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wow edelman called BS on ketchum deal

no merri

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Major US newspapers and broadcast TV news outlets often failed to report on Jim Jordan’s role in undermining the 2020 election – and ignored the risk to certification in 2024 if he becomes speaker | Media Matters for America

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1 24 judd ymail

david D. Smith, the executive chairman of Sinclair Broadcast Group (Sinclair), purchased the Baltimore Sun — the largest newspaper in Maryland — for an undisclosed sum. The acquisition means another powerful media outlet will be under the control of a wealthy conservative businessman with a history of using local media outlets to push an ideological agenda.

Smith is the son of Sinclair founder Julian Sinclair Smith and, along with his brothers, controls the company. Sinclair, a publicly traded company, owns or operates 185 local television stations across 86 markets. A 2018 study published in the American Political Science Review found that stations purchased by Sinclair "coverage of national politics at the expense of local politics" and undergo "a significant rightward shift in the ideological slant of coverage."

Sinclair regularly requires its local affiliates to run segments pushing right-wing talking points. In 2018, Sinclair affiliates were required to have local anchors read a script warning views about "fake stories" being published by other media outlets "to push their own personal bias and agenda." The trend was described as "extremely dangerous to a democracy." The argument, which included no actual examples, matched then-president Donald Trump's rhetoric about the media.

When Sinclair faced criticism for puppeteering its local anchors, Trump defended the company. "So funny to watch Fake News Networks, among the most dishonest groups of people I have ever dealt with, criticize Sinclair Broadcasting for being biased," Trump said. "Sinclair is far superior to CNN and even more Fake NBC, which is a total joke."

Sinclair stations were also required to run political commentary from Boris Epshteyn, who previously served as a Trump advisor and surrogate. Sinclair hired Epshteyn as its chief political analyst. Epshteyn's segments for Sinclair were mostly indistinguishable from his work for the Trump campaign. "The American people demand change, and they demand action, and that’s exactly what they’ll get from this administration going forward," Epshteyn declared in one piece.

Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law and advisor, said that in 2016, the Trump campaign provided Sinclair stations with extensive access to Trump in exchange for friendly coverage that did not include fact-checking. "We are here to deliver your message," Smith told Trump in a 2016 meeting. Sinclair executives denied there was anything unusual or unethical about its dealings with the Trump campaign. Sinclair affiliates have also promoted right-wing conspiracy theories, including claims that DNC staffer Seth Rich was murdered by a hitman as payback for sharing sensitive emails to Wikileaks.

The history of using Sinclair-owned stations to push a right-wing agenda predates Trump. In 2004, "Sinclair ordered its stations to broadcast an hour-long documentary — preempting prime-time programming — titled Stolen Honor: Wounds That Never Heal that blamed Democratic nominee John Kerry for the torture of American prisoners of war in Vietnam."

In an interview with the Baltimore Sun, Smith defended Sinclair's news coverage "as balanced and apolitical." According to Smith, Sinclair is "not perfect" but overall is "much better than a lot of folk."

Smith, not Sinclair, is purchasing the Baltimore Sun — although that may be a distinction without a difference. Smith said, "he envisions opportunities for partnerships between The Sun and Sinclair, such as promoting each other’s stories, and other synergies in the future."

The checkered history of Smith's right-hand man

Smith did not purchase the Baltimore Sun alone. He brought along one partner: Armstrong Williams, a right-wing pundit and operative.

Williams has his own syndicated show on Sinclair stations. His social media accounts are full of incendiary statements about Democrats and liberals. "Each day Joe Biden has sat in office, we have gotten closer and closer to a fascist communist nation," Armstrong wrote on January 10. On January 5, he accused Biden of "destroy[ing] American democracy." }:}:

On December 19, Armstrong decried "the real time consequences of being infiltrated by radical left-wingers and the acceptance of their insane political agendas." (The issue was the Pope slightly softening his stance on same-sex marriages.) On December 6, Armstrong called Biden "a senile senior citizen" who "barely knows right from left." Armstrong also called the prosecutors pursuing cases against Trump as "terrorists" and promoted false narratives and conspiracy theories about the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol.}:

Armstrong served as an advisor to former presidential candidate and Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Ben Carson. He claims to have paid for Justice Clarence Thomas' wedding reception. In 2005, Armstrong lost his syndicated column after it was revealed that he had been paid $240,000 by the George W. Bush administration to promote their signature education initiative, No Child Left Behind.

