[No Surprise] Another pundit on the payroll to push Bush agenda

Restoring dignity to the White House........

 

So who should shoulder the most blame or should are they equally culpable. The White House or the journalists?

Maybe part of the reason the media in this country is in such a pathetic state.

 

Bush denounces paying commentators

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- President Bush ordered his Cabinet secretaries Wednesday not to pay media commentators to promote his legislative agenda, saying payments by the Education Department were improper and new leadership was now in place.

In his most direct criticism to date, Bush leveled blame at officials at the Education Department for paying conservative commentator Armstrong Williams $240,000 to tout his landmark education plan, "No Child Left Behind."

Bush said it was an improper use of government funds, and told a news conference: "I expect my Cabinet secretaries to make sure that that practice doesn't go forward. There needs to be independence."

Federal communications regulators earlier this month opened an investigation into whether Williams violated a ban on "payola" in promoting the education law.

Bush said, "We didn't know about this in the White House."

http://www.cnn.com/2005/ALLPOLITICS/01/26/bush.paidpundits.reut/index.html

 

They admit to an improper use of funds, but who in the government will accountable for it? Pretty twisted to use the Dept. of Education for advertising party interests.

 

Bush Orders an End to Hiring Columnists

2 hours, 15 minutes ago

By SIOBHAN McDONOUGH, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - President Bush (news - web sites) on Wednesday ordered his Cabinet secretaries not to hire columnists to promote their agendas after disclosure that a second writer was paid to tout an administration initiative.

The president said he expects his agency heads will "make sure that that practice doesn't go forward."


"All our Cabinet secretaries must realize that we will not be paying commentators to advance our agenda. Our agenda ought to be able to stand on its own two feet," Bush said at a news conference.


Bush's remarks came a day after syndicated columnist Maggie Gallagher apologized to readers for not disclosing a $21,500 contract with the Health and Human Services (news - web sites) Department to help create materials promoting the agency's $300 million initiative to encourage marriage.


Bush also said the White House had been unaware that the Education Department paid commentator and columnist Armstrong Williams $240,000 to plug its policies. That contract came to light two weeks ago.


Bush said there "needs to be a nice independent relationship between the White House and the press, the administration and the press."


And he noted that "we have new leadership going into the Department of Education (news - web sites)."


Education Secretary Margaret Spellings started this week, replacing first-term Education Secretary Rod Paige. Paige had ordered an investigation into whether Williams should have disclosed the deal to produce television and radio ads promoting the No Child Left Behind Act.


Williams has apologized, calling it a mistake in judgment to not disclose that he was being paid by the administration but insisting he broke no laws.


Gallagher apologized to readers in her column Tuesday, saying that she was not paid to promote marriage but "to produce particular research and writing products" — articles, brochures, presentations. "My lifelong experience in marriage research, public education and advocacy is the reason HHS hired me," she wrote.


She said it never occurred to her to tell readers about her work for the government. "I should have disclosed a government contract when I later wrote about the Bush marriage initiative. I would have, if I had remembered it. My apologies to my readers."


In 2002, Gallagher contributed to an essay promoting marriage that appeared in Crisis magazine under the byline of Wade Horn, HHS assistant secretary for children and families.


Horn said Wednesday Gallagher was never paid to promote the president's marriage initiative in her own columns.


"We hired her because of her expertise in the area of marriage research in order to draw upon that expertise to help us develop materials related to healthy marriage," he said, adding that Gallagher drafted brochures and helped draft the article published under his name.


"At no time was she paid to go outside of HHS and promote the president's healthy marriage initiative," he said. "The federal government hires experts all of the time. There's nothing insidious about that."


Gallagher got another $20,000 — part of which was approved while President Clinton (news - web sites) was still in office — from a private organization called the National Fatherhood Initiative, using money from a Justice Department (news - web sites) grant. For that 2001 grant, she wrote a report on the institution of marriage, entitled "Can Government Strengthen Marriage?"


On Wednesday a report released by the House Committee on Government Reform looked into the use of taxpayer dollars to fund public relations campaigns.


The Bush administration spent a record $88 million on government-funded public relations contracts in 2004 — a 128 percent increase over 2000, according to the report prepared for House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and other Democrats.

Democratic Sens. Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts and Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey urged the investigative arm of Congress, the General Accountability Office, to expand its investigation of the Education Department's contract with Williams to include Health and Human Services and Gallagher.

