President Bush has promised to end the practice of paying journalists in return for favorable coverage, but as I have argued previously, this is too little too late. House Democrats, mindful that Bush's feet must be held to the fire, are taking proactive steps to ensure that the President will indeed hold true to his promise. CNN has the story:

Meanwhile, several Democratic lawmakers introduced a bill Wednesday designed to stop what they termed taxpayer-funded "covert propaganda campaigns" violating a provision included in annual appropriation acts since 1951.

Under the new bill, dubbed the Federal Propaganda Prohibition Act of 2005, the prohibition on propaganda would become a permanent part of federal law.

Federal agencies would also have to notify Congress about public relations, advertising and polling contracts, and the funding sources of all federally funded public relations materials would have to be disclosed.

[...]

The group also released a investigative report prepared by Democratic committee staff that found the Bush administration spent more than $88 million on contracts with public relations agencies in 2004, a 128 percent increase from 2000.

Propaganda is a detriment to the American Democracy, and unless action is undertaken soon, dire consequences will surely ensue. The Democrats are on the right track here, but they must create an effective method of conveying this drive to stamp out corruption and bribery to the American people.