Posted on 01/14/2005 3:32:48 PM PST by anniegetyourgun
The chairman of the Federal Communications Commission ordered an investigation Friday into whether conservative commentator Armstrong Williams broke the law by failing to disclose he was paid by the Bush administration to plug the president's education agenda.
The investigation relates to provisions that require disclosure of such arrangements, FCC Chairman Michael Powell said in a brief statement.
Also Friday, two Democratic senators asked the Government Accountability Office, Congress' investigative arm, to review whether any other federal agencies have paid commentators to support the administration's agenda.
Sens. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., and Ron Wyden, D-Ore., asked the Government Accountability Office to investigate whether the Education Department's payment to Williams violated a ban on propaganda - and, if so, to determine who should be held accountable.
"There are real questions whether this is a real expenditure," Dorgan said in an interview. "This has all the makings of political payola."
The FCC and GAO probes are the latest in a growing controversy over Williams' deal with the Education Department to promote the No Child Left Behind Act.
Williams was paid $240,000 as part of at least a $1.3 million commitment the department had with a public relations firm, Ketchum. Williams produced ads with Education Secretary Rod Paige to promote the controversial law.
He was also hired to provide media time to Paige and to persuade other blacks in media to talk about the sweeping education reforms, records show.
On Thursday, Paige announced his department had opened an internal review. Democratic and Republican members of a Senate panel that oversees education funding demanded department records related to the case.
President Bush, in an interview published Friday in USA Today, said, "The Cabinet needs to take a good look and make sure this kind of thing doesn't happen again."
The announcement from Powell, a Republican, came as FCC officials said thousands of complaints had come into the agency regarding Williams. No precise number was available Friday. Free Press, a media reform advocacy group, had said it was forwarding more than 12,000 complaints to the FCC.
"In this era of huge corporate media, it is becoming harder and harder to tell the difference between news and entertainment, to differentiate between information and propaganda," FCC Commissioner Michael Copps, a Democrat, said Friday.
An investigation could also extend to the stations that carried the program if the broadcaster knew of Williams' arrangement but did not make that clear to viewers, FCC officials have said.
Powell on Friday also ordered the FCC to investigate a radio station programmer in Buffalo, N.Y., who was fired by Entercom Communications Corp. for breaking the station's rules against taking gifts from business contacts.
Critics contend that incident and the Williams case are similar because they may be violations of so-called "payola" statutes.
The law requires disclosure of any payment or gift for airing any material for broadcast, such as a radio disc jockey being paid to play a particular recording.
In the request to the GAO, Dorgan and Wyden also asked for a government-wide review of any payments to journalists, commentators or talk show hosts to promote the administration's policies.
---
Associated Press writer Ben Feller contributed to this report.
Could someone explain to me what I've got wrong here? Because I'm thinking that these articles kind of skate over that Williams's COMPANY was paid to promote the Act, and he supported the act separately, on his own, as he has been for 10 years.
So what am I missing?
You have missed nothing.
I'm all for an investigation of this, as long as they also investigate CBS News' contacts with the Kerry Campaign and/or DNC, along with NPR,PBS,ABC, NBC, and CNN.
You missed nothing. They'll find nothing. They hope they'll find something and will be disappointed again.
Maybe this time they can use a 1985 Apple showing direct illegalities exchanged between 43 and Armstrong.
I'd still like an investigation into CBS where I know we'd find room for indictments.
No word yet on when they will wrap up on the investigation of PBS paying a deomcrat hit-man tens of millions of dollars to attack the people who underwrote his salary? Oh, wait, the FCC isn't investigating Bill Moyers...
Investigations? Better phone Henry Waxman. I think I'd be eternally sad if I didn't get to hear Rush rag on Waxman again for a bit.
Oh puleeeeze................
The appearance of evil Bush said he wanted to avoid when he came to Washington. Can you be sure how much he believed in the program and how much he said for money? What about the others he was paid to influence? Did they know his company was being paid to persuade them? If this was the music industry, it would be called payola and be absolutely illegal.
Bill Moyers was paid tens of millions of dollars?
Where's the payola? How is Bush buying advertising for a program he believes in somehow contrary to the image he wanted to bring to Washington? When did he say he would not buy ads for programs he supported, and how does that go against his image?
Are record companies guilty of payola when they purchase commercial time?
Bill Moyers, Scaife of the Left?
by L. Brent Bozell III
October 14, 1999
The connections between political reporting and foundation giving are an almost completely ignored field of inquiry for the media, with one notable exception. That would be early 1998, when the Clintons threw a stick at conservative philanthropist and newspaper owner Dick Scaife and told their lapdogs in the press to fetch. Suddenly, a cauldron of stories boiled over in outrage over how this "King of the Clinton Haters" would spend his riches on a vast right-wing conspiracy to commit investigative journalism with a point of view.
