing is, it’s all true except the very last bit — you know, the punchline. It is, afterall, The Daily Show.

The extremely astute and on-top-things The Daily Show.