Follow the money

Smith has used his vast wealth to support a variety of far-right causes. The Baltimore Banner reports that since 2015, Smith, through his family foundation, has donated large sums to Young Americans for Liberty ($581,000), Project Veritas ($536,000), Turning Point USA ($150,000), and Moms for Liberty ($121,000).

Smith does not support Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott (D), and has sought to recruit opponents to unseat him. Sinclair stations have provided highly favorable coverage to former Mayor Shelia Dixon (D), who is running against Scott this year. Armstrong conducted an interview with Dixon on a Sinclair affiliate last summer that consisted mostly of "praise for Dixon and criticism of current elected officials."

In 2022, Smith backed a successful ballot initiative to impose term limits on Baltimore's elected officials. Currently, Smith is "underwriting Renew Baltimore, a ballot drive to cap and lower the property tax rate."

Now, Smith has a new tool in his arsenal to shape Baltimore's politics: the city's paper of record.

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Armstrong Williams, a Sinclair-affiliated pundit and Sinclair business partner, has Trump administration ties
Trump has given exclusive interviews to Sinclair reporters at least 16 times

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mma

Get a load of this wild Sinclair town hall discussion on “youth & morality”

Sinclair says such discussions are a “significant public interest benefit” for stations it buys

Blog ››› May 22, 2018 ››› PAM VOGEL

Last night, Sinclair Broadcast Group station WJLA hosted a “town hall” discussion on "youth & morality" featuring morally bankrupt media personality Armstrong Williams, young conservative talking heads Charlie Kirk and Candace Owens, a campus carry activist, and a Daily Caller reporter (among others) -- and Sinclair wants you to believe it’s for the public good.

The town hall was branded as both an episode of Sinclair-linked commentator Armstrong Williams’ show and a part of Sinclair’s ongoing town hall discussion series. The town hall does not appear to have yet aired on WJLA and it’s not clear if it has aired or will air on the WJLA-operated local Washington, D.C., cable channel News Channel 8, but it’s posted in full on WJLA’s website.

Sinclair touts its “Your Voice, Your Future” local town halls as a public service and an opportunity to “alert, inform, empower and engage our audience.” Here’s a quick clip to give you an idea of how that went:

For this event, “morality” actually meant Christianity specifically

Though the panel was titled “Youth & Morality,” it was advertised as largely focusing on one study that showed dwindling millennial identification with Christianity, which WJLA characterized as a sign of “unprecedented moral decline.” The panel discussion was filmed at the Museum of the Bible.

Two minutes into the town hall, host Armstrong Williams asked the audience to raise their hands if they believe in God. (Williams also asked for audience members to raise their hands if they were atheist; one person did and panelists grimaced.) Williams’ first question for the panelists followed from there: “Can you be moral and good and not believe in God?” (Most of the panelists agreed that it was possible but not as easy.) Within eight minutes, panelists were equating “objective truth” with a belief in a Christian god and arguing that the inability to identify objective truths was “cultural Marxist.”

At one point during a commercial break, Williams can be heard joking on a live mic, “Don’t fall asleep on me!” The panel returned from that break to listen to Charlie Kirk talk about “the distinction between Christianity and other religions.”

The “morality” panel was hosted by the notoriously morally challenged Armstrong Williams

The town hall was hosted by conservative pundit Armstrong Williams, who has significant ties to Sinclair. Williams hosts a weekly show that airs on the Sinclair-owned News Channel 8 in the D.C. area and is syndicated on other Sinclair local TV stations across the country. Williams also owns several local TV stations through his holding company, Howard Stirk Holdings, which in turn sends business back to Sinclair through operations agreements.

