President criticizes Education Dept.'s payout to Armstrong

[stevedeshazer]

By Jim Drinkard, USA TODAY
WASHINGTON — President Bush expressed disapproval Thursday of the Education Department's decision to pay conservative commentator Armstrong Williams to promote the government's education policy. Bush said he wants his Cabinet to prevent a recurrence.

"There needs to be a clear distinction between journalism and advocacy," Bush said in an interview with USA TODAY, which revealed last week that Williams had been paid $240,000 to advocate for the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) law.

Education Secretary Rod Paige defended the contract, saying it was "standard practice" when complex ideas need to be communicated to the public. He said the deal with Williams was to buy advertising on his syndicated radio and television program. "The funds covered those costs alone and nothing more," he said.

But a copy of the contract, obtained under the federal Freedom of Information Act, says that in addition to the six-month ad campaign last year, Williams was to "comment regularly on NCLB during the course of his broadcasts" and "encourage the producers" of a cable TV program, America's Black Forum, to do the same. The program has terminated its relationship with Williams.

more: http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2005-01-13-bush-williams_x.htm
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The squirming continues....

When I first saw the story, the headline read as follows:

Bush has 'serious concerns' over Williams flap

Someone edited that out in the time in took for me to post it. :eyes:

[Downtown Hound]

1. Oh now that's just hilarious

[yorkiemommie1]

5. ain't it, though

what a hypocrite...

probably knew it all along or should have! it's his responsibility

no matter how hard being preznit is.

[The Backlash Cometh]

13. This has been his method from the beginning to distance himself from

his own shit smelling mess? Remember how he required changes in the way CEOs could sell stocks AFTER his stock sales from Harkin became an issue? Basically, he's closing every loophole which he has enjoyed.

[Erika]

22. Enough to gag a maggot

Bush holds himself accountable for nothing. EVERYTHING is always someone else's wrong doing.

But then, he is just a puppet. What else would he say?

[rurallib]

6. No kidding

"Uh, George, one of our boys got caught with his hand in the cookie jar."

[Inland]

2. Just wait. He'll find out those responsible, give them medals.

[KeepItReal]

29. MIssion A-freakin-complished, huh?

The jokes' on us taxpayers I guess.

[tridim]

3. Here we go.. Damage control in 3, 2, 1..

As Bart Simpson would say, "I didn't do it". Rove figured they should try the easy out first. The American people will probably believe it too.

[socalover]

They all get paid, Bush need to be Impeached over this! nt

[napi21]

4. We should watch this closely. I don't think Williams was the only one.

There are several groups looking into it, and if it turns out that there were several...or many...I think we have ourselves a scandal!!!!

[Nevernose]

9. Williams himself said there were many others

And that's really not how I had envisioned my tax dollars being spent...

[mcscajun]

7. The Buck Stops....Over There!

See, I didn't do it...it was those guys who...um...work for me, kinda...but I really can't control 'em, you know.

Not my fault...theirs.

Mommy!

[stevedeshazer]

11. Yeah, that's what I thought, too

He's concerned that he paid someone. I'm sure he'll launch an investigation into himself soon.

[mitchum]

25. As did I

[Politicub]

8. USA Today is the biggest whore of them all

Theirs was the first exclusive article about the Wal Mart whitewash, and now they are allowing Bush to spread his lies.

[NashVegas]

16. Wasn't It USA Today That *Broke* This Story?

I'm pretty sure it was.

Ken Paulson (editor as of last spring) is one of the good guys.

[stevedeshazer]

24. Yes, props to USA Today are in order

It's easy to condemn this paper for many reasons, but the fact that they're covering this story now is a good thing. Better late than never.

[babylonsister]

10. I read somewhere on DU that Baba Wawa

has an interview w/Shrubbie on 20/20, and he admitted he might alter some of the previous statements that he's never made a mistake. Squirming is correct. He disowns any knowledge of Williams, and no WMDs? No fair elections, past for us or future for the ME?
Another gimme a break!

[NashVegas]

17. Bush Has Been Doing All Kinds of Press

Leading to puff pieces all over the place. I hate seeing them in this forum. Grrrrrrrr.

[sphincter]

12. Duh ! What's all the fuss about?

He received a bribe, not a BJ, so he should be in the clear, this Armstrong character.