Gallagher has testified twice before the Judiciary Committee (news - web sites) in support of a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage without disclosing her contract with the government, the senators said in a letter to the U.S. Comptroller General David Walker.

"This abuse by HHS is just another in a long list of similar incidents of paid policy advocates supporting Bush Administration policies," the senators wrote

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=sto..._on_go_pr_wh/bush_paid_columnists_4&printer=1

 

Bush said, "We didn't know about this in the White House."

Doubtful. I suspect Rove knew.

Funny how it took the second outed paid pundit to get the prez to comment on it.

 

The Bush administration spent a record $88 million on government-funded public relations contracts in 2004 — a 128 percent increase over 2000

I wonder what Rove's marching orders were and if he included the caveat "don't get caught!".

 

the Dems are starting to grow some backbones...Condi gets the most No votes since Henry Clay in 1825, Al "I love torture" Gonzo will get rejected...Bush SS hijack plan was killed...




'Stop Government Propaganda Act' to be Introduced in Senate
credit: Aya Kawano

http://www.mediainfo.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000778976

By Brian Orloff

Published: January 27, 2005 12:10 PM ET

NEW YORK In response to continued revelations of government-funded "journalism" -- ranging from the purported video news releases put out by the drug czar's office and the Department of Health and Human Services to the recently uncovered payments to columnists Armstrong Williams and Maggie Gallagher,who flacked administration programs -- Sens. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) and Frank R. Lautenberg (D-N.J.) will introduce a bill, The Stop Government Propaganda Act, in the Senate next week.

"It's just not enough to say, 'Please don't do it anymore,'" Alex Formuzis, Lautenberg's spokesman, told E&P. "Legislation sometimes is required and we believe it is in this case."

The Stop Government Propaganda Act states, "Funds appropriated to an Executive branch agency may not be used for publicity or propaganda purposes within the United States unless authorized by law."

"It's time for Congress to shut down the Administration's propaganda mill," Lautenberg said in a statement. "It has no place in the United States Government." The bill is co-sponsored by Sens. Richard Durbin (D-Ill.) and Jon Corzine (D-N.J.).

Formuzis told E&P that while the bill is being introduced by Democrats, its message and intent is something endorsed by Republicans and Democrats alike.

"We only have a few senators on the bill so far, but we hope and expect that we'll get a number of others to sign on to the legislation once we introduce it," he said. "This is not a Republican or Democratic issue. This is an issue about an independent press, and I think that's something that will cross party lines."

The act would allow citizens to bring qui tam lawsuits on behalf of the United States government when the Department of Justice does not respond.

If the matter is taken to court, the bill proposes that the senior official responsible would be fined three times the amount of the "misspent taxpayer funds" plus an additional fine ranging from $5,000 to $10,000. And if a citizen's qui tam suit is accepted, the bill proposes that the plaintiff receives between 25 and 30% of the proceeds of the fine.

"The President said that his cabinet agencies made a mistake when they paid commentators to promote his agenda," Kennedy said in a statement. "It's more than just a mistake, it's an abuse of taxpayer funds and an abuse of the First Amendment and freedom of the press. ... If the President is serious about stopping these abuses, he will support this legislation."

According to a release, publicity or propaganda is defined in the bill as: news releases or publications that do not clearly identify the government agency responsible for the content; audio/visual or Internet presentations that do not identify the responsible government agency; any attempt to manipulate journalists or news organizations; messages created to aid a political party or candidate; messages with a "self-aggrandizing" purpose or "puffery of the Administration, agency, executive branch programs or policies or pending legislation"; and, finally, messages that are "so misleading or inaccurate that they constitute propaganda."

 

If Gonzales gets rejected that will truly be a great day in modern American politics. I hope it happens.

 

If anybody's counting, another conservative columnist was revealed to have accepted illegal bribes from the admin today, a Joe McManus or something.

www.salon.com

Uh, Strike 3?

 

I think we can say then that it was a standard and common practice for this whitehouse to do that.

Why no response from the Bush supporters on the board? I'm curious to know their take?

 

I am as well. The fact that this has been going on turns my stomach. It's quite possible that Bush knew nothing about it, to be fair, but I don't believe for a moment that Rove didn't know.

Oh, and FB? It's "White House," for future reference.




Keep D&D Civil!!

 

Darn it youareright.