Yellow Dog

Can you imagine the howls from right-wingers like Limbaugh, O'Reilly and Hannity if the Clinton administration had been discovered paying off journalists to tout its programs? First we learn that the Dept. of Education paid Armstrong Williams a half million bucks to spread the government propoaganda about "No Child Left Behind," and now another conservative columnist, Maggie Gallagher, has been caught in the act of accepting a $21,500 contract from the Health and Human Services Department to promote the agency's marriage initiatives (this is in addition to the fake news reports sent out to sell the new Medicare plan). I wonder how many additional conservative columnists are on the Bush payroll. On some logical level, though, it does make sense that anyone in his/her right mind would have to be paid to support Bush's misguided policies.

Columnist Maureen Dowd wants in on this "pundit payola" and has even agreed to do her part to push the Bush admin. propaganda:

"I still have many Christmas bills to pay. So I'd like to send a message to the administration: THIS SPACE AVAILABLE.

I could write about the strong dollar and the shrinking deficit. Or defend Torture Boy, I mean, the esteemed and sage Alberto Gonzales. Or remind readers of the terrific job Condi Rice did coordinating national security before 9/11 - who could have interpreted a memo titled "Bin Laden Determined to Attack Inside the United States" as a credible threat? - not to mention her indefatigable energy obscuring information that undercut the vice president's dementia on Iraq.

My preference is to get a contract with Rummy. It would be cost effective, compared with the $80 billion he needs to train more Iraqi security forces to be blown up. For half a mil, I could write a doozy of a column promoting Rummy's phantasmagoric policies.

The president might need my help as well. He looked out of it yesterday when asked why his foreign policy is so drastically different from the one laid out in Foreign Affairs magazine in 2000 by Ms. Rice - a preview that did not emphasize promoting democracy and liberty around the world. "I didn't read the article," Mr. Bush said.

And why should he? Robert McNamara never read the Pentagon Papers. Why should W. have to bone up on his own foreign policy?

Freedom means the freedom to be free from reading what you promise voters and other stuff. I could make that case, if the price were right."

The New York Times > Opinion > Op-Ed Columnist: Love for Sale

Oh, and the taxpayers are paying for this propaganda campaign, and as much as I understand the Bush admin. needing good PR to sell failed education policies and medicare reforms that enrich their big-pharma pals, I'd rather not foot the bill. That's why I'm glad to see that Congress is introducing "The Stop Government Propaganda Act:"

"In response to continued revelations of government-funded "journalism" -- ranging from the purported video news releases put out by the drug czar's office and the Department of Health and Human Services to the recently uncovered payments to columnists Armstrong Williams and Maggie Gallagher,who flacked administration programs -- Sens. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) and Frank R. Lautenberg (D-N.J.) will introduce a bill, The Stop Government Propaganda Act, in the Senate next week."