Armstrong Williams: "This happens all the time"...

[ChairOne]

From The Nation:

"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."

And Kos has it right. Until and unless we get full disclosure about government propaganda and misinformation campaigns, the only reasonable thing for Joe Public to do is to count EVERY republican-sympathetic speaker as on the dole. Judith Miller, I would think, should be #1 on that list.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/1/10/124045/880

EDIT: Forgot my own damn link - doh!

http://www.thenation.com/capitalgames/index.mhtml?bid=3&pid=2114

[Warpy]

1. These guys are bidnessmen

and not lawyers. They don't know what the laws are but they sure as hell know what marketing is.

I would welcome a chance to get lawyers back into government.

[hfojvt]

17. "Law, what do I care about law.

Ain't I got the power?" Cornelius Vanderbilt
"I do not hire a lawyer to tell me what the law is. I hire a lawyer to help me get around the law." JP Morgan (paraphrased)

[Goldeneye]

2. What a freaking Doofus...add that to this...and you're

in for one crazy story

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x2930498

[ChairOne]

6. ROFL - it dudn't get any better than that! /eom

[punpirate]

3. Wonder what he means by...

... "happens all the time?" Does he mean taking payoffs from the government... or getting caught taking payoffs from the government?

Enquiring minds want to know.... :P

[Cocoa]

4. here's a convenient list of candidates

thanks to Townhall.com for compiling all the usual suspects in one place, I'm willing to bet that most or all of the "others" are in this esteemed company:

http://www.townhall.com/columnists/

Mike Adams
Gary Aldrich
Mark Alexander
Doug Bandow
Michael Barone
Bruce Bartlett
Tony Blankley
Neal Boortz
Brent Bozell
Peter Brookes
Jay Bryant
Pat Buchanan
William F. Buckley
Neil Cavuto
Mona Charen
Linda Chavez
Chuck Colson
Ward Connerly
Ann Coulter
Helle Dale
Larry Elder
Edwin J. Feulner
Suzanne Fields
Frank J. Gaffney, Jr.
Maggie Gallagher
Doug Giles
Jonah Goldberg
Paul Greenberg
Rebecca Hagelin
David Horowitz
Dexter Ingram
Paul Jacob
Jeff Jacoby
Terence Jeffrey
Jack Kemp
Charles Krauthammer
Larry Kudlow
John Leo
David Limbaugh
Rich Lowry
Ross Mackenzie
Michelle Malkin
Clifford D. May
John McCaslin
Joel Mowbray
Bill Murchison
Oliver North
Robert Novak
Marvin Olasky
Kathleen Parker
Dennis Prager
Alan Reynolds
Paul Craig Roberts
Debra Saunders
Phyllis Schlafly
Ben Shapiro
Thomas Sowell
Jacob Sullum
Mark Tapscott
Cal Thomas
Matt Towery
Rich Tucker
Emmett Tyrrell
Malcolm Wallop
Jude Wanniski
Diana West
George Will
Armstrong Williams
Walter Williams

[wtmusic]

5. reading down that list got my gag reflex going n/t

[fob]

8. By candidates you mean SUSPECTS, right?

[hfojvt]

18. How sad for some people

like Joseph Perkins, Bill Thompson, Tony Snow, and James Lileks that they do not make the list. Just small time right-wing ranters. Lileks I remember from my college days, he wrote a Reagan/1984 spoof where he said that conservatives were getting lobotomies. Of course he may have had to hide his conservative views in order to write for the Minnesota Daily. Still, I wondered if he got one of those lobotomies, or maybe he started getting cash from the government, or my uncle Dave (David Koch that is). I just sorta figured that he got older and found himself in the upper middle class and his outlook changed to match his prosperity. I am sure that my liberal/radical views were shaped by my jump/fall into the lower class and not just by my college reading of Lileks et. al.

[anarchy1999]

7. Whoa, wait a minute, Judith Miller is # 1? I don't think so, just say

Novak.

[ChairOne]

9. That's just me talkin of course....

Hey, everybody's got their favorites... nuthin wrong with that... But yah, Novak's definitely up there...

[babylonsister]

10. This definitely answers a question

I've had. I have wondered why these supposed intelligent people can support this admin. So, it all boils down to money, and they are all for sale to the highest bidder.:puke:

[catzies]

Yeah, when we started calling them "media whores," who knew

it was a self-fulfilling prophecy? :P

[Tomee450]

22. I've often

wondered the same thing. I believe many journalists are on the take.

[noonwitch]

11. He has a point

The Clinton administration (and undoubtedly others) paid networks to incorporate anti-drug messages in their programming, like on soap operas and teen-oriented shows. It led to some silly storylines on GH, like the chief of staff becoming a junkie.

That doesn't make it necessarily right to accept money as a columnist to push a president's educational agenda, but it does set up a precedent. The main problem I have with it is that taxpayer's money was used.

I find Novak's outing of a former diplomatic official's wife as a spy in an act of retribution for that diplomat expressing views opposing the administration's policies to be far more troubling than this. The legal system needs to deal with the big problems in the media like that, first, before worrying about the little ones.

[socalover]

12. Isn't this illegal, can't we investigate and start impeachment hearings nt

[ChairOne]

13. From your mouth to someone powerful's ears.... /eom

[AP]

16. This is the freedom of the press.

The only thing they jeopardize by doing this is their credibility.

Unfortunately, people don't appreciate the ethical issues.

[ChairOne]

19. Propagandizing isn't allowed for the *government* tho....

... unless I'm mistaken at least....

[AP]

20. Who doesn't allow it? Nobody has stopped them for the past 8 years.

[ChairOne]

21. lol - Fair enuff... Enforcement is of course an issue....

I'm just sayin - I think, nominally at least, that goverment propagandizing is against the law... Whereas it isn't against the law for "journalists" to whore themselves....

[gollygee]

14. He can't have it both ways

He can't try to defend himself by saying, "This happens all the time" and then say he won't discuss it further because he's only talking about *his* mistake and not what others do. Either the actions of others are relevant or they aren't.

[AP]

15. This is why these RW clowns go to these lenghts to prop up Bush. $$$

If Kerry wins, the gravey train stops running.

And because Dems don't do shit like this, there's no drive to lie and to promote Dems this way.

Liberal media my ass.