[no_hypocrisy]

14. Reminds me of "Casablanca":

"I'm shocked! Shocked that there's gambling going on here!"
"Your winnings tonight, sir."
"Thank you very much."

[Maccagirl]

15. He'll work just as hard to correct this

as he did "investigating" the Plame leak. How's THAT going Shrubbie?


:puke:

[Bouncy Ball]

18. This just in: bush notices giant turd floating in

punch bowl. Backs away from it, pulling up and buttoning his pants, pointing and yelling "EWWWW!!!!! WHO DID THAT???"

:eyes:

[dbeach]

19. buck stops there

"I just keep using people and they keep lubbin me.Thank god I'm a son of a bush"..
life in roverland 2005..next stop internal passports..
"PAPERS PLEASE"!

[RetroLounge]

20. Drinkard writing about a Drunkard.

Coincidence?

RL

[NVMojo]

21. so ...about how long before we see his lying nose grow??

[hector459]

23. I see what they are going to do. Blame Paige for an admin policy.

This way it becomes a "black-on-black" situation and clears the WH of any wrongdoing. Nice try, but I don't buy it.

[Jane Austin]

26. Well, Paige does have a pretty-well documented history

of lying, too.

Houston Independent School District anybody?

[Matilda]

27. Like he didn't know?

Don't ask, don't tell.

[JohnLocke]

28. "Oh,yeah. Real horrible. Didn't know about that"

:eyes: :eyes: :eyes:

[flordehinojos]

30. oh, yeah! just like he criticized kenny boy

[FreeStateDemocrat]

31. NYT: All the President's Newsmen

Published: January 16, 2005

(SNIP)

But the Jan. 7 edition of CNN's signature show can stand as an exceptionally ripe paradigm of what is happening to the free flow of information in a country in which a timid news media, the fierce (and often covert) Bush administration propaganda machine, lax and sometimes corrupt journalistic practices, and a celebrity culture all combine to keep the public at many more than six degrees of separation from anything that might resemble the truth.
On this particular "Crossfire," the featured guest was Armstrong Williams, a conservative commentator, talk-show host and newspaper columnist (for papers like The Washington Times and The Detroit Free Press, among many others, according to his Web site). Thanks to investigative reporting by USA Today, he had just been unmasked as the frontman for a scheme in which $240,000 of taxpayers' money was quietly siphoned to him through the Department of Education and a private p.r. firm so that he would "regularly comment" upon (translation: shill for) the Bush administration's No Child Left Behind policy in various media venues during an election year. Given that "Crossfire" was initially conceived as a program for tough interrogation and debate, you'd think that the co-hosts still on duty after Mr. Carlson's departure might try to get some answers about this scandal, whose full contours, I suspect, we are only just beginning to discern.
But there is nothing if not honor among bloviators. "On the left," as they say at "Crossfire," Paul Begala, a Democratic political consultant, offered condemnations of the Bush administration but had only soft questions and plaudits for Mr. Williams. Three times in scarcely as many minutes Mr. Begala congratulated his guest for being "a stand-up guy" simply for appearing in the show's purportedly hostile but entirely friendly confines. When Mr. Williams apologized for having crossed "some ethical lines," that was enough to earn Mr. Begala's benediction: "God bless you for that."
"On the right" was the columnist Robert Novak, who "in the interests of full disclosure" told the audience he is a "personal friend" of Mr. Williams, whom he "greatly" admires as "one of the foremost voices for conservatism in America." Needless to say, Mr. Novak didn't have any tough questions, either, but we should pause a moment to analyze this "Crossfire" co-host's disingenuous use of the term "full disclosure."

(SNIP)
Must read story connects some of the dots: Williams, Novak, Cheney, Sinclair Broadcasting, Crossfire and it appears in the entertainment section???? Who is Frank Rich and why is saying all these terrible things?

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/16/arts/16rich.html

[rppper]

32. at a minimum, paige needs to go.......

Education Secretary Rod Paige defended the contract, saying it was "standard practice"

wtf is this? paige can not be as naive as to really believe that. he knew right where that money was going and what is was earmarked for. williams has as much as said everyone from the president down knew it...and that there are "others" involved.

i call bushit mr. paige.......

god forbid paige rile up all of those liberal communist terr=a-ist teachers unions.....

[Massachusetts]

33. How can we begin a serious effort to Impeach this ASS?