Pres. Bush Ducks Responsibility
For Covertly Paying Off Journalist

By William Finucane

This is a story about a fool.

His name is Armstrong Williams.

He is black, which is only of interest because he does not fit the mold of what is usually the common perception of black men and women who, like Williams, get involved in radio, television and the written word; that is, they are usually blithering liberals. But Williams is not.

If anything, he is conservative reaching beyond the pale to join the Bush ranks.

He calls himself one who focuses on "issues such as the work ethic, personal responsibility and especially the restoration of morality it today’s society," as he says on his Web site.

This is a different kind of man.

Why this is a man who judges right from wrong, clearly identifies which is which and demands that everybody follow the common rules. This is refreshing stuff.

In a May column, Williams wrote of the Democrats in a journalistic piece entitled, "The Big Education Sell Out."

He wrote:

"Receiving a large part of your campaign money directly from the teachers unions means Democrats are obliged to repay the debt in some form."

Those Democrats are tricky, aren’t they?! Or is that simply the norm of politics?

Actually, Williams had an even better, more familiar understanding of the potential demands of such financial arrangements than mere keen observation. He knew how the quid pro quo worked on a much more direct, individual level.

Williams received $240,000 from Republican President George W. Bush to push Bush’s "No Child Left Behind" campaign. The money came via the Education Department, quietly.

Williams was to work on some advertisements, to provide media time to Education Secretary Rod Paige, and to persuade other blacks in media to talk about the sweeping education reforms. And, of course, Williams piled praise on the administration’s program.

Little things can be forgotten, however. Little things that make huge differences can slip. Things like letting the rest of the media world that he –Williams – was on the government payroll for all this effort.

So in the end, broadcast people were embarrassed. Print people were appalled.

These are just absolutely the wrong arrangements for people who make their living seeking to tell the truth to other citizens. Mr. Williams’ actions were not only greedy and unscrupulous – becoming a paid shill for political interests while purporting to remain an unbiased journalist – but they were also a blow to the media, the Fourth Estate, further weakening the public’s trust in the news.

Of course there are others who get truly hurt here. One type of injured person is me. That’s right, me; because all I have in my quiver of journalistic arrows is what I bring from life experience, professional training and my personal beliefs. I make no money on The Bradley Report. I get nothing but the knowledge that I might help readers better understand what the issues of the day are all about.

When another columnist rises and speaks, I give him the right to be as conservative or as liberal or whatever he wants to be because that diversity is how opinions get formed and shaped. People bring their thoughts to the square, speak them and let people hear them.

It really is the most marvelous tool, this free speech. Everything else flows from it. And it ought to be unfettered and vibrant, not constrained and cautious.

If, however, one or more of the public speakers has money in his hand that came from an interested person’s pocket, well, that is no longer free speech. That is paid speech. It is advertising.

And that what Williams served up during his time on the public stump – paid speech.

Here is the other – far bigger – loser.

The Public; it has no way of knowing that Armstrong Williams’ eloquent TV, radio, computer or written word was lock, stock and barrel paid for by the U.S. Education Department, which in this case served as the bagman to promote President Bush’s "No Child Left Behind Act" program.

Mr. and Mrs. Public actually spend time trying to figure out things like Bush’s educational plan.

Of course there are journalists and pundits on all sides that weigh in with information and opinions, some with well-rounded and well-grounded information, others who are wedded to a position and are attempting to convince people to join their view, but all such media people are fueling the fires of debate with information. And people can be trusted to sort through what they hear or read by judging for themselves, based on an understanding that all of the information has been honestly presented.

Well, trust me, say people like Armstrong Williams, capitalizing on the good faith of a public used to the principles of journalism.

And so he bastardizes that trust and sells Bush’s program for $240,000.

There is no reasonable excuse for Mr. Williams. He is a very bright man who, after all, worked for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and the late Sen. Strom Thurmond. Williams said Thurmond was a grandfather figure to him. He clearly understands both the law itself and the professional principles involved in journalism.

Now Williams has confessed that he should perhaps have said something about all this to his readers. So he did. He apologized.

Then he assured everybody he had done nothing wrong or illegal.

But perhaps he should have taken his education from George W. Bush, master of the careful maneuver and the skirting of any "blame" or suggestion of "improper" activity. For example, Bush heard of Williams being caught taking money for his point of view, and promptly said in a news interview, "The Cabinet needs to take a good look and make sure this kind of thing doesn’t happen again."

Who was going to do this – the Cabinet?

The presidential ‘Cabinet’ will do nothing, actually. As a body of government heads it can do things. As a group of Bush speakalikes, it is a governmental nonentity.

Sending this to the Cabinet must be an inside joke around the White House. But, at least Bush recognized that it’s hard to buy good press for education programs, and if you’re going to do it, you better be ready to disavow it immediately if it gets revealed.

Bush was of course utterly in the dark about the whole matter, he says. This was done at lower levels so he knew nothing of it, he says; there are no fingerprints.

See, George treats it so deftly that it flows right off him politically.

But Congress got into the argument.

And now the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, Michael Powell, declares he will have his people investigate. And Education Department leader Paige started an investigation, too. Oh, there will be meetings and appointments and deliberations and all the hurried, busy work that FCC and DOE and Senators and Representatives and Presidents and Cabinet members can possibly do. Ultimately, if the press keeps viewing the situation, someone will get assigned the blame.

Regulations will be formulated to stop such things from happening on the future.

All these federal officials will feel they have accomplished something governmental.

And they will have. But there is still that question about President Bush’s "No Child Left Behind Act" and whether it is good or bad or indifferent

Why would Mr. Bush’s administration, if not Mr. Bush himself, feel that this program is so important that it is worth spending a quarter of a million dollars to surreptiously promote it through Mr. Williams? And if Ms. Williams was paid that amount, why was he the only journalist they sought to corrupt? Were there others? Have others received payments and have yet to be uncovered?

And what about other Bush administration programs? Have they also been pushed before the public by paid shills?

Mr. and Mrs. Public still don’t know the answers, but they have a right to be skeptical, not only of the media but of the motives of Mr. Bush’s administration, and by extension Pres. Bush himself.

A fool has walked away from the government with $240,000 and has talked to thousands of listeners, viewers, readers and computer users telling them what the government wanted said, and now his journalistic career is permanently tarnished so he had better hope that his beloved conservatives will find a place for him.

Meanwhile, Mr. Bush drops lollipop tears, whips up the Cabinet and ends up with exactly what he wanted – people hearing exactly what he wants them to hear.