From WNYC in New York, this is NPR's On the Media. I'm Bob Garfield.

And I'm Brooke Gladstone. This week, the General Accounting Office reopened its investigation into a series of ads produced by the Department of Health and Human Services.

The ads at issue purport to inform seniors about the new Medicare law.

Democrats last month charged that the TV spots were misleading and a misuse of taxpayer money, offering more advocacy than education, as Senator Edward Kennedy told us.

Clearly, it's improper and clearly it's outrageous to use Medicare beneficiaries' money for

campaign sloganing, and that's what this is all about. But the GAO determined that though it,

quote, noted several worthy omissions in HHS's materials, including the cost of

some services to seniors, the ads were still legal. Now the spotlight has moved from the ads to

White House-sponsored video news releases or VNRs. In a moment, you'll hear more about those dirty

little secrets of journalism, but for now, suffice it to say that such spots look like news and sound like news, but they are not news.

Medicare officials emphasize that no one will be forced to sign up for any of the new benefits.

It's completely voluntary.

Seniors will be able to partake of the new Medicare system or the old Medicare system.

The new law, say officials, simply offers people with Medicare ways to make their health

coverage more affordable. In Washington, I'm Karen Ryan, reporting.

Karen Ryan describes herself as a PR professional, and she was reading from a script approved by

HHS. It may have been education, as the government claims,

or it may have been propaganda, as many Democrats contend,

but it wasn't journalism.

Still, viewers of the roughly 40 stations that ran the spot

can be forgiven for thinking it was.

Several TV news directors thought so too,

...