It has long been common knowledge that politicians manipulate media coverage in a number of ways that makes their coverage more favorable. However, I never thought that this administration would be so sloppy as to quite literally get caught paying a reporter to make up stories. Well I was wrong, here it is: Buying of News.
Federal auditors said on Friday that the Bush administration violated the law by buying favorable news coverage of President Bush’s education policies, by making payments to the conservative commentator Armstrong Williams and by hiring a public relations company to analyze media perceptions of the Republican Party.
The article goes on to detail how $186,000 was paid for favorable reports on the No Child Left Behind Act, which seems about right. I think that it would take about two hundred thousand tax-free dollars to convince me to describe NCLB as anything but the best use of an ironic bill title since the USA PATRIOT ACT, or maybe even the Alien and Sedition Acts.
And the best part about the whole thing, is that Williams just went ahead and openly billed the government for everything. God bless Ted Kennedy for taking the time to follow up on a report in which investigators said “they could not find records to confirm that Mr. Williams had performed all the activities for which he billed the government”. It doesn’t take a US Senator from Massachusetts to figure out that a journalist really shouldn’t be billing the government for his articles. The GAO followed up on the request of investigation made by Kennedy and Sen. Lautenberg of New Jersey and formally concluded that the Bush administration had done something wrong.
Of course, it comes with no punitive action for any of the parties involved, so it only matters if it gets media attention. I guess we had better pass around the plate to buy ourselves an article which covers it. I think I have 6 euros in my pocket right now; who’s with me?
Oh I know some of you knitpickers will say, “But Dan, you already provided a link to an article which covers it.” And my response will likely be, “Yeah, New York Times. Jayson Blair. Judy Miller. They make that stuff up. We need to buy an article in a respectable paper like the Weekly World News or a fair and balanced network like Fox News. Then they will have to believe it, unless they are Ann Coulter.”
Last 5 posts by Dan
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