Quote of note:

In their letter to the agency, the senators wrote that the contract represented "an illegal use of taxpayer funds."

"A comprehensive, nationwide media study identifying journalists and news organizations writing favorable stories on President Bush and his political party's commitment to education has only a political purpose," they wrote.

The articles were ranked by how frequently and favorably they mentioned 11 features of the new law, and according to the company's written description, whether or not they portrayed "the Bush administration/the G.O.P. as committed to education."

Study for U.S. Rated Coverage of Schools Law
By DIANA JEAN SCHEMO

WASHINGTON, Oct. 15 - An essay written by a third-grade teacher and published in The Portland Oregonian that criticized the federal No Child Left Behind law got one of the lowest ratings: a negative 60.

An article in The Akron Beacon Journal that credited No Child Left Behind with driving schools to close the achievement gap was praised, earning a score of 55 points.

The gold medal?

That went to a piece that ran in The Seattle Times, signed by Education Secretary Rod Paige himself, who "specifically credits President Bush for championing" No Child Left Behind. It got a near-perfect 95.

"The article would have rated an ideal 100 points if it had appeared in a more prominent newspaper," said the evaluation of newspaper coverage commissioned by the federal Education Department.

The department paid $700,000 to Ketchum, a public relations and marketing firm, to rate newspaper coverage of the education law in 2003 and to produce two video press releases in the format of news articles. The videos were reminiscent of videos about Medicare that were sent to television stations around the country and criticized by federal budget monitors this year as violating the federal law barring the use of Congressional appropriations "in a general propaganda effort designed to aid a political party or candidate."