A new media policy restricting U.S. government scientists from speaking to the media is drawing fire from the Union of Concerned Scientists and the Government Accountability Project. The policy limits scientists to speaking only about their official duties, requires them to obtain permission before speaking about "fundamental research," and says they have to give 14 days advance notice to their managers and submit written materials for departmental review before offering unofficial comments to the press. UCS and GAP say the rules will chill scientists' speech, in particular about the issue of global warming. "We are very concerned that the message of control will drown out the message of freedom," they wrote in a letter to Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez.

On April 30, "the Federal Communications Commission was in Tampa to hear from opponents and advocates of media consolidation," reports Pat Walters. "Since June, the FCC has been reviewing several planned changes to the rules governing media ownership. The commission will hold two more public hearings and plans to come to a decision sometime next year." Tampa hearing attendees raised concerns about consolidation hurting media diversity, news quality and local coverage, while media owners defended "convergence." Tampa is "one of the most highly converged major media markets," notes Walters, with Media General owning "The Tampa Tribune, one of the largest newspapers in the state, WFLA, one of the largest television stations (which CMD found airing a video news release about irritable bowel syndrome), and TBO.com, a Web site produced by the newspaper and television station." During the hearing, Poynter president Karen Brown Dunlap proposed that stations submit a "community report" when applying for license renewals. "It could involve a small task force of citizens," she explained, and could "be a return to a more rigorous assessment."

"Using analysis techniques first developed in the 1930s by the Institute for Propaganda Analysis," Indiana University media researchers analyzed six months' worth of Bill O'Reilly's "Talking Points Memo" editorials, which are aired on his TV show on Fox, posted on his website and printed in newspaper columns. The researchers found that O'Reilly "employed six of the seven propaganda devices nearly 13 times each minute in his editorials." The seven propaganda techniques are name-calling, glittering generalities, card stacking, bandwagon, plain folks, transfer, and testimonials. O'Reilly "called a person or a group a derogatory name once every 6.8 seconds, on average, or nearly nine times every minute," according to the University's press release. Not surprisingly, "the people and groups most frequently labeled bad were the political left," along with illegal aliens, criminals and terrorists. "He's not very subtle," journalism professor Mike Conway said of O'Reilly.

To defend Colombia's "scandal-tainted government before a skeptical [U.S.] Congress," and to "revive an important trade deal and maintain a strong military aid package," the administration of President Alvaro Uribe has hired a Democratic Party-associated U.S. lobbying firm, for $40,000 a month. The Glover Park Group firm's "founders include former Clinton White House spokesman Joe Lockhart." Neither the firm nor the Colombian government would comment on the contract. Uribe met with President Bush and "more than a dozen Democrats" on May 2. Congressional Democrats are "refusing to ratify" a U.S.-Colombia free trade deal, due to labor and human rights concerns. Uribe "has been dogged by accusations that close political allies backed and benefited from the murderous right-wing militias" in Colombia. "Eight pro-government lawmakers have already been arrested." Last month, Sen. Patrick Leahy (D.-Vt.) "froze $55 million in aid to Colombia's military over concerns about its human rights record."