RODNEY PAIGE, ARMSTRONG WILLIAMS, AND THE "PAY TO PANDER" SCANDAL

Author website ^ | Jan. 07, 2005 | Michelle Malkin

[Robert A Cook PE]

Gee.

But when the Clinton administration used the ENTIRE national news media to CREATE the Kosovo War to deflect attention after his impeachment ...

None of these liberal observers said a peep.

[Dustbunny]

You would be surprised how they waste 'tax payer' money. Promoting 'no child left behind' would at least be beneficial. Although I think that radio commentators that promoted it because they were paid to do promote it now have very tarnished halo They should have done so because they truly would like to see 'no child left behind'.

[JustAnotherSavage]

I'll dig up "full disclosure" for every author of every article I post if you will.

[JustAnotherSavage]

Ask her. She'll likely answer your email.

www.michellemalkin.com

[JustAnotherSavage]

"But when the Clinton administration used the ENTIRE national news media to CREATE the Kosovo War to deflect attention after his impeachment ...

None of these liberal observers said a peep."

You're right, and I hope we as conservatives are above the games they play.

[Kiko]

Can't fire Paige, he resigned and has already been replaced. Back in November yet.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Spellings
"Following Rod Paige's departure as Secretary of Education, Spellings was nominated to the post of the Secretary of Education by George W. Bush on November 17, 2004. She faces confirmation hearings before the United States Senate."

Hearings which she breezed thru on Thursday:
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/07/national/07confirm.html

[FreeReign]

I'll dig up "full disclosure" for every author of every article I post if you will.

I didn't complain about AW's so-called lack of full disclosure, you did.

Understand?

[FreeReign]

Ask her. She'll likely answer your email. www.michellemalkin.com

I believe Armstrong aswered when asked.

[rdb3]

Malkin is one to be talking about getting paid. I like her but she's wrong.

It wouldn't be the first time for her to be completely wrong about something.

[JustAnotherSavage]

I don't recall mentioning anything about "disclosure" anywhere except in reply to you. If I'm wrong, point it out.

Understand?

[rdb3]

Because as conservatives we don't engage in moral relativism, we still have some standards and ethics, and we call our own out on the carpet when they violate those ethics.

Thanx for reminding me about something. Remember with Alan Keyes ran for that Illinois Senate seat? Keyes came out and touted some sort of reparations idea and some here at FR ate it up! I couldn't believe what I was reading.

If mhking, Trueblackman, or I came out in support of some kind of reparations, we'd be thrown off the forum.

Moral relativism is practiced by "true" conservatives all the time. And, they are partakers in cult of personalities and/or hero worship that they severely criticize others for doing.

The truth is stranger than fiction.

[Paradox]

I read that, so its not as bad as first seemed, but to me it still "smells", I dont like even the hint of impropriety.. I am not going to jump on the bandwagon and bash them, I just want it fixed, with assurances that this type of stuff wont occur again.

[dirtboy]

Moral relativism is practiced by "true" conservatives all the time.

Yep. I have a feeling this is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to payola to pundits. If we demand that Williams and the Education Department and the Bush Admin pay the piper for this transgression, we can then go after payola that lib pundits get from liberal advocacy groups or political campaigns. But we have no standing for that counterattack unless we clean up our own house first.

[dirtboy]

It may be unethical but if that's the case what about what the other side gets away with, everything from outright treason to constant coercion with the MSM.

That, quite frankly, is a leading reason why the Dems keep losing elections. At the end of the day, enough people realize the dangers of the moral relativism of the Dems to not trust them in positions of power.

However, that in turn imparts upon conservatives the responsibility to not rationalize away the transgressions of our own.

[Hildy]

I believe this is done ALL THE TIME. Where do you think schools and TV stations and other outlets get their funds to do their JUST SAY NO campaigns. Ya think PR companies just do it out of the kindness of their hearts? Come on. This is happening because it involves black conservatives. If people now don't like the policy than it should be changed by vote. But I wish someone in the media would do an expose on ALL the money that goes to things like this, and go back about 10 years also.

[JustAnotherSavage]

Does anyone remember this about Williams? He seems to change his mind, and one has to wonder if it isn't about money.

Journo: I've got his backo

By SONI SANGHA and CORKY SIEMASZKO
DAILY NEWS WRITERS


Talk about strange bedfellows: Michael Jackson has turned to one of his harshest critics, conservative columnist Armstrong Williams, to help dig him out of his child-sex mess.

Jackson went to Williams at the urging of youngest brother Randy, who is leading a new push to save the singer's hide, a family friend told the Daily News.

Randy's new role does not mean that brother Jermaine, who has been Jacko's staunchest and most public defender, has lost influence. "This is a band of brothers, as it were," the friend said yesterday.

But the move could mean a less public role for the Nation of Islam and its controversial leader, Minister Louis Farrakhan, whose bow-tied bodyguards are expected to be back flanking the weirdo warbler at a court appearance Friday.

Williams denied he is now an official spokesman but appeared on two news shows yesterday with a new take on the man whose makeovers and child sleepovers he has slammed.

"I was more surprised after speaking to him," he told ABC's "Good Morning America." "I always perceived him as someone feeble and weak and soft-spoken. I was stunned at the strength of character."

Williams also carried a complaint from Jacko: "He felt as though we in the media had gone overboard in our criticism." The King of Pop is fighting charges that he sexually molested a cancer-stricken boy at Neverland Ranch.

In December, Williams wrote that Jackson's admission on CBS' "60 Minutes" that he had kids over for sleepovers is proof of his "inability to develop a moral or spiritual foundation."

Williams also noted on CNN last month that Jackson seems to be getting bad advice and needs to clean house.

Yesterday, Williams argued that Jackson appears to be "back in control."

"He's running his affairs," he said, and "the role of the Nation [of Islam] has significantly diminished over the last month." --snip--
http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/163088p-142939c.html

[Southack]

"Keyes came out and touted some sort of reparations idea and some here at FR ate it up! I couldn't believe what I was reading."

I still like the idea, but that's because we could do so much damage to leftists by properly implementing the right details (e.g. paying "reparations" with government land instead of cash in order to get currently locked land back into Market circulation as well as screw the environazis who would not be able to howl against such a repayment due to political correctness)...but I digress.

As for Armstrong, what needs to be established is whether his firm was paid for and delivered 4 TV commercials for $240,000...or if he was paid solely to be a PR mouthpiece.

And the reason we need to know is because there is a big difference in delivering a product (i.e. the four commercials) from that of hiring out your personal opinion.

[dirtboy]

If people now don't like the policy than it should be changed by vote. But I wish someone in the media would do an expose on ALL the money that goes to things like this, and go back about 10 years also.

Best way to do that is to clean our own house, and then take the mops and brooms over to Liberaland and start swabbing away there.

[unbalanced but fair]

It just goes to show you how up to date on their information some of these so called journalists/columnists are. It does put into question the accuracy of their other comments.

[dirtboy]

As for Armstrong, what needs to be established is whether his firm was paid for and delivered 4 TV commercials for $240,000...or if he was paid solely to be a PR mouthpiece.

Solely isn't the right word to use here. After all, recall that Bill Clinton once said (I'm paraphrasing) that no one would ever find evidence that he changed policy due solely to a campaign contribution.

If any part of this contract involved a requirement to plug the program on TV pundit appearances or in columns, that to me is a serious ethical breach - by Williams, by the PR firm and by whoever was in charge of monitoring the PR contract at the Education Department.