Thursday, January 27, 2005
ESP?
On January 7, 2005, I wrote:
Then yesterday we learned that columnist Maggie Gallagher was being paid by the Bush administration to promote the White House's marriage initiative.
And if that wasn't enough, today we discovered number three.
So how many more? How many more columnists, journalists, pundits, or commentators have received tax payer money to promote Bush's agenda? My guess? More than we care to count.
The first time I asked Who Else? Now the question is: Who's Next?
- It was revealed today that the Bush administration had paid popular radio host Armstrong Williams almost a quarter of a million dollars of taxpayer money to speak positively about its No Child Left Behind act. While I'm not surprised that the White House would stoop to such a low level in order to promote itself, it does make me wonder: Who else is getting paid?
Really, is it beyond the realm of possibility that if they did it once that they would be willing to do it again. Or is it possible that this is not the first time that this has happened? We already know about the fake new reports that were issued to promote their Medicare prescription plan, so could it be that these are not isolated incidents but parts of a much wider plan? Knowing this administration's penchant for misleading, I would say that the odds are pretty good.
Then yesterday we learned that columnist Maggie Gallagher was being paid by the Bush administration to promote the White House's marriage initiative.
- Gallagher failed to mention that she had a $21,500 contract with the Department of Health and Human Services to help promote the president's proposal. Her work under the contract, which ran from January through October 2002, included drafting a magazine article for the HHS official overseeing the initiative, writing brochures for the program and conducting a briefing for department officials.
"Did I violate journalistic ethics by not disclosing it?" Gallagher said yesterday. "I don't know. You tell me." She said she would have "been happy to tell anyone who called me" about the contract but that "frankly, it never occurred to me" to disclose it.
And if that wasn't enough, today we discovered number three.
- One day after President Bush ordered his Cabinet secretaries to stop hiring commentators to help promote administration initiatives, and one day after the second high-profile conservative pundit was found to be on the federal payroll, a third embarrassing hire has emerged. Salon has confirmed that Michael McManus, a marriage advocate whose syndicated column, "Ethics & Religion," appears in 50 newspapers, was hired as a subcontractor by the Department of Health and Human Services to foster a Bush-approved marriage initiative. McManus championed the plan in his columns without disclosing to readers he was being paid to help it succeed.
So how many more? How many more columnists, journalists, pundits, or commentators have received tax payer money to promote Bush's agenda? My guess? More than we care to count.
The first time I asked Who Else? Now the question is: Who's Next?
