Media distributor severs ties with commentator
By Judy Keen and Jim Drinkard, USA TODAY
WASHINGTON — Armstrong Williams, who was paid by the Education Department to promote President Bush's education policies, says the public outcry and his firing by the company that syndicated his newspaper column are "the price you pay" for a mistake.
USA TODAY reported on Friday that Williams, a prominent black pundit, was paid $240,000 to promote No Child Left Behind as part of a $1 million department contract with the Ketchum public relations firm. The contract required Williams to comment on Bush's program on his TV and radio show, to interview Education Secretary Rod Paige and to produce radio spots that aired on his show.
Williams said in an interview Sunday that he won't return the money. "That would be ludicrous," he said.
Several federal laws forbid the use of taxpayer money to influence public opinion on matters of government policy with the intent of shaping policy or putting pressure on Congress. Administrations have run afoul of those laws periodically, but criminal prosecution is rare.
The practice isn't new. In 1987, the Reagan administration's State Department was found to have violated the law by paying consultants to write opinion pieces for newspapers endorsing the administration's hotly debated support for anti-communist rebels in Nicaragua.
Complaints also arose in 2003 when Attorney General John Ashcroft mounted a public relations campaign in support of another controversial Bush administration initiative, the USA Patriot Act, which gave authorities more tools to investigate terrorism.
The GAO found that Ashcroft's campaign, which included speaking trips to 14 states, cost $210,000. But the department's inspector general ruled that it did not violate the anti-lobbying law because Ashcroft, as a presidential appointee, is exempt from it.
Williams, 45, a former aide to U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, is one of the nation's top black conservative voices. He hosts The Right Side on TV and radio.
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