THE SELLING OF THE EXECUTIVE BRANCH--PUBLIC INFORMATION OR PROMOTION?

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000606280004-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 20, 2010
• Sequence Number: 4
• Publication Date: June 27, 1981
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/20 :CIA-RDP90-005528000606280004-7
-'-~;RTI C7~E . APPEA~D
Oiv' PAGE i~s_~-- l/ ~ ~
i3?~TIG:J:~L JOIJ~z:dAL
?_7 June _1981
he ~el~ing o~ t~~ EX~~~.~v~r n
~ub~~c Information or ~ro~o~o~?
The government's thousands of public affairs and information specialists not only
inform the public but also promote the Administration's policy and programs.
f they a?ree on little el~c, friends and
critics share tlr view that Ronald
Rcagan is a "skilled cornrnunicator; '
probably the best to occulay the White
Flouse since Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Indeed. Reagan's communications
skills, a legacy of his movie and television
background, have created an awareness
within his ,ldrninistration of the signifi-
? canoe oC the media in educating the
electorate. gaining political support and
mobilizine a national coalition.
"Reagan understands that better than
any of us; 'said Frank Ursornarso, White
House director of communications. "In
that sense. we are a1I students of his at the
game."
Presidential scholars recognize the role
of the chief executive as communicator.
!n a Ford Foundation report on S-ud}'irrg
the Presidenc}?, Hugh Heclo of Harvard
Universit}? wrote: "The major theme to
be found in didactic literature on the
presidenc}? is th2t the President's power is
tl;at of persuasion rather than com-
niand."
? In his starring role as Administration
popular support for political objectives
has never been satisfactorily delineated.
There is not even a clear definition of
what constitutes government public af-
fairs. h1oreover, it is not known how
many federal employees are engaged in
what is broadly construed as public rela-
tions-preferably referred to in the bu-
reaucracy as public affairs or public
information-or what the total costs are,
maim}? because of misleading job titles in
numerous instances and. budgets that
camouflage the outlays.
This is no less accurate today than in
1979 when Sen. Abraham Ribicoff,
D-Conn., then chairman of the Govern-
mental Affairs Committee, stated in con-
junction with a report released by tl~e
Genera! Accounting Office (GAO) on
federal public affairs activities: "So ef-
fective have government agencies been in
cloaking their PR t}?pes in disguises that
it is now literally impossible to keep track
of them."
As defined by the GAO, public affairs
is an "umbrella term" covering a wide
range of informational activities,. includ-
ing "press releases, reports, news confer-
encCS, photographs, speeches, publica-
s'spokcsman, lobbyist and drum beater, lions, exhibits, audio-visual materials,
Rcagan is supported, as the old movie ads ? ~ advertising and facilities for answering
proclaim, by "a cast of thousands." daily questions from journalists and tax-
Strategically placed throughout the payers:' The GAO, however, makes a
federal bureaucracy. is a massive, amor-' ? distinction between those activities and
phous network of public affairs special- public "campaigns'.with political over-
fists responsible for dispensing informa-
tion about government services and pro-
grams at one Level and promoting them
on another. The former is essentially an
educational function. ~h~. latter is primar-
il}' political in nature. !t is this dichotomy
that has traditionally bled contusion and
suspicion about federal public affairs
operations.
At least part of the problem is that the
line between the need to inform as a
public service and the desire to gain
An Internal Revenue Service brochure
advisting taxpayers on how to fill out their
annual returns, for example, would be
educational. But the 2l-page "executive
briefing book" called "President Rea-
gan's Program for Economic Recovery;'
which is published by the White House
and carries the presidential seal. is a
device to win political support for the
Administration's program.
One might-go even further and note
that the White House ofnce of public
liaison, established by President 1`ixon,
institutionalized by Presidents Ford and
Carter and perpetuated by President
Reagan. is a formalized mechanism to
influence popular opinion b} directly
appealing to and dealing with organized
interest groups-thus cutting out the
press as an intermediary. That is public
affairs "campaigning" on a grand scale,
or as some academics have called it,
"Iobbying the lobb}~ists."
Using federal funds for lobbying pur-
poses is against the law. But in a kind of
masquerade, it is convenicntl;? perceived
in Washington as simply issue politics or,
to be even more genteel, as a form of
public education.
Be that as it may, the expenditure in
money and manpower fur government
public affairs remains a mystery.
As of October 1979, the Orrice of
Personnel Management listed only 2,956
information specialists. This. as govern-
ment spokesmen readily concede, is an
exceedingly deceptive fagure. Said an
ofcicial of the Office of Management and
Budget (OMB): "(t is an area not easily
controlled, where personnel and budget
figures arc often hidden. Much of it is a
definitional problem: people may have
public affairs jobs but arc called some-
thing else.
Unofficial estimates in 1977 placed the
number oj' federal employees involved in
some facet of public relations at more
than 19,000 and the cost in excess of 5400
million, about half of it accounted for by
the U.S. Information Agency (now the
International Communication Agency),
which provides information abroad. (See
That now seems on the conservative
side. A study of current departmental
public affairs operations shows a budget
increase in almost every case. indicating
that it could conceivably cost about a
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/20 :CIA-RDP90-005528000606280004-7 --~