Bush White House Pressures Forest Service to Outsource Public Information
Center for Media and Democracy – PR Watch
The U.S.
Forest Service “is weighing replacement of 100 of its public
information staff with private public relations firms,” according to
documents obtained by Public Employees for Environmental
Responsibility.
The move
is in response to “pressure from the Bush White House to put more
federal jobs out to bid by private contractors in order to 'increase
the cost-effectiveness of Forest Service work.'”
By June 30, the
agency will review 100 of its 700 public affairs, communications and
graphics positions, to determine whether they should be outsourced.
PEER's
Jeff Ruch warned, “Civil servants are under a legal obligation to tell
the public the truth while PR firms specialize in shading it.”
Last
year, the Forest Service's PR contract with OneWorld Communications was
criticized for, among other things, brochures deemed “very misleading”
by environmental groups that promoted increased logging in the Sierra
Nevada.
PR Watch
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