The Obama administration paid a PR firm nearly $500,000 in stimulus funds to run a barrage of ads on White House-friendly cable programs promoting its green job training program. 

According to government records, the Labor Department paid the money in late 2009 to a company that negotiated a media buy on MSNBC's "Countdown with Keith Olbermann" and "The Rachel Maddow Show." The ad was set to run more than 100 times -- 14 times a week for two months.