Today, we requested that the Inspector General of the Treasury Department launch an immediate investigation into whether officials at Treasury broke federal law by using agency resources to coordinate with Fox News in a series of actions that could constitute illegal, government-sponsored propaganda.
The investigation request follows the release of documents we obtained that reveal Treasury officials dictating changes to Fox News coverage across multiple media platforms. Federal law bans government-sponsored propaganda, and these communications raise serious concerns about whether Trump administration officials are violating that ban.
Democracy Forward Also Files New FOIA Suit to Uncover Whether Coordination With Fox News Is More Widespread Than Previously Known
To uncover the extent of coordination between the Trump administration and certain media outlets, Democracy Forward also filed a new lawsuit against the United States Departments of Justice, Health and Human Services, Education, and Interior after the Trump administration failed to release documents that could reveal whether additional agencies violated propaganda laws by covertly coordinating with Fox News and similar media outlets to shape positive news coverage of the administration.
Federal law prohibits executive branch officials from disseminating “covert propaganda,” defined as communications by private individuals at the government’s direction that fail to disclose the government’s role in the creation of the content.
“I Did Exactly What You Asked Me To Do”: Documents Expose Fox News Altering Coverage at Trump Administration’s Direction – Actions Implicate Federal Propaganda Law
In March 2017, Treasury staffer Jason Chung directed a Fox Business Network producer to change the headline of an article concerning Secretary of the Treasury Stephen Mnuchin and redraft a Fox Business Network tweet accordingly. In April of that same year, Fox Business correspondent Adam Shapiro assured then-administration official Tony Sayegh, a former Fox News contributor, that Shapiro had instructed his producer not to “batter Secretary Mnuchin with [an] old soundbite” that implied Mnuchin was failing to meet the goals he had publicly set for the Trump Administration.
