State planted fake speakers in 15 town hall meetings

[Behan]

From the Japan Times(Kyodo News)

Wednesday, Dec. 13, 2006


State planted fake speakers in 15 town hall meetings
Kyodo News
A Cabinet Office investigation has found that government representatives were planted in 15 of 174 town hall meetings it organized between 2001 and 2006 to manipulate public policy debate in favor of the government, government sources said Tuesday.

The government has acknowledged planting people in the audiences of five town hall meetings on educational reform to make statements and ask questions given to them by the government in advance. Some were from the board of education.

The probe also shows fake speakers were planted in 10 more sessions to sway debate on other issues, the sources said.

At about 100 of the sessions, the audience members picked to speak at the town meetings had been selected by the government in advance, the sources said.

These are just some of the revelations in a report that will be be issued Wednesday by a Cabinet Office team led by Yoshimasa Hayashi, the senior vice minister for regulatory reform, the sources said.

The team has also found "improper expenditures" linked to the town meetings, such as abnormally high spending for staff and for unauthorized purposes.

Aside from the fact that the "town hall" meetings appear to be a sham designed to manipulate the public rather than listen to it, sources said there was no evidence the government engaged in illegal practices, including bill padding and embezzlement of public funds.

The Cabinet Office organized the meetings so Cabinet ministers could explain key government policies and listen to their views. A total of 174 town meetings were held nationwide during Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's five-year term, which ended in September.

About 68,000 people attended the gatherings, which were held mainly on weekends but have since been suspended because of the scandal over government manipulation.

The scandal reflects how desperate the government was to revise the basic education law.

[GuyJean]

A Cabinet Office investigation has found that government representatives were planted in 15 of 174 town hall meetings it organized between 2001 and 2006 to manipulate public policy debate in favor of the government, government sources said Tuesday..

How very American. ]http://www.tokyodv.com/tdvimages/tdvmovies/The_Daily_Show_Luntz.wmv[/url]

GJ

[Behan]

I love the line from the video

'I want to hear the reach around.'

[dimwit]