BLOGGERS PROPANDISTS:
  • more information emerges on the Obama Administration's decision to house propagandist "new media specialists" in most major Cabinet-level Offices of Public Affairs. These bloggers, paid with taxpayer funds, routinely pass along "Administration approved" talking points to bloggers and online journalists, monitor conservative or "adversarial" websites, and post comments in support of the Administration on a number of those sites.

    In the case of Justice, that "blogger," as reported by the Muffled Oar blog is Tracy Russo, a former Democrat National Committee staffer, with ties to Sen. John Edwards' campaigns. But similar jobs also exist at the Department of Treasury, the Department of State and the Department of Education.

    According to a reporter, who has covered the Department of Justice for a major financial wire service during the current administration, a number of daily newspaper reporters were aware of the work Russo was undertaking at DOJ, and yet withheld reporting the situation, "because those reporters were being given access and information from OPA that helped them with their daily news filings."

    Meanwhile, according to a career employee in the Department of Justice, both the House and Senate Judiciary Committees sent formal letters of inquiry to the Department of Justice regarding its "blogging" policies, but DOJ officials have yet to even acknowledge the letters.