Drug Office Ad Deal Included Newspapers
Times, Post Among Those Given Credits

By Howard Kurtz, Washington Post Staff Writer, Thursday, January 20, 2000;
Page C01

The New York Times took quite a whack at the White House drug policy
adviser and the networks for cooperating on anti-drug efforts, saying in
its lead editorial Tuesday that such arrangements could lead to "the
possibility of censorship and state-sponsored propaganda."

But it turns out that the Times also has a cooperative relationship with
the drug control office, and also received financial benefits in exchange
for activities in conjunction with the White House.

"I knew absolutely nothing about this," Howell Raines, the Times editorial
page editor, said yesterday. "If I had known, I would have mentioned it in
the editorial."

The Times has plenty of company. The drug office says it is spending $11.3
million in the current 12-month period to advertise in 250 newspapers, and
that $893,000 of that money is being spent on the Times, USA Today and The
Washington Post. And White House officials say that in three cases--two of
them involving the Times and The Post--newspapers were granted $200,000 in
financial credits that reduced the amount of public service advertising
they are required to provide under the program.

The six major broadcast networks have drawn criticism for allowing the drug
office to review scripts and tapes of such popular shows as "ER" and
"Beverly Hills, 90210," with the government in some cases making
suggestions before the programs aired. But the arrangement with newspapers
is different in one key respect: Both White House officials and newspaper
executives say the administration deals only with advertising and does not
examine news stories either before or after they are published.

"There was no involvement by editorial employees of the Times and no
advance content reviews or vetting, which is the critical issue where the
networks are involved," Raines said.

Still, there are monetary incentives to play ball. Under a 1997 law, once
the drug office decides to advertise on a network or in a newspaper, the
media outlet is required to donate a comparable amount of air time or space
for public-service ads. In practice, say executives at Ogilvy, the drug
office's advertising agency, newspapers fulfill their requirement by
providing a 50 percent discount on the ads, which typically include two
full-page displays and 12 smaller ads in the course of a year.

In the case of the Times, the paper produced 30,000 booklets under its
Newspapers in Education program to guide New York area teachers on dealing
with drug abuse questions. In most cases, these teacher guides included
eight articles on drug use that had previously been published in the Times,
and the paper plans a second round of booklets to be distributed
nationally. Similar information was posted on a Times Web site dealing with
education--all of which entitled the paper to financial credits under the
federal program.

"We did meet with them and talk about the whole concept," a White House
official said. "We looked at the piece after it was written, simply for
accuracy."

Shona Seifert, an Ogilvy executive, said that "programs and activities that
cascade anti-drug messages out to communities are welcomed and embraced."

Another White House official said $181,366 is budgeted for anti-drug
advertising in The Post from last summer to next summer. "Based on the
content, we decided we can charge this at a charity rate," said Post
spokeswoman Linda Erdos. "It satisfied their financial budget."

White House officials say The Post was credited for $20,000 for running a
banner ad on the washingtonpost.com Web site that linked users to an
anti-drug site maintained by the drug control office. A washingtonpost.com
spokeswoman, however, said the banner ad was provided at a discount rate
because the drug policy adviser's office is a regular customer. White House
officials say six other papers--the Philadelphia Inquirer, Baltimore Sun,
Minneapolis Star Tribune, Chicago Tribune, Hartford Courant and Arizona
Republic--fulfilled part of their requirement through such Web advertising
banners.

Ogilvy executives say they are spending another $9 million on anti-drug
advertising in magazines, including Time, Newsweek, People, Reader's
Digest, Better Homes & Gardens and Family Circle. They also say they have
an arrangement with America Online to carry anti-drug messages.

After the controversy about cooperating with the networks erupted last
week, Barry McCaffrey, the White House drug policy adviser, issued new
guidelines under which the government will no longer review individual
programs until after the episodes have been aired. ABC executives had said
they were ending their cooperation because the administration was requiring
them to provide the episodes in advance.

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