Dems attack videos promoting Medicare law / Bush administration pays actors to pose as TV journalists: "Washington -- Congressional investigators are scrutinizing television segments in which the Bush administration paid people to pose as journalists praising the benefits of the new Medicare law, intended to help elderly Americans with the costs of their prescription medicines.

The videos, a hybrid of advertising and journalism, are intended for use in local television news programs.

Several of the videos include pictures of President Bush receiving a standing ovation from a crowd cheering as he signed the Medicare drug-benefit law on Dec. 8.

The materials were produced by the Department of Health and Human Services, but the source is not identified. Two videos end with the voice of a woman who says, 'In Washington, I'm Karen Ryan reporting.'

But the production company, Home Front Communications, said it had hired Ryan to read a script prepared by the government."