must be cheap to buy a nation..own the media first!!
http://mediamatters.org/items/200512050010"NBC anchor Williams: Bush administration has "right" to buy media coverage
Appearing on the December 4 edition of CNN's Reliable Sources, NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams told host Howard Kurtz that the Bush administration has "the right" to pay a columnist to tout its views in his column. Williams also condoned the "politiciz
" of programming on the Public Broadcasting System (PBS).
Discussing the recent disclosure by the Los Angeles Times of, in Kurtz's words, the "Pentagon planting positive stories, in some cases paying for positive stories in Iraqi newspapers," Kurtz asked Williams for his views on the propriety of actions in which the administration and former Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) chairman Kenneth Y. Tomlinson were reportedly involved, including: 1) the administration's payment of $240,000 to conservative pundit Armstrong Williams in exchange for promoting the administration's No Child Left Behind education policy; and, 2) Tomlinson's alleged use of "political tests" for hiring a president and chief executive officer (CEO) for CPB and Tomlinson's involvement in direct contact with Wall Street Journal editorial page editor Paul A. Gigot while securing a programming spot for the Gigot-hosted PBS program The Journal Editorial Report. Asked by Kurtz if the two incidents were something to be "worr about," Brian Williams, who had moments earlier emphasized that expressing opinion is "a line I've always been unwilling to cross," responded: "Well, this is all part of the -- they have the right to do this on their team, I think."
Contrary to Brian Williams's claim that the Bush administration, Armstrong Williams, and Tomlinson have a "right" to engage in such activities, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) and CPB's inspector general have determined otherwise.
In a September 30 report by General Counsel Anthony H. Gamboa, the GAO found that the Department of Education "violated the fiscal year 2004 publicity or propaganda prohibition" by contracting with Ketchum Inc. to obtain commentary by Armstrong Williams without requiring Ketchum to ensure that Williams disclosed the Education Department's role. The GAO similarly found that Armstrong Williams's commentary "violated the publicity or propaganda prohibition because it was 'covert,' in that it did not disclose to the targeted audiences that it was sponsored by the Department and was paid for using appropriated funds.""
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