The establishment media's complete marination in hypocrisy was recently proven by Frank Greve, a Washington reporter for the Knight-Ridder newspaper chain. Greve discovered that PBS omnipresence Bill Moyers is the Scaife counterpart of the vast left-wing "campaign finance reform" conspiracy. In addition to his day job vacuuming up video and book royalties from his endless series of tax-subsidized PBS cash-in projects, Moyers earns $200,000 a year as president of the Florence and John Schumann Foundation, which has pumped more than $15 million into the crusade against the First Amendment's guarantees of free political speech.
Or, as Greve aptly put it: "Moyers is using his control over money and media in ways that would be the envy of the special interests he deplores." But Moyers has never told PBS viewers a word about it. Where were the other media outlets to follow up on this media ethics story? So much for shining the sunlight of information on the use of money in politics.
Greve revealed how interconnected Moyers' journalistic and philanthropic duties have become. For example, on Moyers' June PBS special "Free Speech for Sale," he opened with the views of three campaign "reform" activists -- Burt Neuborne of the Brennan Center for Justice, Charles Lewis of the Center for Public Integrity, and Bob Hall of Democracy South -- "but never revealed that their organizations have received a total of $2.6 million from the Schumann Foundation in the last five years." Moyers most recent sermon for the "Frontline" series, "Washington's Other Scandal," linked Web surfers to the "best" reform activists, most of which are -- surprise! -- Schumann grantees.
The Schumann Foundation reigns so supreme among campaign "reformers" that Greve found its annual donations are "about a third of total philanthropic giving on this issue. Early grants helped found three of Washington's most-quoted political reform groups: the Center for Responsive Politics, the Center for Public Integrity, and Public Campaign." On top of that, Schumann also "has long subsidized coverage of money's role in politics on public radio and public television."
Greve estimated that Moyers has hosted eight hours of PBS documentaries on campaign money. But he is responsible for more than that. In a 1991 article in the American Journalism Review, Michael Hudson explained that the far-left Center for Investigative Reporting was saved from layoffs and bankruptcy by a $75,000 grant from the Schumann Foundation. Moyers ushered CIR into a regular relationship with PBS, where they have routinely produced campaign "reform" diatribes for the "Frontline" series.
Perhaps the strangest paragraph of the Greve article contained quotes from "ethics specialists" like the Poynter Institute's Bob Steele, who worried, "Moyers' undisclosed roles will lead critics to conclude that public broadcasting has what Steele calls ‘a point of view, a bias, an agenda' when it comes to money and politics." Truth is, you didn't need Moyers' full disclosure to see that PBS documentaries on campaign money are always a completely stacked deck of speech- gaggers. An apolitical 12-year-old kid could see they were one-sided. When Greve asked Moyers to defend himself and his multiple roles, Moyers blurred any distinction between journalism and philanthropy: "I practice journalism as a form of public education, and I practice grantmaking as a form of public education. I think a journalist is a citizen and you have to be honest with yourself about what you care about as a citizen as well as what you do as a journalist." In other words, Moyers believes that whatever furthers the revolution for completely taxpayer-financed campaigns is ethical.
Moyers' manipulations underscore what is at the root of liberal "campaign reform." The villains of his rhetoric are the free-market greedheads of for-profit businesses. But when Moyers and his foundation friends perform the same role for the left -- manipulating millions throughout Washington advocacy groups and public television -- it's not "influence-peddling" or "referee-buying," it's "public education."
Campaign "reform" is not a way to fix a dysfunctional democracy, but a way for the left to put the fix in for their dysfunctional Democratic brethren.
UNDUE INFLUENCE The
Moyers Mafia
"True believers in the god of the market would leave us to the ruthless cruelty of unfettered monopolistic capital where even the law of the jungle breaks down."
-- Bill Moyers, Keynote speech to the Environmental Grantmakers Association, October 16, 2001
Bill Moyers, his son John, and their moneyed sidekicks, the Schumann brothers, hate the free market with intemperate ferocity, as the quote above suggests. They spend millions inherited from an IBM founder and a president of the General Motors Acceptance Corporation to tear down America's free market economy. They have their hands in many pies. Here are some.
Triple roles: journalist, advocate, financier
Bill Moyers:
Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), The money, the message, and the messenger. Conflict of interest?
The Florence and John Schumann Foundation, President (part time, 1998 salary $100,043, benefits $4,626)
Bill's background: was Deputy Director of the Peace Corps in the Kennedy Administration and Special Assistant to President Lyndon B. Johnson from 1963-1967. He was a trustee of the Rockefeller Foundation for 12 years, and currently serves as president of The Florence and John Schumann Foundation.
