U.S. paid journalist to tout law

WASHINGTON — The Education Department paid commentator Armstrong Williams $241,000 to help promote President Bush's No Child Left Behind law on the air, an arrangement that Williams acknowledged yesterday involved "bad judgment" on his part.

In taking the money, funneled through a public-relations firm, Williams produced and aired a commercial on his syndicated television and radio shows featuring Education Secretary Rod Paige, touted Bush's education policy and urged other programs to interview Paige. He didn't disclose the contract when talking about the law during cable-television appearances or writing about it in his newspaper column.

Congressional Democrats immediately accused the administration of trying to bribe journalists. Williams' newspaper syndicate, Tribune Media Services, canceled his column yesterday. And one television network dropped his program pending an investigation.

Williams, one of the most prominent black conservatives in the media, said he understands "why some people think it's unethical." Asked if people would be justified in believing that he sold his opinions to the government for cash, Williams said: "It's fair for someone to make that assessment."

The Education Department contract, first reported yesterday by USA Today, increased criticism of the administration's aggressive approach to news management. The department already has paid public-relations firm Ketchum $700,000 to rate journalists on how positively or negatively they report on No Child Left Behind, and to produce a video release on the law that was used by some television stations as if it were real news. Other government agencies also have distributed such prepackaged videos, a practice that congressional auditors have described as illegal in some cases.

Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., ranking Democrat on the House education committee, said the Williams contract "is propaganda, it's unethical, it's dangerous and it's illegal. ... This is worthy of Pravda." Committee Chairman John Boehner, R-Ohio, agreed to join Miller in requesting an inspector general's investigation, a spokesman said.

Miller cited two Government Accountability Office opinions that the administration violated federal law with video news releases. The GAO in May criticized the Health and Human Services Department for using the technique to promote Medicare's new prescription-drug benefit. It criticized the Office of National Drug Control Policy this week for distributing similar reports with a contractor posing as a journalist.

Miller, joined by House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and other Democrats, asked Bush in a letter to put an end to "covert propaganda."

In a separate letter, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, and Sens. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., and Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., asked the president to recover the money paid to Williams. "We believe that the act of bribing journalists to bias their news in favor of government policies undermines the integrity of our democracy," they wrote.

The Education Department defended the contract, which Paige knew about in advance, as a minority-outreach effort through Williams' syndicated program, "The Right Side."

"Our contract was for advertising," department spokesman John Gibbons said. "Our intent was to reach out to minority audiences. Armstrong went out and talked about it — we didn't have anything to do with that."

But the contract also required Williams to "utilize his long-term working relationship" with black producers to "encourage" them to "periodically address the No Child Left Behind Act."

Gibbons said the department stopped putting out video news releases after the first GAO report. Ketchum executives declined to comment.

Alex Jones, director of Harvard's Shorenstein media center, said he is "disgusted" by what he called "the worst kind of fakery and flackery" on Williams' part. "It's propaganda masquerading as news, paid by government, truly a recipe from hell," he said. "It would make any thinking person hearing any pundit speak want to say, 'OK, how much did they pay you to say that?' " The contract also shows that "the Bush administration neither understands nor respects the idea of an independent media," Jones said.

Williams, a one-time aide to Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, is founder and chief executive of the Graham Williams Group, a public-relations firm on Capitol Hill, and, according to his Web site, a "multimedia wonder." He frequently discusses politics on CNN and other networks and on his radio show. "The Right Side," which he both hosts and owns, is carried by the Lynchburg-based Liberty Channel, which is affiliated with Jerry Falwell; Sky Angel satellite network, a Christian organization; and Sinclair Broadcast Group.

His other show, "On Point" — where Williams interviewed Paige last year — is carried by TV One, a Silver Spring, Md.-based network aimed at African Americans. Williams said he had disclosed his contract to TV One, but chief executive Johnathon Rodgers said the network knew nothing about it and has taken the show off the air while it investigates.

Neither Williams' radio show nor his television program is heard in Washington state, according to his Web site.

As a longtime supporter of No Child Left Behind, Williams said, he was receptive in the summer of 2003 when Education Department and Ketchum officials approached him about buying an ad on "The Right Side" to promote the law. While he "agonized" over the first of two six-month contracts, he said, the law "is something I believe in."

Williams said he aired the spot twice on each "Right Side" broadcast and disclosed the contract on that show. He said he successfully urged another black television personality, Steve Harvey, to interview Paige twice.

Williams has written several newspaper columns defending administration education policy. He wrote last January that the No Child Left Behind law "has provided more funds to poor children than any other education bill in this country's history." He wrote in May that the law "holds entire schools accountable."

In the Puget Sound area, the column has been published regularly for years by the King County Journal. Williams' Web site says the column is featured in The Seattle Times, but the newspaper never has published it.

Williams praised the law on CNN in October. He "didn't disclose to us that he was a paid spokesman, and we believe he should have," CNN spokesman Matthew Furman said. "We will obviously take that into serious consideration before booking Armstrong in the future."

Williams said he will not accept such government contracts again.

Washington Post reporter Ceci Connolly contributed to this report; the presence of Williams' work in Washington state was provided by Seattle Times staff.