Williams is a close confidante of Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Ben Carson, even doing public relations work on behalf of Carson while continuing to also work as a media figure. (He also served as a Carson presidential campaign adviser while maintaining his weekly hosting duties.) Recently, Williams has aligned himself with other members of the Trump administration, joining Sinclair CEO David Smith in meeting with Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai -- who was then a commissioner -- to advocate for pro-industry policies the day before Trump’s inauguration. About two months later, Williams hosted Pai on his show for a friendly interview.

Back in 2005, Williams used an earlier version of his syndicated show to promote Bush administration education policies, failing to note he was paid $240,000 by the administration to do so. The Government Accountability Office subsequently found that the Bush Department of Education had violated federal laws about covert government propaganda by paying Williams for the promotion.

Williams has also settled at least two sexual harassment suits -- one in 1997 involving reports that he “repeatedly kissed and fondled” a former producer for his now-defunct radio show over the course of nearly two years, and another in 2017 alleging that he groped and sought sexual favors from a former employee and later retaliated against the man.

During the panel, Williams talked about his daily prayer routine and decision not to “use profane language” at work because he is the “moral leader” in his office.

Several participants also seem to struggle with morals

The panel featured eight participants in addition to Williams, the majority of whom were young conservative media figures who fall at various points on the spectrum from extreme or blatantly racist to embarrassing or just boring.

:{TPUSA’s Charlie Kirk and Candace Owens both participated in parts of the town hall. Frequent Fox News guest and conservative “boy wonder” Kirk is the founder of TPUSA, a group best known for a misguided 2017 protest in which its members wore adult diapers to “trigger the libs,” but whose stated mission is to “identify, educate, train, and organize students to promote the principles of freedom, free markets, and limited government.”

Kirk, Owens, and TPUSA frequently fearmonger about suppression of conservative speech on college campuses while themselves leading a McCarthyist doxxing effort against liberal professors. Meanwhile, TPUSA has defended at least one professor with ties to a white nationalist group and several of its leading members have been outed for expressing patently racist sentiments, e.g. the group’s former national field director making the statement “I HATE BLACK PEOPLE.”...}:

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https://www.alternet.org/watch-surreal-sinclair-broadcasting-town-hall-goes-rails-discussion-youth-and-morality

...Sinclair Broadcast Group station WJLA hosted a “town hall” discussion on "youth & morality" featuring morally bankrupt media personality Armstrong Williams, young conservative talking heads Charlie Kirk and Candace Owens, a campus carry activist, and a Daily Caller reporter (among others) -- and Sinclair wants you to believe it’s for the public good.

The town hall was branded as both an episode of Sinclair-linked commentator Armstrong Williams’ show and a part of Sinclair’s ongoing town hall discussion series. The town hall does not appear to have yet aired on WJLA and it’s not clear if it has aired or will air on the WJLA-operated local Washington, D.C., cable channelNews Channel 8, but it’s posted in full on WJLA’s website.

Sinclair touts its “Your Voice, Your Future” local town halls as a public service and an opportunity to “alert, inform, empower and engage our audience.” Here’s a quick clip to give you an idea of how that wen

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https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB861917340688900500

clinton jihad:

no lnx

By Edward Felsenthal and David Rogers Staff Reporters of The Wall Street Journal

April 25, 1997

WASHINGTON -- Virginia Thomas, wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, had to force herself to be pleasant when she met Hillary Clinton for the first time four years ago.

Mrs. Clinton had been an outspoken supporter of Anita Hill, the woman who had famously accused Mr. Thomas of sexual harassment during his 1991 confirmation hearings. Ms. Thomas couldn't get the association out of her mind.

"For me, it was, 'Wow, now I have to, in my role, be respectful and cordial and courteous,' " Ms. Thomas recalls thinking as she moved through a receiving line toward the new first lady. Although the brief encounter was awkward for her, Ms. Thomas says she was proud of how she handled it. She gave Mrs. Clinton some verses from the Bible, along with a warning about how tough this city can be.

Today Ms. Thomas feels a kinship with Mrs. Clinton. Like the first lady, she is best known as the spouse of a prominent man. But also like Mrs. Clinton, she has become a controversial political player and has been the subject of vigorous public criticism for her partisan activities.

Although she takes pains to carve out her own identity, Ms. Thomas, 40 years old, is inevitably linked with her husband in much of what she does. "A lot of people treat her a certain way ... because of who she is married to," says radio-host Armstrong Williams, a former close aide and a friend to Justice Thomas.

