BREAKING!! Education Department found Guilty

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Published: September 30, 2005

Filed at 5:40 p.m. ET

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Education Department engaged in illegal ''covert propaganda'' when it paid columnist Armstrong Williams to promote Bush administration policies and when it produced a video that seemed to be a news story, congressional investigators concluded Friday.

The Government Accountability Office said the public relations efforts violated the government's ''publicity or propaganda prohibition'' because the department did not clearly disclose its role to the public. The department was ordered to report the violations to Congress and the president.

The investigation was requested by Sens. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., and Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., after it was revealed late last year that the department had hired Williams, a syndicated conservative columnist and TV personality, to promote Bush's ''No Child Left Behind'' law.