[mhking]

Armstrong Williams is a commentator and not a reporter. He should have just said that he never wrote or stated anything that that he didn't already believe and that he wouldn't have written about anyway.

That does not exclude him from having proper ethics. He said so himself.

“It’s a fine line. Even though I’m not a journalist — I’m a commentator — I feel I should be held to the media ethics standard. My judgment was not the best. I wouldn’t do it again, and I learned from it.”

I also believe that those ethics are necessary, and certainly follow those standards myself.

Wrong is wrong. And yes, it was unnecessary -- all he had to do was to have full disclosure prior to his commentaries on the matter.

[xzins]

I actually think it has more to do with how they went about financing it.

If Dept of Ed is like any other Dept, they have numerous in-house journals. Hire the guy to write for those.

He gets paid by the papers for his columns. What's the difference?