Posted on 01/27/2005 5:53:57 AM PST by Mikey
WorldNetDaily not for sale
WASHINGTON – I have often wondered why everyone in this town thinks alike.
Now I know. They are all paid by the same master.
That's the conclusion I am beginning to draw following the latest disclosure that a prominent columnist-pundit has been on the take from the Bush administration.
First it was Armstrong Williams confessing his journalistic sin of accepting a $240,000 payoff from the Bush Education Department for promoting the expansion of the federal government's unconstitutional grab for power over schools.
Then came the disclosure that Maggie Gallagher took a mere $21,500 in payola to pimp Bush's $300 million initiative promoting marriage.
I wonder what I would be worth if I wanted to whore myself out to do propaganda for the federal government?
What is going on here?
Are there others? Is everyone on the take but me?
I feel like Serpico.
At least Williams apologized. At least he recognized he had made a mistake. At least he didn't play dumb. Of course, he also didn't offer to pay back the $240,000.
But, incredibly, Gallagher claims she is ignorant of any journalistic sin.
"Did I violate journalistic ethics by not disclosing it? I don't know. You tell me," she said in an interview with the Washington Post's Howard Kurtz.
I gotta believe Howard told her the same thing I would have told her: Yes, in spades. You didn't just violate journalistic ethics, you blew them up. You destroyed them. You rewrote the textbook. You are off the map of journalistic ethics. You have helped to ensure that the phrase "journalistic ethics" is considered an oxymoron – something like "trial lawyer ethics" or "snake-oil salesmen ethics." You have lowered not just yourself to professional prostitution, but you have impugned the character of your colleagues as well as those who came before you and those who will with any good fortune replace you.
Does that answer the question?
Let me explain what the principle role of the free press in a free society is for Ms. Gallagher: It is to serve as a watchdog on government. It is our special duty to expose corruption, fraud, waste and abuse in government. That's our No. 1 job.
Apparently she never heard this. That is why the founders of this great nation considered the press such a vital institution that they established, for the first time in the history of the world, special constitutional protections for the institution in the First Amendment.
The press is supposed to serve as yet another check and balance in a system of checks and balances. But the press is unique as an independent guardian of liberty with a special duty to be skeptical – even cynical – of government and the power it wields.
What is wrong with these people?
Have they no self-respect?
If you want to do public relations for the Bush administration or any other part of government there are plenty of public relations jobs to be found – too many, in fact. Don't pretend you are an independent journalist or free-wheeling commentator while you are actually performing as a prostitute for government.
I know. I know. The Williams defense – and, no doubt, the Gallagher defense is this: "I didn't do anything differently because I took the money. I was already in favor of the policy I was promoting. The money didn't affect my position on the issue." Nonsense. That's a cop-out. I'm sure plenty of other prostitutes would be promiscuous whether or not they were getting paid.
So now, I suppose, it's time for all of us who have never taken a dime from government at any level to shout it from the rooftops.
I never have and I never will accept taxpayer money. My news organization never has and never will accept taxpayer money. It's a no-no.
Least of all would I permit myself or my news organization from accepting taxpayer funds to promote government or any government program.
This is not a breach of journalistic ethics. It's an abomination of journalistic ethics.
Do I make myself clear?
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Joseph Farah is founder, editor and chief executive officer of WND and a nationally syndicated radio talk-show host. He is also the founder of WND Books. In addition to his daily column in WND, he writes a nationally syndicated weekly column available to U.S. newspapers through Creators Syndicate.
There is not one of you who dares to write your honest opinions, and if you did, you know beforehand that it would never appear in print.
I am paid weekly for keeping my honest opinions out of the paper I am connected with. Others of you are paid similar salaries for similar things, and any of you who would be so foolish as to write honest opinions would be out on the streets looking for another job.
If I allowed my honest opinions to appear in one issue of my paper, before twenty- four hours my occupation would be gone.
The business of the journalists is to destroy the truth; to lie outright; to pervert; to vilify; to fawn at the feet of mammon, and to sell his country and his race for his daily bread.
