So various departments of the Federal Government have been producing prepackaged news reports and distributing them to TV news stations (Permanent link). There is nothing illegal in this, since the department's have been up front about their involvement and production in the reports, apparently. It is disturbing for some related reasons though: that this administration feels the real news is that bad and the public cannot handle it; the administration feels it cannot get its own side of the story out through regular reports and briefings; the administration possibly does not trust the news media to get its side of the story out; the news media that the administration possibly does not trust seems some what eager to accept prepackaged news stories and play them without telling its audience where and why it got them.

The White House seems to be acting some what Nixonian, I am really not quite sure what to make of the media outlets that took these stories and played them without comment.