Awkward Predicament

Ms. Thomas says there are challenges that come with "being a Supreme Court spouse, as opposed to just a lawyer working in Washington." Her dual role highlights an increasingly common political phenomenon: Now that many political partners are professionals themselves, they face an awkward predicament. Many find they have to struggle to avoid being used as political tools or being perceived as benefiting from their spouse's position.

Barbara Olson, an aide to the Senate leadership who has worked in congressional investigations of the Clinton administration, has been a target of Democratic sniping that she is a proxy for her husband, Theodore Olson, a prominent lawyer who has represented one of the president's accusers in the Whitewater affair. Republicans in the last Congress delighted in cutting money for a small anticrime program that paid consulting fees to Sylvia Panetta, wife of then-White House Chief-of-Staff Leon Panetta. That put Mr. Panetta in the uncomfortable position of having to fight to get the money back.

Ms. Thomas had already made a name for herself as an activist in conservative circles before Republicans took over Congress in 1994. But her influence grew after that election when her boss, Rep. Dick Armey of Texas, became House majority leader.

Ms. Thomas operates much as an eager young administrative officer back at the base camp for the Republican infantry. She works behind the scenes, serving as part strategist and part cheerleader for the leadership's effort tobeef-up the GOP's ability to investigate and oversee the White House and executive agencies.[benghazi much later?]

Partisan Battles

It is a role that takes her from dry, detailed General Accounting Office reports to the higher-profile and more partisan-edged investigations of administration scandals. She has assisted with the investigations of White House ethics, Whitewater, the firing of the White House travel staff, and the late Commerce Secretary Ron Brown's financial dealings. When Republicans approved an expanded budget for House committee investigations last month, the move partly reflected Ms. Thomas's influence.

She has figured in several high-profile fights involving the House Appropriations Committee. Over the objections of some Republicans on the committee, she pressed hard for deep cuts in funding to Legal Services Corp., a provider of legal aid to the poor that she viewed as using federal money to advance liberal causes.

And in a stormy panel meeting in1995, she stood watch on behalf of Mr. Armey as Republicans reluctantly lined up behind a leadership attempt to bar funding for nonprofit organizations that engage in advocacy, in many cases for poor constituencies. The measure ultimately failed because of opposition in the Senate.

During this Congress, Ms. Thomas has stepped back, as the leadership has relaxed its efforts to control committee chairmen. But she is still a force behind continuing investigations, and before last year's election she helped gather information on White House scandals for Republicans to use on the campaign trail. (That project was abandoned after word of its existence leaked, prompting concern that it would make Republicans look like scandalmongers.)

A memo this past January titled "Foreign Money Contributions Scandal" illustrates Ms. Thomas's style. Throwing as wide a net as possible, she addressed it to Republican staff on 19 committees, including the sensitive Intelligence panel. In it, she cited statutes or regulations that might have been violated by overseas contributions to Democrats. She urged staff directors to be "watchful" for administration efforts to dismiss problems as just "campaign finance." Ms. Thomas wrote, "what we don't know is how much was for sale in the Clinton presidency."

Though Ms. Thomas is good-humored and engaging, her writing sometimes gets her into trouble.Much of her job is simply informational: She helps produce a biweekly "Oversight Bulletin" publicizing current investigations. But when she pens strategy, she betrays a partisan edge that makes experienced staff directors blanch.

A case in point is an April 1996 memo she wrote for Republican congressmen Bob Walker and Jim Nussleand sent to House committees, asking for "examples of dishonesty or ethical lapses in the Clinton administration" and "anecdotes that amplify these areas." The memo requested that all such materials be sent to her as quickly as possible and reminded committee chairs that "you are a tremendous resource for this project."

Democratic Backlash

Democrats quickly turned Ms. Thomas's memo on the Republicans, claiming it proved that the investigations were partisan. During one hearing, Democrats blew up the memo and posted it on an easel to suggest that the proceeding was part of a GOP plot to denigrate the administration.

