Here’s the NY Times version of a story making the rounds nationally:
Armstrong Williams, a prominent conservative commentator . . . acknowledged yesterday that he was paid $240,000 by the Department of Education to promote its initiatives on his syndicated television program and to other African-Americans in the news media.
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The disclosure about the arrangement coincides with a decision by the Government Accountability Office that the administration had violated a law against unauthorized federal propaganda by distributing television news segments that promoted drug enforcement policies without identifying their origin. Over 300 news programs reaching over 22 million households broadcast the segments. The accountability office had made a similar ruling in May about the administration’s release of news segments promoting its Medicare policies[.]
Maybe Armstrong’s contract bodes well for those paid by the Thune campaign while blogging “analysis” of the Daschle-Thune race. Seems to me the GAO hit it on the head. If it’s bought and paid for, it’s propaganda, not analysis.
