Aaron Klein is trying real hard to find a scandal in an Aug. 22 WorldNetDaily article:
President Obama’s former political director worked at an international advertising agency that received government funds to direct a multi-million dollar campaign to sell Obamacare to the public, WND has learned.
Last week, Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates government corruption, reportedly obtained documents showing the White House helped coordinate the taxpayer-funded publicity campaign.
The campaign used Internet search engines such as Google and Yahoo to drive Web traffic to government websites promoting the Affordable Health Care Act, also known as Obamacare.
The campaign was led by Ogilvy & Mather, an international advertising, marketing and public relations agency based in Manhattan.
The documents, obtained using a Freedom of Information request, showed that from October 2010 through February 2011, the Obama administration spent $1,435,009 on an online advertising campaign alone, including campaigns with Google and Yahoo, at almost $300,000 per month.
Andrea Shea King similarly tries to find scandal in this story in a separate Aug. 22 WND article:
In the “Why are we not surprised?” department, Surfin’ Safari has learned that the government watchdog group Judicial Watch can prove the Obama administration used our taxpayer dollars to orchestrate a campaign to manipulate search engines to promote Obamacare.
Under a Freedom of Information Act, or FOIA, lawsuit, Judicial Watch learned through Department of Health and Human Services documents that the Obama White House “helped coordinate a multimillion dollar taxpayer-funded campaign to use Internet search engines such as Google and Yahoo to drive web traffic to a government website promoting the Affordable Health Care Act (also known as Obamacare).”
According to Judicial Watch, the campaign, which included PR firm The Ogilvy Group, was designed “to increase public support for the president’s health-care overhaul among key Obama campaign demographics, specifically Hispanics, blacks and women.”
What Klein and King won’t tell you: It’s not that big of a deal.
The “manipulat[ing]” of search engines King claims was done, as Judicial Watch notes, was nothing more than “‘pay-per-click’ advertising tools, such as Google Adwords” — the same advertising program WND has installed on its website and WND is utilizing right now in a scheme to generate additions to its mailing list.
Further, the $1.4 million the Obama administration is accused of spending on promoting health care reform pales in comparison to the $12.6 million the Bush administration spent in 2004 to promote Medicare prescription drug benefits. WND and Judical Watch won’t tell you that.