Even some Republican staff members complained that it went too far. "It didn't dawn on her that in Congress, things aren't supposed to appear politically driven,"even if they are, says a senior GOP aide who has worked with her.

In May, two weeks after the memo was distributed, Democratic Rep. Jim Moran of Virginia spotted Ms. Thomas in the audience at a hearing on the White House travel-office firings. In a rare public attack on a congressional staffer, he demanded to know why "Mrs. Clarence Thomas in that bright blue dress" was present. "I really smell a political witch hunt," he said.

Ms. Thomas didn't endure the attack silently. Later that day, she confronted Mr. Moran on a House elevator and showed him a copy of a book, "Everything Men Know About Women," in which all the pages are blank. "This book is about you," she said.Justice Thomas later left his wife a voice-mail message in which he teasingly sang verses of the song, "Devil With a Blue Dress On."

Spousal Conflict?

Democratic Rep. Paul Kanjorski of Pennsylvania, who also questioned Ms. Thomas's role at the travel-office hearing, believes it is a conflict of interest for her to be involved in disputes between Congress and the White House that the Supreme Court might be called on to settle. "We may have a problem here where the marital relationship confuses the constitutional intent" of the separation of powers, Mr. Kanjorski says. Ms. Thomas laughs when told of Mr. Kanjorski's statement, but declines to comment.

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https://www.alternet.org/media/radical-right-attempting-hostile-media-takeover

Imagine, if you can, reading a glowing profile of former national security adviser Steve Bannon, or a featurette about White House communications director Hope Hicks' favorite hobbies. Now imagine reading one of those stories in the formerly progressive alt-weekly that launched the careers of Ta-Nehisi Coates, David Carr and Katherine Boo, among countless others. 

That is the scenario in play if Armstrong Williams and his shadowy business partner, Steve Kalifa, follow through on their threats to buy the Washington City Paper. According to the Washington Post, news of Williams' interest has "rattled" staffers, with some discussing the possibility of resigning in protest should the purchase come to pass.

Their apprehension would appear justified. While Williams maintains he has no desire to alter the publication's politics, far-right investors are setting their sights on some of the country's most prestigious newspapers and magazines, as the conservative Sinclair Broadcasting Group has expanded in 15 territories and Donald Trump continues his unholy crusade against "fake news." (A recent Poynter study finds Republicans' trust in the mainstream media has plummeted to historic lows.)

The Washington City Paper's uncertain future dovetails with the demise of the American alternative weekly newspaper. Once flush with local advertising dollars, these local weeklies were leveled by Craigslist, then crushed by Google and Facebook. The Boston Phoenix folded in 2013, and the Village Voice canceled its print edition earlier this year. For the time being, the Washington City Paper is owned by SouthComm, but the Nashville media company has signaled it will either sell before the end of the year or terminate the publication altogether.

Enter Armstrong Williams. A friend and associate of Clarence Thomas at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Williams first entered the public consciousness when he told the Wall Street Journal that Anita Hill, who had accused Thomas of sexual harassment, was unstable. ("Sister has emotional problems.") Thomas would later be confirmed to the United States Supreme Court, and Williams parlayed his new celebrity in conservative media circles into radio programs and op-ed columns. In 2005, USA Today revealed that he had received $240,000 to promote George W. Bush's No Child Left Behind Act on his nationally syndicated television show.

Williams himself is no stranger to charges of sexual misconduct. A former staffer filed a lawsuit in 2014 claiming “at least once a week, the Defendant Williams would grab Plaintiff’s buttocks or penis when Plaintiff was least expecting it," while a separate employee of a Jos. A. Bank men's clothing store alleges he "[grabbed] his penis through his pants." Both cases were settled out of court.

Although Williams served as Ben Carson's top adviser during the Republican primary, he watched the 2016 election returns with Donald Trump. Perhaps it's no surprise that he's now proposing "soft-focus takes on prominent Trumpites."

"Let’s, for a moment, take Williams at his word that he doesn’t want to turn the paper into a vessel for his worldview," writes the Post's Ben Terris. "What then could he possibly want with a newspaper that loses money?"

