Bush Tells Cabinet to Stop Paying Columnists

What passes in America for the left was all adither earlier this week when it turned out a second member of the punditocracy was on the payroll of the federal government. News broke that syndicated columnist Maggie Gallagher took $21,500 from the Department of Health and Human Services while defending a $300 million federal boondoggle to encourage marriage. Earlier, the world discovered Armstrong Williams, another right-winger, got almost a quarter of a million for supporting the No Child Left Behind nonsense. Mr. Bush has said government shouldn’t pay pundits to squawk the government line. That begs the question of who should pay them and for what.

First off, any writer, commentator or other professional talking head gets paid for voicing their opinions just like a plumber gets paid for plumbing or a burger-flipper for flipping burgers. Someone, somewhere is giving them money. There is nothing wrong with that.

However, what got Mr. Williams and Ms. Gallagher into trouble was government money finding its way into their bank accounts while they were touting government policies. Or more accurately, the fact that they didn’t let everyone know that they were taking federal funds created the problem. Was government money influencing their opinion? Probably not, but the appearance of something sinister actually undermines government policy.

To a degree, the same thing applies when the funds are from the private sector. NBC News is always quick to point out, when reporting on General Electric, that GE owns NBC. It lets the viewer know in advance that the source may be influenced, perhaps even unknowingly, but it is relevant that the mortgage and the kids’ braces are paid for in that way. The Chinese saying asks “Whose rice are you eating?”

But just how far should this go? At the end of the day, the private sector is trying to guess what the public wants. Someday, a reporter will have to say, “I get paid by a big corporation to tell you things they think you should know for the public good, while at the same time making sure you buy another corporation’s brand of dental adhesive and laxative. We are going to sanitize this to fit what we think are your sensibilities for fear that you’ll buy someone’s denture crème and bulk fiber if we offend you. With that in mind, everything’s fine, not as good as when you were a kid, but still, not as bad as you had it either.” Under current standards, only the final sentence gets aired.

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© Copyright 2005 by The Kensington Review, J. Myhre, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent.

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