You know it and I know it and what folly is this toasting an independent press?
We are the tools and vassals of rich men behind the scenes. We are jumping jacks, they pull the strings and we dance. Our talents, our possibilities and our lives are all the property of other men.
We are intellectual prostitutes."
John Swinton, former Chief of staff for the New York Times. Called by his peers “The Dean of His profession.”
He stated the above when He was asked to give a toast before the New York Press Club in 1953.
Silly me. I thought the principle role of the free press was to report the facts, NOT NECESSARILY be a watchdog.
One would think the role of the press was to report facts. But journalists seemed to have developed a sense of over-importance in themselves to the point that it's ridiculous. Some of them actually seem to think they're a quasi-judicial body, and act as a fourth section of the government.
I thought it was to report the news. Good or bad, helpful or not, pro or con, whatever.
H.L. Mencken was just as much a watchdog of merchants and "the great mass of plain people" as of any politician.
"A newspaper is a device for making the ignorant more ignorant and the crazy crazier."
There might be a conflict of interest, I don't know. But as already noted, Williams was paid by a PR firm. I suspect that this kind of thing is pretty common, and I seriously doubt it is limited to G.W. Bush and conservative columnists. In fact, given that most PR firms and journalists are leftists, I suspect it's far more common on the other side.
What do you call it when people slide in and out of the news business and the politics business--with pay--as so many clintonoids have done? No conlfict of interest there?
World Net Daily was, I believe, funded by donors, at least in its early stages. Did these donors have no political interests? Please.
Farah missed the mark on Maggie Gallagher.
She appeared on Fox last night and laid it out. She agreed she probably should have disclosed her two roles at some point....but as was pointed out elsewhere when and how much? See http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1329654/posts "Disclosure and glass houses" (Instapundit exposes Howie Kurtz' bias)
In Maggies case, she's an expert in the field and hired as a sub-contractor to write about the field.
If a lawyer writes a column should they be precluded from giving advise to the gov't in their field of expertise? Is it a conflict of interest?
Gallagher was paid for doing research, not for promoting anything, which is different from Armstrong Williams.
http://www.captainsquartersblog.com/mt/archives/003642.php
Sometimes I get the impression Farah wants to be Drudge lite.
Well look on the bright side, the contrast between the Right side journalists abd the MSM has never been clearer. Our folks treat it like a bussiness (rightly or wrongly) The MSM guys pimp for the Left because it's a labor of love in a Crusade against the "Forces of Darkness©" on the right.
Oxymoron
Gallagher was on O'Reilly last night and explained that she was hired as a consultant to do research and write informative pamphlets for HHS distribution and draft a letter for the head of HHS to sign that laid out the importance of marriage to society. After all, she is one of the foremost experts on marriage in the country. I see absolutely nothing wrong with this and WISH THE MSM WOULD GET THE STORY STRAIGHT AS I AM GETTING HOARSE FROM YELLING AT THE TV!!!! : )
You misunderstand the MSM - the DO have the story straight (in their own minds). In their minds the world is binary:
1) Conservatives/Conservative press = bad, anything they do is wrong.
2) MSM/Liberals/Liberal press = good - period.
There is no room for truth or accuracy. There are wannabes and hanger-ons that wander off the plantation to push their own agendas but if you follow the above formula - you will be in the company of the 'cream' of the 'profession'.
In other words, rather than being THE prostitute, Williams was getting paid by the prostitute instead. Same difference.
......& the press ARE reporting the facts when it acts as an honest, independent watchdog. Mr. Farah is right.
But, incredibly, Gallagher claims she is ignorant of any journalistic sin.
Farah is being completely ignorant here.
Maggie Gallagher did some research/promotional work for the government outside of her job as a columnist.
It is nothing like what Armstrong Williams did and was not at all unethical.
But I guess Farah likes the view from his horse.
However, they are not just to target the government, but business, and all of life in general. They are not watchdogs, but reporters.
In other words, it was not an administration policy to pay pundits to go on news shows and say good things about their legislation.
Self-righteous journalists who take their profession as some benevolent gift to us mere mortals... they bug me.
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