$240K; a nice bit of change

Published on January 14, 2005 By stevendedalus In Politics

Armstrong Williams, an ultra conservative commentator, who was paid $240,000 by the Ketchum Public Relations firm — an arm of the administration’s propaganda for NCLB — was asked if he would return the payment. His response: “Why would I do that?” Of course, he is not the only one in the media taken in by the entrepreneurial mind-set.

Attention, Dan Rather: Have you given back your stipend for the forgery segment of “60 Minutes”?

By the way, Williams is small fry contrasted to Hannity, Limbaugh and O’ Reilly, the kingpins of Bush propaganda.

http://stevendedalus.joeuser.com

Comments

Gideon MacLeish

on Jan 14, 2005

steven,

In all fairness, I would ask you to point me to where Hannity, Limbaugh, and O'Reilly have received payments from the Bush admin. I would also like to point out that O'Reilly, while hardly the "no spin" guru he claims to be, is definitely NOT a Bush admin. shill. I distinctly remember him pointing out in the wake of the Enron scandal that many of Bush's 2000 campaign stops were made via an ENRON jet. NONE of the liberal commentators had picked up on that to my knowledge.

Now, Limbaugh's a kook, I will concede that. But give Hannity his due; most Americans are familiar with him from the "Hannity and Colmes" program, where his views get a liberal counter. And O'Reilly, I still contend, is more of a centrist than far right.

That being said, Williams is nothing less than a traitor to all things related to journalism.

stevendedalus

on Jan 14, 2005

I did not suggest they were on the payroll. As for Hannity--in deference to Colmes--he safely invites liberal strawmen to attack. Granted O'Reilly is a fox [no pun intended] he sinuously moves from both sides in order to appear "centrist." I'll give you that, though, O'Reilly is no Hannity or Limbaugh.

drmiler

on Jan 14, 2005

Reply #2 By: stevendedalus - 1/14/2005 2:58:19 PM
As for Hannity--in deference to Colmes--he safely invites liberal strawmen to attack

That's BS. Which you would know it is if you have ever watched his show with any sort of impartialality.

stevendedalus

on Jan 15, 2005

Yeah, like Hannity is impartial--give me a break.

Daiwa

on Jan 15, 2005

Steve -

I think you're mixing up a bunch of unrelated things in a big bowl, using Williams's admitted error in judgment as a club to beat other commentators up when there is no connection whatsoever.

We now know that Howard Dean's campaign had Daily Kos on the payroll @ $3000 a month. Does that mean Kos is "small fry" compared to Chris Matthews, Al Franken, Dan the Man, Katie Couric, John Stewart and Keith Olberman?

You're one to complain about straw men. I give you credit for gigging Rather, though - at least you're an equal oppo gigger.

Cheers,
Daiwa

stevendedalus

on Jan 15, 2005

there is no connection whatsoever

I like your analogy. However, there's but one mixing bowl--Rather and Williams--and dessert plates for the other three. Cheers.

ParaTed2k

on Jan 15, 2005

cactoblasta

on Jan 15, 2005

In the past journalists did both. They wrote real news for the front of the paper and wrote opinion on the opinion pages. It's only in these modern times that journalists are no longer able to differentiate between news and opinion on their own, and so are forced to specialise in one or the other.

It's a real shame for the profession as a whole that those days of duality are dead and gone.

drmiler

on Jan 15, 2005

Reply #8 By: cactoblasta - 1/15/2005 9:19:35 AM
In the past journalists did both. They wrote real news for the front of the paper and wrote opinion on the opinion pages. It's only in these modern times that journalists are no longer able to differentiate between news and opinion on their own, and so are forced to specialise in one or the other.

It's a real shame for the profession as a whole that those days of duality are dead and gone.

Your right. But it's the current crop of journalists that have created the inability to differentiate between opinion and journalism.

stevendedalus

on Jan 15, 2005

It's a real shame for the profession as a whole that those days of duality are dead and gone.

I'm with you on this; but it seems readers and viewers are more interested in biased "news" than straight news or perhaps more vulnerable to slants that reflect their own.

ParaTed2k

on Jan 15, 2005

stevendedalus

on Jan 15, 2005

On the other hand, Dan Rather, Katy Couric, Wolf Blitzer are journalists. They claim to be, and are paid to be, unbiased reporters of the news.

Nevertheless, they are pretty damn straight most of the time. Paula Zahn is another one that tries hard to get it straight, though she shows a healthy skepticism in her interviews, she manages to bite her tongue, lest she be guilty of a slant. By the way, cut some slack for Rather on 60 minutes as opposed to his news show.

Daiwa

on Jan 15, 2005

The Today Show is not "News" any more than Hannity & Colmes is. And Katie is about as transparently leftist as you can get. She looked better right after her husband died than she did on the morning of November 3rd - she looked ready to jump off the roof and didn't bother to hide her bitter disappointment and shock.

Early on CNN was refreshingly candid, but they've finally succumbed to the hubris of their success and consider themselves mainstream, consciously or not, which translates into a mentality that they know better what we need to know than we do and that they are responsible for delivering not just the news, but the "correct" news. I felt both Aaron Brown & Zahn were pitch-perfect right after 9/11, but things have gone downill since then.

Cheers,
Daiwa

sandy2

on Jan 16, 2005

Jon Stewart is leftist, but he is reasonable. Further, not only is he not a "journalist", he goes so far as to say he is a "fake journalist presenting fake news". Now, if anyone has read America the Book, then they would know that he pokes fun at John Kerry as much as at Bush. I quote "And upon being slapped at birth, John Kerry applied for and was awarded the first of 23 purple hearts" *the number 23 might not be the right number in the book, but you get my point*

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