The same question might be asked of the billionaire Koch brothers, who recently contributed $650 million to Meredith Corporation's purchase of Time Inc. Like Williams, the libertarians whose contributions to far-right candidates and think tanks across the country were meticulously documented in Jane Mayer's "Dark Money" claim they will preserve their publication's editorial independence. And like Williams, they almost certainly have an ulterior motive.

“Knowing the Kochs, I think they’d have to see it as a business that could at the same time further their political interests,” Stanley S. Hubbard told the New York Times in November. (Hubbard owns multiple television stations across the country and calls himself a friend of the reclusive oil magnates.) “They probably see Time magazine as a left-wing rag. I’m sure that they would like to see it be more objective and also to straighten it out to make it a profitable venture.”

Former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich describes the Kochs' vows to stay out of managerial operations in a single word: "rubbish."

"The Koch brothers don’t invest $650 million for nothing," he wrote in a Facebook post last month. "My guess is they intend to use Time and its other publications—which reach millions of online and print readers—to promote their right-wing conservatism. The investment also gives them a way to combine their cache of voter information held by a data analytics company controlled by their network, i360, with the publishers’ consumer data."

If the Washington City Paper and Time are both facing hostile right-wing takeovers, then one is already underway at LA Weekly, which just laid off its top editors and all but one of its staff writers following its sale to a mysterious company called Semanal Media. (As recently as last week, the buyers had refused to reveal their identities, to the alarm of the Society of Professional Journalists.) Not much is known about Semanal Media's backers, but boutique hotel developer Paul Makarechian and real estate redeveloper Mike Mugel have both donated "large sums to numerous Republican campaigns," according to the LA Times. Brian Calle, who is currently running LA Weekly, previously served as an officer at the Claremont Institute—a conservative think tank whose stated mission is to purge civic life of progressivism. One of his first orders of business after assuming control of the newspaper's operations was to put out a call for unpaid contributors.

Jacob Sugarman is a managing editor at AlterNet.

Last month, Joe Ricketts, the former chairman of Ameritrade and a prominent Trump donor, shuttered two essential local news sites, DNAInfo and Gothamist, days after its staffers had voted to unionize. Ricketts contends the move was merely a business decision, but as Hamilton Nolan argues in the New York Times, he gives away the game in his statement calling the union a “competitive obstacle making it harder for the business to be financially successful.” America's institutions are under assault from an increasingly authoritarian White House, and as the right continues to consolidate its wealth and power, the free press has never looked more vulnerable.

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Selling the Bush Administration's "No Child Left Behind" policy

In January 2005, USA Today reported that documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act revealed that under a $240,000 contractWilliams would promote the controversial No Child Left Behind legislation of the Bush administration. According to USA Today, Williams was hired to "to promote the law on his nationally syndicated television show and to urge other black journalists to do the same." [3]

As part of the agreement, Williams was required "to regularly comment on NCLB during the course of his broadcasts," and to interview Education Secretary Rod Paige for TV and radio spots that aired during the show in 2004."[4]

The contract with Williams was part of a $1 million contract between the U.S. Department of Education and the public relations company, Ketchum.Download Ketchum's request for increased funding for their "Minority Outreach Campaign," featuring Williams (132kb PDF file).

Melanie Sloan from Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington told USA Today that the contract may be illegal "because Congress has prohibited propaganda," or any sort of lobbying for programs funded by the government. "And it's propaganda," she said.

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Armstrong Williams (February 5, 1959 - present) is an African-American conservative political commentator. In 2005 it was revealed that he accepted money from the George W. Bush administration to promote the No Child Left Behind Act on his television and radio programs.

Williams, a conservative newspaper columnist, hosts a nationally syndicated television program called The Right Side as well as a daily radio program. He launched his own company, The Right Side Production, in 2003. It produces and sydicates his television program to outlets including Sky Angel Satellite Network, The Liberty Channel and other cable outlets. His company produces his radio program with Langer Broadcast Radio Network.[1]

According to Williams' website, his newspaper column was syndicated by Tribune Media Services to "a wide array of African-American and mainstream newspapers". However, in January 2005, his contract was terminated over his paid but undisclosed advocacy for promoting Bush Administration education policy.

