Paid Promotion Of Government Policies
As reported in just about every venue, TV, Radio, and print, The Department of Education paid a columnist to promote the No Child Left Behind program. Armstrong Williams’ company was paid $240,000 to write columns in support of the program and to use his contacts, specifically in the minority community, to spread the good word about the DoE’s policy. From the Washington Times:
| :::::::: | The Department of Education paid a prominent commentator to promote the No Child Left Behind Act to fellow blacks and to give the education secretary press attention.
A company operated by syndicated columnist and commentator Armstrong Williams was paid $240,000 by the Education Department. The goal was to deliver positive messages about President Bush’s education overhaul, using Mr. Williams’ broad reach with minorities. Tribune Media Services said late yesterday that it has dropped Mr. Williams’ weekly column after he failed to disclose his receipt of payments from the department. Mr. Williams’ column appears occasionally in The Washington Times. Times editors are reviewing the matter to decide whether the column will continue to run. |
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Just what part of journalistic integrity did Mr. Armstrong not get? (Yes, I know. He’s a commentator, not a journalist. Only he sure didn’t correct people from thinking otherwise when it suited him.) It’s one thing to get paid to promote something. That’s not an issue so long as you disclose that fact in bright, neon letters. When you get paid and then don’t disclose, you’re allowing people to believe that you are putting your personal credibility behind that which you promote. That you really think the things you’re writing and support the item or program in question. Now, I didn’t personally read Mr. Williams’ stuff and I wouldn’t have known him from Adam looking right at him. But he was widely respected in the black community people took him at his word. That his credibility is now in the tank (and his column is cancelled as a result) is his own fault and I shed no tears for that. But he’s now made it impossible to look at the program as anything other than a sham. To say nothing about the DoE’s credibility.
And about that, let’s not forget that Mr. Williams was the payee. Someone at the DoE was the payor and that someone ought to be outted and fired. The DoE says what it did was within regulations and they did nothing wrong. I say it may not have been illegal, but I don’t agree that it wasn’t wrong. The DoE made bloody sure to keep the arrangement quiet even as Williams was writing his prose. Someone clearly knew that letting on about the money changing hands would undermine Williams’ ability to get his message out and that someone is complicit in this sordid affair.
