The Environmental Protection Agency paid the Weather Channel $40,000 to produce and broadcast several videos about ozone depletion, urban heat problems and the dangers of ultraviolet radiation as part of the Bush administration's efforts to inform the public about climate change, agency records show.
The agreements, reached in 2002 and 2004, required the cable TV station to create four two-minute "video capsules" on the topics and air them several times during peak viewing periods, according to interviews and EPA records obtained through the Freedom of Information Act. The Weather Channel also was to provide access to the segments through its Web site. The EPA had the right to review scripts and suggest content, but the Weather Channel retained editorial control....
EPA's payments to a commercial news organization to further its public relations efforts reinforce recent concerns that the administration sometimes has cloaked its promotion of executive branch policies in messages that resemble news stories and do not always fully disclose the government's role. It also raises questions about whether Americans can trust that the information they receive from news outlets such as the Weather Channel has been independently reported and presented.
"The way that they've presented it makes it look more independent than it in fact is, and that's misleading," said Melanie Sloan, executive director for Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a nonprofit advocacy group that has been critical of the administration's public relations practices.
"It would be totally fine for there to be a community service message on these topics. All it would have to say -- much more clearly -- is that this was paid for by the government," she said.
Decker Anstrom, the former chief lobbyist for the cable industry (and now CEO of the company that runs cable's Weather Channel).