Contents[hide]

Background

Williams is a protegé of Republican senator Strom Thurmond, a politician whose career was marked by his strong support for racial segregation. Williams later became vice president for governmental and international affairs for B&C Associates, an African-American public relations firm. At B&C Associates he "managed such individual and corporate clients as the acclaimed poet Maya Angelou, the Sara Lee Corp., Kinney Shoes, Shoney Inc. (a restaurant chain), and the Oprah Winfrey Charitable Giving Foundation." [2]. He subsequently established his own PR company, the Graham Williams Group, in partnership with Oprah Winfrey's boyfriend, Stedman Graham.

Selling the Bush Administration's "No Child Left Behind" policy

In January 2005, USA Today reported that documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act revealed that under a $240,000 contract Williams would promote the controversial No Child Left Behind legislation of the Bush administration. According to USA Today, Williams was hired to "to promote the law on his nationally syndicated television show and to urge other black journalists to do the same." [3]

As part of the agreement, Williams was required "to regularly comment on NCLB during the course of his broadcasts," and to interview Education Secretary Rod Paige for TV and radio spots that aired during the show in 2004."[4]

The contract with Williams was part of a $1 million contract between the U.S. Department of Education and the public relations company, Ketchum. Download Ketchum's request for increased funding for their "Minority Outreach Campaign," featuring Williams (132kb PDF file).

Melanie Sloan from Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington told USA Today that the contract may be illegal "because Congress has prohibited propaganda," or any sort of lobbying for programs funded by the government. "And it's propaganda," she said.

Fallout

After the USA Today revelations, Tribune Media Services terminated its syndication agreement with Williams. In a statement to Editor and Publisher, but not available on its website, TMS stated "[A]ccepting compensation in any form from an entity that serves as a subject of his weekly newspaper columns creates, at the very least, the appearance of a conflict of interest. Under these circumstances, readers may well ask themselves if the views expressed in his columns are his own, or whether they have been purchased by a third party." [5]

Williams told Associated Press "even though I'm not a journalist â?? I'm a commentator â?? I feel I should be held to the media ethics standard. My judgment was not the best. I wouldn't do it again, and I learned from it."[6]

Williams later told the New York Times, "I'm no longer Armstrong Williams. I've become a noun. And in some cases, I've become a commodity." He also said that the substantial, negative media he had received was due, at least in part, to his being African-American. "The liberal elite despise black conservatives," he claimed. "I am a conservative who does not know his place. If I were white, they wouldn't care." Williams also told the Times that he had revised two chapters in his book The New Racism, to incoporate the experience. [7]

Ketchum

Kethchum did not respond to requests for a comment from PR Week, the Washington Post, the New York Times or O'Dwyer's PR Daily regarding Williams' role as a paid commentator.[8][9][10][11]

White House

Rather than criticise the arrangement, White House spokesman Scott McClellan intially said it was a matter for the Education Department. According to Associated Press the Education Department said the deal was a "permissible use of taxpayer funds under legal government contracting procedures." [12]

As the controversy raged on, White House spokesman Scott McLellan remained non-committal on whether White House staff knew of the deal with Williams. "I'm not sure that senior staff was consulted before this decision was made. I haven't heard anything to that effect," he said.[13]

Three days after the story broke, McLellan claimed he was unaware of the details of the contract and that specific questions should be directed to the Education Department. As to whether Williams should have disclosed the details of the contract in his columns and on-air appearance, McLellan would only concede that "those are all legitimate questions."

Asked whether he would investigate whether other journalists were on the payroll of the administration McLellan was elusive. "I'm not aware of any others that are under contract other than the one that's been reported on in the media," he said.

