By now many of you have already heard about the Bush administration paying a nationally syndicated comentator $240,000 to promote the No Child Left Behind policy on his television show and to "urge other black journalists to do the same."
Not only is this simply unbelievable, it's blatantly illegal. Will someone be punished? Probably not. The pundit in question, Armstrong Williams is already attempting to dutifully fall on his sword, absurdly claiming that this is all a question of his "bad judgment," not of governmental ethics. He also claims that he was promoting the policy because he believes in it, though he "understands" that the whole quarter of a million dollars thing calls this into some question.
Here's another letter from the GAO (pdf), dated 3 days ago, finding the administration to have broken the law by funding propaganda before.
This is the kind of stuff they used to do in the Soviet Union, only they didn't do it nearly as effectively. More than half of the voters in this country are more or less dedicated to the people who are doing this. They believe everything they're told, which is the point of propaganda. They'll even believe that this is no big deal.
At least some in the Congress aren't quite so delusional. Senators Lautenberg, Kennedy and Reid have written a letter (pdf) to President Bush about the matter.
These revelations regarding Mr. Williams are the latest - and most disturbing - in a series of actions by your Administration to manipulate public opinion through covert propaganda. On May 19, 2004, the GAO found that your Administration illegally spent taxpayer funds on covert propaganda by paying Ketchum Incorporated to produce fake news stories promoting the image of the new Medicare law.
As some have noted, if they gave $240,000 to this relatively low-level talk show host, does anyone really believe this is the only example of such manipulation? How much do you imagine they're paying Robert Novak?
Keep in mind that this is taxpayer money we're talking about. Your money. My money.
Honestly, what is it going to take to get these people in jail?
