How desperate was the White House to deceive the public — particularly the African-American community — about its No Child Left Behind scheme? Desperate enough to give Armstrong Williams $240,000 — of our money — to promote it.
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.”
Armstrong, if you “wanted to do it,” you would have used your show to advance the cause without taking $240,000 in taxpayer money. Hannity, Limbaugh, & Co. touted the same law, but didn’t get paid by the White House to do it.
The party of sleaze strikes again.
I’m not sure which side of this looks worse, Bush or Armstrong. The president gave our money to a right-wing blowhard with access to a microphone in order to deceive black people about the merits of his education policy. He could have tried to earn the support on the merits of his ideas, but he chose to buy the support instead.
Considering that this appears to be a textbook example of taxpayer-funded propaganda, the White House may have actually broken the law by implementing this scheme.
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 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.”
And then there’s poor Armstrong, a former aide to Clarence Thomas, who’s always been something of a bottom-feeder among the right’s talking-head brigade. He took our money to promote Bush’s policy and interview Bush’s Education Secretary and never disclosed the details of his little “arrangement” to viewers. His syndicated TV “news” program, in other words, became an infomercial — without the benefit of a brief announcement that said, “The following is a paid advertisement.”
A few months ago, someone wrote to me to ask for a definition of the word “hack.” I said they’re usually people who purport to be journalists but are actually propagandists. They get paid to write (or, in broadcast journalism, speak), but they end up simply being a mouthpiece for others. It’s a word that suggests that the person is an intellectually lazy sell-out, with no integrity, who will take money deceive the public in order to advance an agenda.
It’s a word custom-made for Armstrong Williams.