Bush was asked at the American Society of Newspaper Editors Convention in April 2005 whether the of government funding of Armstrong Williams and the use of video news releases was deceptive. "Yes, it's deceptive to the American people if it's not disclosed," he said. "Armstrong Williams -- it was wrong what happened there in the Education Department," he said. [14]

FOIAs

Following the revelations of the Williams contract with Ketchum, the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington announced that it has filed Freedom of Information requests with 22 agencies requesting copies of all contracts with public relation firms.[15]

PR Industry

The USA Today revelations caused controversy within the PR industry too. The day the story broke, the CEO of Edelman, Richard Edelman posted a note on his personal blog criticising Ketchum's deal with Williams. "This kind of pay for play public relations takes us back in time to the days of the press agent who would drop off the new record album and $10 to the deejay. It makes our industry's efforts to 'clean up' behavior in newly created PR markets such as China and Russia look decidedly ridiculous," he wrote.[16]

"I know Ray Kotcher and Dave Drobis of Ketchum. I am sure that they would never tolerate this kind of contractual arrangement. I am also confident that they will take steps to assure that it never happens again," he wrote. While Richard Edelman was confident Ketchum's management would take a stand against the practice, O'Dwyers PR Daily noted that "Kotcher has not returned this website's phone and e-mail requests for comment."[17]

"Some things are black and white. We need to set a very high standard of disclosure for our business, with total transparency on funding sources and mission. We should also eschew any practice that calls into question the integrity of the information being disseminated. Let's try to turn this negative for our industry into a positive, by making a long term commitment to the best ethical behavior," Edelman wrote.

While the White House equivocated, the Public Relations Society of America issued a statement saying "the relationship should have been disclosed up front, no question."[[18]](http://www.prsa.org/_News/leaders/disclosure0111.asp "http://www.prsa.org/_News/leaders/disclosure0111.asp")

Back to business

In the aftermath of the controversy there was some good news for Williams. In early March 2005 theNew York Timesreported that Williams had signed a contract to be the conservative co-host of a three-hour daily radio talk show on the WWRL station in New York.

Williams anticipated that the controversy over his Ketchum contract would be raised initially by callers: "You don't just recoup your credibility in two months. I'm going to have to spend some time earning the trust and credibility of others again. They can't just judge me by the rhetoric of my apology; they have to judge what I do." [19]

In a July 2005 interview with Bob Cusack from The Hill Armstrong said that he has (1) recognized the errors of his ways, and (2) resents the way he was criticized. He's managed to resurrect his career, hosting a radio show in New York and writing a new book to come out this fall, titled The New Racists: How Liberal Democrats Have Betrayed Minority Americans.

He also says he's bitter about how he was was treated by fellow conservatives during his payola-pundit scandal. "I had put everything on the line, defending the right, supporting the right. â?¦ None of the conservative [groups] came to my rescue. I was alone." The only conservative commentator Armstrong singled out for praise was Robert Novak. "[Novak] was a constant supporter. He was going through his own situation on the [Valerie Plame controversy], so we had a good pity party together," he said.

Ironically, he notes that he received his most sympathetic treatment from the New York Times, a newspaper reviled by the conservative movement for its alleged liberal bias. "If it werenâ??t for The New York Times," Williams said, "it probably would have been over for me." [20]

Contract Comes Back To Haunt Williams

In October 2005 Democrat Senator Frank Lautenberg released a letter from Education Department Inspector General John Higgins revealing that it was in contact with the U.S. attorney's office to investigate the Bush administration's contract with commentator Armstrong Williams. In a letter to Lautenberg, Higgins wrote "that during the course of our inspection of the Ketchum contract, we contacted the United States Attorney for the District of Columbia. We are currently working with that office on the matter." [21]

Lautenberg believes this indicates that civil or criminal charges could be filed over the contract. "The inspector general wouldn't refer this to the U.S. attorney unless there was evidence of misconduct that requires further investigating," Dan Katz, Lautenberg's chief counsel, told the Associated Press. [22]

Other business interests

Williams is also the CEO of the Graham Williams Group (GWG), which is described in his biographical note as an "international public relations firm with clients in entertainment, politics, business and charitable organizations". According to a biographical note some clients of GWG include "Century 21, Computerland executive Terry Giles and poet laureate Maya Angelou."[23]

Williams is listed with the Premiere Speakers Bureau as available for key note presentations on "Business, Evangelism & Outreach, Patriotic" for $10,000 per presentation.[24]

Books by Williams

Contact details

Web: http://www.armstrongwilliams.com

SourceWatch resources

External links

Government reports into Williams Ketchum contracts

General articles

Categories: Payola | Media | Scandals | Education