In light of revelations that the Bush administration gave Armstrong Williams $241,000 to plug Bush’s education policies, the White House insisted that this instance of using public to influence media figures was an isolated incident. That turns out not to be true.
Has Bush paid off other American pundits? Maybe. Williams himself insists “there are others” who’ve accepted similar payments. But the more obvious example of the Bush model catching on is in Iraq.
The electoral group headed by Iyad Allawi, the interim Iraqi prime minister, on Monday handed out cash to journalists to ensure coverage of its press conferences in a throwback to Ba’athist-era patronage ahead of parliamentary elections on January 30.
After a meeting held by Mr Allawi’s campaign alliance in west Baghdad, reporters, most of whom were from the Arabic-language press, were invited upstairs where each was offered a “gift” of a $100 bill contained in an envelope.
Many of the journalists accepted the cash – about equivalent to half the starting monthly salary for a reporter at an Iraqi newspaper – and one jokingly recalled how Saddam Hussein’s regime had also lavished perks on favoured reporters.
Who says Bush isn’t influential on the world stage? His respect for an independent media, for example, has apparently been embraced in Iraq.
(Thanks to Phil for the tip)