"But all our Cabinet secretaries must realize that we will not be paying, you know, commentators to advance our agenda. Our agenda ought to be able to stand on its own two feet," President Bush said.
That is an actual quote from our (he's yours even if you don't like him) president. As you might or might not know, there has recently been three instances of columnists or commentators receiving money from the government to promote certain policies. Armstrong Williams was the first (and most publicized) columnist to receive attention for taking money. He wrote about Bush's No Child Left Behind Act. Maggie Gallagher and Michael McManus were found out later and both were paid to promote Bush's marriage initiative. None of the three disclosed the ties to their readers.
A lot of people are making this out to be a "left versus right" story or a "both sides are doing it" story. As of right now, this just isn't the case.
People say this is only a story because the "liberal media" doesn't like Bush's policies or liberals hate black conservatives (like Williams). Personally, I think these people just miss the point (free press). I will say I'm impressed how some people can take a story about a Republican administration paying journalists and still make the media out to be liberal.
On the "both sides are doing it" front, people point to the Dean campaign's (during the Democratic presidential primary) hiring of two left-wing bloggers: Jerome Armstrong (of MyDD.com) and Markos Moulitsas Zúniga (of Dailykos.com). They were hired as technical consultants to help get Dean's message across the Internet better. Armstrong shut his blog down after being hired by the Dean campaign (hence he can't really spew Dean propaganda without a Web site). Moulitsas immediately disclosed the job while he continued to blog and had a disclaimer on his site's main page. Also, as opposed to Williams, Gallagher and McManuss, weren't paid with tax dollars.
It's easy to point to Democratic leanings of Armstrong and Moulitas and compare them to the Republican leanings of Williams, Gallagher and McManus. This way the news doesn't look biased, they get to say both sides were wrong and their criticism was balanced and fair.
The problem is both sides aren't doing it. I'm not naïve enough to think a Democratic administration wouldn't pay commentators. It's just right now there's a Republican administration in the White House. They may have not been the first to do it, but they were the first to get caught. Hopefully, they'll be the last.
Say whatever you want about Michael Moore (blow hard, radical, fat - whatever), but the comment made the most about his movie "Fahrenheit 9/11" was it was propaganda. Maybe you believe that, maybe you don't (I prefer to think of it as a visual opinion column). What I do know is this administration has been reprimanded for making commercials that look like newscasts (over their controversial Medicare bill) and have been caught paying commentators to write about their programs. You want propaganda? This, my friends, is propaganda.
Maybe you can count me in the tin foil hat crowd, but this scares the crap out of me. The government is paying journalists.
Benjamin Cox is a junior in music history. He can be reached for comment at benny083002@yahoo.com.
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