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Williams’ ‘Payola’ Was Part of a Covert Propaganda Campaign
By: George E. Curry
NNPA, Editor-in-Chief
Originally posted 1/11/2005
WASHINGTON (NNPA) – The disclosure that conservative pundit Armstrong Williams was paid $240,000 while serving as a media “talking head” to help persuade African-Americans to back President Bush’s No Child Left Behind law is part of larger government scheme to blur the line between legitimate news reporting and political propaganda, elected officials and watchdog groups say.
“I am appalled to learn that the U.S. Department of Education has apparently used taxpayers dollars to influence public opinion,” Rep. Elijah E. Cummings (D-Md.), immediate past chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, said in a statement. “… Covert propaganda to influence public opinion is illegal, unethical and dangerous. It violates fundamental principles of open government, it distorts the free press and the public’s right to know.”
Last Friday, USA Today published a front-page story that began: “Seeking to build support among black families for its education reform law, the Bush administration paid a prominent black pundit $240,000 to promote the law on his nationally syndicated television show and to urge other black journalists to do the same.”
The newspaper, citing copies of documents it obtained under the federal Freedom of Information Act, disclosed that Williams received a subcontract from Ketchum public relations firm “to regularly comment on NCLB [No Child Left Behind] during the course of his broadcasts.” The PR agency’s contract was for $1 million.
Williams, who hosts his own radio and TV programs, is a regular panelist on America’s Black Forum, a syndicated television program. According to the contract, Williams was to use his contacts with the program to “encourage the producers to periodically address” NCLB and was to interview Secretary of Education Rod Paige for paid TV and radio spots. In addition, he was to contact comedian Steve Harvey to arrange appearances for Paige. USAToday said Harvey’s manager, Rushion McDonald, confirmed that Paige had appeared twice on the comedian’s radio show.
“There is no defense for using taxpayer dollars to pay journalists for ‘fake news’ and favorable coverage of a federal program. It’s a scandalous waste, it’s unethical and it’s wrong,” says Ralph G. Neas, president of People for the American Way, a Washington-based public interest group. “It reminds me of the old ‘payola’ scandals in radio.
Armstrong Williams received $240,000 of our tax dollars – yours and mine – to create propaganda for a government program,” he said in a news release.
People for the American Way is mounting a national campaign to force Williams to return the money.
In an interview with the NNPA News Service, Williams says, “I regret what I did [not disclosing a conflict of interest] …Before, it was not even a consideration because I wasn’t familiar with journalism guidelines. But I am willing to adhere to journalism standards.”
He vehemently disagrees with those who think he should return the money to the Department of Education.
“I have no intention of giving any money back,” Williams states. “They got what they paid for – and they got it cheaply. I’m in a business. This is how I earn a living, I sell advertising.”
Williams denies ever urging television producers to arrange for No Child Left Behind to be discussed on air, though he signed a contract to that effect.
“I don’t care what they put in the contract, my understanding with the Department of Education was that I would never do that,” he says. “I never thought it was necessary to talk to America’s Black Forum or anyone else.”
News of Williams’s ethical lapse appeared on the front pages of USA Today, the Washington Post and the New York Times and made most of the network news programs.
“You can criticize me, you can take me to task, but let me just tell you something, this is an issue that has been blown up,” Williams asserts. “I’m stunned at how huge it is. I admit there were ethical matters, as I look back at it in hindsight, but I never considered mentioning it to anybody because it was advertising and we do advertising all the time. The difference is we’ve never done it with the government.”
Williams is not the only person or agency caught in an ethical quagmire.
According to the General Accounting Office (GAO), the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) both engaged in propaganda efforts by producing and distributing pro-Bush administration videos that simulated television news stories.
The GAO report on ONDCP, issued earlier this month, noted: “Each of ONDCP’s news stories includes narration by an unseen person, sometimes identified as Mike Morris or Karen Ryan. (The scripts for ONDCP’s prepackaged news stories refer to this person as the ‘announcer.’) The narrator explains that he or she is ‘reporting’ on press conferences and other activities of ONDCP and other government officials regarding ONDCP’s anti-drug campaign.”
The report continues, “Each story is accompanied by proposed ‘lead-in’ and ‘closing’ remarks to be spoken by television station news anchors. Many of the suggested anchor remarks include a phrase like, ‘Mike Morris has the story,’ or ‘Mike Morris has more.’… None of these narrators were affiliated with any news organization at the time the stories were produced and distributed.”
