Armstrong Williams: "There are others"

NYCGirl

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Mon Jan-10-05 04:23 PM
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Armstrong Williams: "There are others"

Edited on Mon Jan-10-05 05:13 PM by NYCGirl

http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/index.html

"There are others"

The White House claims its at best unethical and at worst illegal deal with conservative commentator Armstrong Williams, which paid him $241,000 to tell people how much he hearts the No Child Left Behind Act, was an isolated incident. Mr. Williams, apparently, thinks otherwise.

In The Nation, David Corn describes his recent encounter with the embattled and ethically-challenged pundit in the Fox News green room: "And then Williams violated a PR rule: he got off-point. 'This happens all the time,' he told me. 'There are others.' Really? I said. Other conservative commentators accept money from the Bush administration? I asked Williams for names. "I'm not going to defend myself that way,' he said. The issue right now, he explained, was his own mistake. Well, I said, what if I call you up in a few weeks, after this blows over, and then ask you? No, he said. "

Williams may never name names -- and maybe he doesn't even know if other commentators are on the take promoting Bush administration policies. But Armstrong wasn't the only pundit in Washington over the weekend suggesting there could be more paid advertisers for Bush policies lurking on the sets of various talk shows. On Meet the Press yesterday, Al Hunt said -- in an alarmingly casual way -- that he suspects more cases of advertorial pundit-izing. "Listen, I'll tell you this," Hunt said. "I'll bet that there will be a great market for Freedom of Information requests in the next couple weeks because I suspect Armstrong Williams is not alone. There have been other people who've been doing this."

Let the FOIA'ing begin!

-- Geraldine Sealey

Edited to add:

Here's David Corn's article from The Nation referred to above.

http://www.thenation.com/capitalgames/index.mhtml?bid=3...

Excerpt:

Capital Games
Armstrong Williams: I Am Not Alone
01/10/2005 @ 12:10am

It was a rare moment of talk-show unanimity. On the set of the Fox News Washington bureau, host Tony Snow, fellow guest Linda Chavez (a conservative pundit), and I were slamming Armstrong Williams, a rightwing columnist and talk show host. USA Today had reported--as you probably know--that Williams had been paid nearly a quarter of a million dollars by the Bush administration to promote its No Child Left Behind education bill. And Williams, who supported the legislation in his column and as a cable news talking head, had not bothered to inform his audiences or the folks who book him at CNN, Fox, and MSNBC that he was a shill on the Bush payroll.

Snow was shaking his head at Williams' indiscretion, and Chavez was upset and joked that she had received bupkis from the White House. Prior to going on air, she had complained that ArmstrongGate had caused some people to assume that she and other conservative commentators were also riding this gravy train. Since the story broke on Friday, she said, several people had asked her how much she had received from the Bush administration. She was pissed at Williams for conduct that was raising questions about the whole cadre of rightwing pundits. During our non-debate on Williams, I noted that it was a waste of taxpayer money to pay Williams for supporting the Bush administration, which he seemed quite willing to do for free. And I wondered aloud how this contract had come to be.

After our segment finished, Chavez and I headed to the green room, and there he was: Armstrong Williams. He was waiting to go on air to defend himself. I've known him a long time; we've often sparred, in friendly fashion, on these shouting-head shows. I shook my head and said, "Armstrong, Armstrong, Armstrong...." He was quick with his main talking point: "It was bad judgment, Dave. Bad judgment." His phone rang. He answered it, said hello, and then told the person on the other end, "It was bad judgment. You know, just bad judgment." I was reminded that in addition to being a pundit, Williams, a leading African-American conservative and Clarence Thomas protege, is a PR specialist with his own firm. Not too long ago, Michael Jackson called him for advice. Now he had himself for a client, and, heeding conventional crisis-management strategy, he was practicing strict message discipline: bad judgment, bad judgment, bad judgment.

As we chatted, Chavez politely expressed her anger at Williams. This scandal, she noted, would provide ammunition to those who dismiss minority conservatives as race sellouts who have been bought off by the Republicans. (She is Mexican-American.) Williams absorbed her point, acting contrite.