Media

State run news agencies in America?

By Stuart James
Online Journal Contributing Writer

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January 14, 2005—Government advertising is one thing. State run news is another.

When government starts spinning the news, paying to air an "advertisement" as a legitimate news story, with government's spin on the story, then we are talking about state run news. The government pays for the news, the news it wants you to hear. The White House is engaged in paying for the news, the news it wants you to hear.

The Soviet Union had "state run news"—a system of news where the government controlled what was included in the news, and what was excluded from the news. Under the Soviet régime, the people learned what the government wanted the people to learn. There was no freedom of the press; there was no guarantee that the public received accurate, unbiased, and objective news. It was the news that the government wanted to report.

Last week, Cox News Service reported that the Bush administration undertook efforts to shape news coverage regarding the No Child Left Behind Act. The Department of Education paid $240,000 to Armstrong Williams, a prominent black conservative voice in the media, requiring him to regularly comment on the No Child Left Behind Act. Mr. Williams was also required to urge other black journalists to do the same. Additionally, the money was paid to Williams's public relations firm to produce advertisements promoting the No Child Left Behind Act.

The Bush administration spin reported by Williams was reported as news. Williams was told by the government what to say, when to say it, and how to say it—reporting the information as news, not as an advertisement.

There is a line between fair press reporting and advertisement. The Bush administration is crossing that line; paying a journalist to report what the administration wants us to hear.

In the United States, we do not have state-run news agencies. Our constitution provides in the First Amendment: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Lucy Dalglish, the executive director of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, said that administration's program made her extremely nervous and uneasy.

Ms. Dalglish stated, "At first I thought it was an aberration, but now—certainly with the Education Department—it appears to be a pattern, and I'm definitely wondering who else is on their payroll . . ." She said she was "blown away".

Mr. Williams, himself, said that he regretted the contract.

He stated, "My judgment was not the best, I wouldn't do it again, and I learned from it. There is a thin line. There's a gray area, and I think I crossed it."

Conservative columnist Jonah Goldberg said that Mr. Williams should give the money back.

Mr. Goldberg said, "I think he should probably be ashamed of himself for taking it. I think the White House really screwed up . . . All I can say is that if Bill Clinton had gotten caught giving Joe Conason a quarter of a million dollars to be flogging their policies, guys like me would have smoke coming out of our ears, and the right would go crazy."

It is time for the American public to go crazy, demanding that George W. Bush and our government stop this reprehensible conduct before it gets out of hand. Government undertaking to "sponsor news" by paying others to tell the story government wants us to hear takes us one step toward establishing state run news—a slippery slope that we, as a free society, do not want to take.

Mr. Goldberg is right, if Bill Clinton had gotten caught doing something like this, smoke would be coming out of conservatives' ears . . .

It is time for smoke to be coming out of our ears.