Those prepackaged video news releases (VNRs) were carried on nearly 300 television stations, reaching more than 22 million households, the GAO reported. “…We conclude that the prepackaged news stories in these VNRs constitute covert propaganda and violated the publicity or propaganda prohibition because ONDCP did not identify itself to the viewing audience as the producer and distributor of these prepackaged news stories,” the GAO report states.
Likewise, Armstrong Williams wrote about and commented on No Child Left Behind without disclosing his financial connection.
The National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) issued a news release highly critical of Williams.
“I thought we in the media were supposed to be watchdogs, not lapdogs, not lapdogs,” said Brian Monroe, the association’s vice president for print. “I thought we had an administration headed by a president who took an oath to uphold the First Amendment, not to try to rent it.”
NABJ’s vice president for broadcast, Barbara Ciara, said of Williams: “He’s lost his credibility. He’s tainted fruit and he’s unfairly indicted all commentators who have their own independent opinion, don’t need a script from the administration and don’t need to be paid off.”
The association called on all media outlets that use Williams to “drop him immediately.”
Williams says he is a pundit and, at first, did not think he should be judged by journalistic standards.
“What they’re saying is that, ‘We hold you to the same standards that we hold journalists,’ he says. “Before, they said, ‘You’re shrill, you have no audience, nobody pays you any attention.’ Now, all of a sudden, they’re treating me like I am a New York Time journalist or a Washington Post journalist. They are saying I’m in the same league as a journalist. I never put myself off as a journalist.”
Williams is chief executive officer of the Graham Williams Group, which describes itself as an international public relations firm. Williams’ admitted behavior doesn’t just violate professional journalism standards, it violates the Public Relations Society of America’s [PRSA] Code of Ethics.
Those guidelines require publicists to, “Avoid actions and circumstances that may appear to compromise good business judgment or create a conflict or potential conflict between personal and professional interests.” The code obligates public relations practitioners to, “Disclose promptly any existing or potential conflict of interest to affected clients or organizations.” The association also objects to “lying by omission.”
In one appearance on CNN, Williams discussed the No Child Left Behind Act without disclosing that he was being paid to back the measure, according to network officials. In his column, which has now been dropped by Tribune Media Services, a subsidiary of the Chicago Tribune, Williams made more than a dozen references to No Child Left behind without disclosing his status as a paid contractor.
In one column, dated May 14 of last year, on the 50th anniversary of the landmark Supreme Court decision outlawing segregated schools, Williams wrote: “…Fifty years after Brown v. Board of Education, we need to ensure that our children are receiving a decent education, regardless of income, background or race. This need was not lost on President Bush, who passed the bi-partisan No Child Left Behind Act. Among other things, the act holds public schools accountable for failing to properly educate our children. That constitutes an important victory because up until recently, the teachers unions would be damned if they were going to allow public school teachers to be held accountable for the job they do educating our children.”
In another May column, Williams directly referred to No Child Left Behind, the centerpiece of Bush’s domestic agenda, six times. Attacking the National Education Association, Williams wrote, “They are fundamentally opposed to any education reform – like vouchers or the No Child Left Behind Act – that seeks to hold public schools accountable for their failures.”
Not only did Williams refuse to mention in that column that he was being paid to support the law, he also failed to disclose his close ties to the pro-voucher movement. He sits on the advisory board of the Black Alliance for Educational Options (BAEO), a group primarily made up Back conservatives, including Ohio Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell.
In addition to being bankrolled by conservative foundations, including the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation and the Walton Family Foundation, the group received a $600,000 grant from the Department of Education in 2002 and another $500,000 award in 2003. Unlike its arrangement with Armstrong Williams, the Education Department announced its grants to BAEO.
In the interest of full disclosure, this writer has written critically of BAEO and its lack of support among African-Americans in personal opinion columns.
Williams says he will self-syndicate his column to approximately 50 newspapers that now carry him and issued a warning to those who think ethical transgressions are limited to him.
“The syndicate can cancel my column –that is their right,” Williams states. “But they should be careful with this murky road. I am definitely not the only commentator or pundit that does something like this. Let me be clear on that.”
Rep. Cummings is clear in his belief that the Bush administration should not be using taxpayers’ money in this manner to advance its political agenda.
“Under No Child Left Behind, Congress authorized approximately $122 billion to improve public schools and close achievement gaps. However, to date, this effort has been underfunded by $27 billion,” he says. “…. I am disappointed that the administration gave priority to helping a political commentator profit while refusing to provide promised for academic support for low-income students, after-school programs, and other NCLB initiatives.”
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