How many wrongs does it take to make a right?

Our government made secret payments to ostensibly independent journalists to promote No Child Left Behind. How is this wrong? Let me count the ways.

Government should be open and accountable. Our government should not be engaged in domestic propaganda.

Our government should not be paying $240,000 to influence news coverage when it could spend the money to actually improve education.

A journalist should not accept $240,000 from anyone involved in any of the stories he or she covers.

A journalist should disclose any material fact that could give rise to an inference of partiality or bias.

Our government ran the same scam before, and the GAO called foulin May.

Our government ran the scam again in October, when they knew it was wrong. Same PR firm, different issue. Medicare then, NCLB now.

No word yet on whether CNN was complicit now as they were then.

Television stations should not run press releases as news. Ever.

Television stations should likewise not add a local face and voice to repackage a press releases as news. Ever.

Federal agencies should not trumpet the planted video news releases as actual news on their websites. Ever.

There's a difference between smart politics and good government. Citizens should care about that difference and demand that the Bush administration stop promoting its policies through subterfuge. They should do what they do best: lie about the their evidence, lie about what their statement, and lie about their justifications.

From USA Today, January 7, 2005

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Education Dept. paid commentator to promote law

Seeking to build support among black families for its education reform law, the Bush administration paid a prominent black pundit $240,000 to promote the law on his nationally syndicated television show and to urge other black journalists to do the same.

The campaign, part of an effort to promote No Child Left Behind (NCLB), required commentator Armstrong Williams "to regularly comment on NCLB during the course of his broadcasts," and to interview Education Secretary Rod Paige for TV and radio spots that aired during the show in 2004.

Williams said Thursday he understands that critics could find the arrangement unethical, but "I wanted to do it because it's something I believe in."

The top Democrat on the House Education Committee, Rep. George Miller of California, called the contract "a very questionable use of taxpayers' money" that is "probably illegal." He said he will ask his Republican counterpart to join him in requesting an investigation.

The contract, detailed in documents obtained by USA TODAY through a Freedom of Information Act request, also shows that the Education Department, through the Ketchum public relations firm, arranged with Williams to use contacts with America's Black Forum, a group of black broadcast journalists, "to encourage the producers to periodically address" NCLB. He persuaded radio and TV personality Steve Harvey to invite Paige onto his show twice. Harvey's manager, Rushion McDonald, confirmed the appearances.

Williams said he does not recall disclosing the contract to audiences on the air... The contract may be illegal "because Congress has prohibited propaganda," or any sort of lobbying for programs funded by the government, said Melanie Sloan of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. "And it's propaganda." ...[T]he Education Department said the contract followed standard government procedures.

Williams' contract was part of a $1 million deal with Ketchum that produced "video news releases" designed to look like news reports. The Bush administration used similar releases last year to promote its Medicare prescription drug plan, prompting a scolding from the Government Accountability Office, which called them an illegal use of taxpayers' dollars.

Freeptastic!

Some get it

I'm a supporter of both Armstrong and President Bush. But this is unethical, and it is a misuse of tax dollars.

Suppose we learned that Blather was paid $240,000 to negative stories on NCLB, or W in general (yeah I know, probably wouldn't have to pay him... but let's not go there today.) This was not smart on anyone's part. If AW liked NCLB, he should have supported it without being paid. If he didn't like it, no amount of $ should have caused him to do "good" stories. This was a dummie move on everyone's part.

Someone with ethics would never have taken the money in the first place. Whoever authorized the payment should face criminal charges.

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Others miss the point.

If this was MY taxpayer money, I want it paid directly back into the Treasury. No ifs ands or buts about it.

Hard to tell, from this article, how Armstrong went about this. If he made a plain distinction from his personal endorsement of NCLB and the regular content of his program, I don't have a problem with it.

PBS is government funded and spews propaganda all the time. BET was originated with the help of government funds.Governments throughout America give money to organizations who spred propaganda. I know of a city that is a corporate member of the NAACP. So what the hell is all the fuss about?

I am totally against government schools, but I think that it is a good idea promote this program through Black commenators.

A pittance compared to the taxpayer money going to the ACLU.

God only knows how much the Black Caucus pays JJ the extortionist under the table.

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Somehow it's about racism

All Armstrong has done is to call undue scrutiny on all of us (conservative blacks) and to provide ammunition to the leftists (from the moonbats on the Hill to the Jackson-Sharpton cabal) to continue their ongoing crusade against anyone black who dares to step off of the plantation. I'm insulted, and disgusted by this revelation.

His behavior as an individual, however, shouldn't reflect badly on black conservatives. To do so would be manifestly racist. Of course, there's no doubt that the infinitely racist left will attempt to do so anyway.

I agree and bet that this type of PR goes on all the time under both parties. Which is why we can't take our eye off the ball and push for smaller government that can't afford this type of crap. That William's contract was singled out was another shot across the bow of the good ship Clarence Thomas.

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It's the liberal media, dummie!

1) The article says the Dept. of Ed. paid him, not the White House. 2) Rest assured this has happened before when the RATS were in charge. Neither point makes this right. But you can be darn sure this was never reported when the Rapist was in office.

I will say, however, that this looks to me like a set-up. DOE bureaucrats probably did this and then leaked it to USA TODAY. I just flat-out don't believe that USA TODAY thought up that FOIA request on their own. Seems to me that we should be asking what else was in that budget that USA TODAY ignored. I want a list of everyone who was paid to promote the NCLB Act. All of them.