Government spokespeople; PIOs or political operatives?

Mark Twain is said to have said;

"'If you don't read the newspaper, you're uninformed.
If you do read the newspaper, you're mis-informed."

The same can be said for listening to public information officers.

If you examined the record of the public service of the various public information officers and their staffs, it would be hard to distinguish theirs from the record of political operatives; spin the truth in order to ensure re-election or re-appointment and simultaneously, their own continued employment.

If asked, I'm sure that most PIOs would claim their first loyalty is to the people they work for; the people who pay their generous salaries.  The truth is their first loyalty is to the people they work under.  They prove that by dragging their feet on public information and records requests.

Why are we paying the salaries of people who job is to under and misinform us?

Why don't politicians and public servants have to pay for their own operatives?