www.cnn.com/2005/ALLPOLITICS/01/07/bush.journalist.ap/index.html
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Bush administration paid a prominent commentator t o promote the No Child Left Behind schools law to fellow blacks and to g ive the education secretary media time, records show. A company run by Armstrong Williams, the syndicated commentator, was paid $240,000 by the Education Department. The goal was to deliver positive messages about Bush's education overhaul, using Williams' broad reach wi th minorities. The deal, which drew a fast rebuke from Democrats on Capitol Hill, is the latest to put the department on the defensive for the way it has promot ed Bush's signature domestic policy. The contract required Williams' company, the Graham Williams Group, to pr oduce radio and TV ads that feature one-minute "reads" by Education Secr etary Rod Paige. The deal also allowed Paige and other department offici als to appear as studio guests with Williams. Williams, one of the leading black conservative voices in the country, wa s also to use his influence with other black journalists to get them to talk about No Child Left Behind. The law, a centerpiece of President Bush's domestic agenda, aims to raise achievement among poor and minority children, with penalties for many s chools that don't make progress. White House spokesman Scott McClellan said Friday that the decisions on t he practice were made by the Education Department. He did not directly a nswer when asked whether the White House approved of the practice, sayin g it was a department matter. The Education Department defended its decision as a "permissible use of t axpayer funds under legal government contracting procedures." The point was to help parents, particularly in poor and minority communities, unde rstand the benefits of the law, the department said. Williams called criticism of his relationship with the department "legiti mate." "It's a fine line," he told The Associated Press on Friday. "Even though I'm not a journalist -- I'm a commentator -- I feel I should be held to the media ethics standard. Three Democratic senators -- Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey, Edward Kenne dy of Massachusetts and Harry Reid of Nevada -- wrote Bush Friday to dem and he recover the money paid to Armstrong. The lawmakers contended that "the act of bribing journalists to bias their news in favor of governme nt policies undermines the integrity of our democracy." George Miller of California, the top Democrat on the House education committee, asked for an inspector general investigation into whether th e deal with legal and ethical. He and other Democrats also wrote Bush to call for an end to "covert propaganda." The department's contract with Williams, through the public relations fir m Ketchum, dates to 2003 and 2004. It follows another recent flap about the agency's publicity efforts. The Bush administration has promoted No Child Left Behind with a video th at comes across as a news story but fails to make clear the reporter inv olved was paid with taxpayer money. It has also paid for rankings of new spaper coverage of the law, with points awarded for stories that say Bus h and the Republican Party are strong on education. The Government Accou ntability Office, Congress' auditing arm, is investigating those spendin g decisions. The GAO has twice ruled that the Bush administration's use of prepackaged videos -- to promote federal drug policy and a new Medicare law -- is " covert propaganda" because the videos do not make clear to the public th at the government produced the promotional news. "There is no defense for using taxpayer dollars to pay journalists for 'f ake news' and favorable coverage of a federal program," said Ralph Neas, president of People for the American Way, a liberal group that has trac ked the department's spending. USA Today first reported information about the contract with Williams.
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