TV Host Says U.S. Paid Him to Back Policy

[rodeodance]

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/08/national/08education.html?oref=login&th
Scotty M. is distincing the WH from this scandel!

January 8, 2005
TV Host Says U.S. Paid Him to Back Policy
By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK




.....In a statement, the Department of Education said yesterday that the deal was an appropriate part of its efforts to explain its policy to "minority parents." The statement said: "The contract paid to provide the straightforward distribution of information about the department's mission and N.C.L.B. - a permissible use of taxpayer funds."

John Gibbons, a spokesman for the department, said Mr. Williams was the only broadcaster or journalist paid to promote the policy. Mr. Williams and department officials said the department's payments to its public relations contractor, Ketchum, ran to $1 million.

House Democrats including the minority leader, Nancy Pelosi, and Representative George Miller, senior minority member of the Education and Workforce Committee, both of California, released a letter to the president suggesting "a deliberate pattern of behavior by your administration to deceive the public and the media in an effort to further your policy objectives" and urging disclosure of "all past and ongoing efforts to engage in covert propaganda."

Questioned about the arrangement, Scott McClellan, a spokesman for the president, referred reporters to the Department of Education......

[Moderator]

1. Duplicate

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=1129454