Bill's tactics: Bill Moyers pays advocates to come up with an anti-corporate, anti-capitalist message, then reports the totally biased outcome on PBS television.
For example:
Bill's message: On March 26, 2001, Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) stations across the country aired a 90-minute investigative report on the chemical industry titled "Trade Secrets: A Moyers Report."
It came with a 30-minute panel discussion afterward. The report hit the chemical industry. It portrayed them as having engaged decades ago in a cold, calculated cover-up of deadly health effects linked to certain chemicals, resulting in death and illness for many workers. In other words, the program implied that the chemical industry was guilty of premeditated murder of its own employees.
Bill's money: For the post-show panel, Moyers chose Kenneth A. Cook, president of the Environmental Working Group (EWG), a rabidly anti-capitalist group funded by big foundations, including Moyers' Florence and John Schumann Foundation. Moyers acknowledged that he had given a "small grant" to EWG (In fact it was four grants, $225,000 in 1989, $35,000 and $50,000 in 1995, and $15,000 in 1999, for a total of $325,000 - a third of a million isn't "small" to most of us).
Moyers also had Dr. Phil Landrigan, a pediatrician and chairman of preventive medicine from the Mount Sinai School of Medicine. In his on-air introduction of Landrigan, Moyers failed to mention that the doctor is also a long-time activist with Physicians for Social Responsibility, an anti-corporate advocacy group.
Both Cook and Landrigan had advance knowledge of the show's subject matter.
The chemical industry was represented by two men who had no advance knowledge of the show's contents.
Bill the messenger: He let the chemical guys comment on how he beat them up. To Bill, that's fair.
Totally biased.
Then there's the Moyers hypocrisy.
For example:
Bill's talk: "The single most important thing environmentalists can do to ensure America's national security is to fight to reduce our nation's dependence on oil, whether imported or domestic." Bill Moyers, EGA Keynote
Bill's walk: The Schumann Foundation gets the money for its environmental grants in large part from investments in oil and gas companies, according to its most recent available tax returns:
2000 shares of British Petroleum;
5,000 shares Columbia Gas Systems;
4,200 shares Conoco, Inc.;
3,900 shares Keyspan Energy (natural gas distribution);
10,000 shares Noble Affiliates (oil & gas exploration and development);
10,200 shares Pioneer Natural Resource Company (oil & gas exploration and development);
10,000 shares Royal Dutch Petroleum Company (Royal Dutch / Shell Oil holding company);
10,000 shares Shell Transportation and Trading Company (another Royal Dutch / Shell Oil holding company); plus
12,500 shares of Ford Motor Company.
Message? The single most important thing Bill Moyers can do is get rich from our nation's dependence on oil, whether imported or domestic.
Son of Bill
John Moyers:
The Florence and John Schumann Foundation, Executive Director (salary $85,000, benefits $22,228)
The Florence Fund, Executive Director
TomPaine.com (website project of Florence Fund)
"TomPaine.com is a project of The Florence Fund, a 501.c.3 non-profit corporation based in Washington, D.C. We are funded by foundations and individual donors, and we take no corporate or union funding. Nor do we accept advertising -- that gives us editorial independence, and it gives you, our reader, freedom from annoying banner advertising. Our principle funding comes from the Florence and John Schumann Foundation, a major supporter of other independent media efforts, including National Public Radio, the Columbia Journalism Review, public TV's "Frontline" and "POV" documentary series, and The American Prospect magazine."
TomPaine.com may be independent from you and me, but it's not independent from Bill Moyers' money or his opinions.
Friends of Bill
W. Ford Schumann
Robert Schumann
Heirs of the IBM and General Motors Acceptance Corporation money
The Florence and John Schumann Foundation, both brothers are officers
The Florence Fund, both brothers are directors
W. Ford Schumann is principal of the W. Ford Schumann Foundation, trustee of the Aspen Music Festival and School.
Claremont Institute on Tom Paine.com
Bucks for Bill
Bill got bucks from 12 foundations, funneled through 13 recipients.
Bill's Donors: 1. Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, Inc.; 2. The Kohlberg Foundation, Inc.; 3. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation; 4. Charles H. Revson Foundation, Inc.; 5. The Nathan Cummings Foundation, Inc.; 6. The Annie E. Casey Foundation; 7. The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation; 8. John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation; 9. The Joyce Foundation; 10. The California Wellness Foundation; 11. The Edna McConnell Clark Foundation; 12. Charles Stewart Mott Foundation.
Recipients That Pass Bucks to Bill: 1. W N E T Channel 13, NYC, NY; 2. Educational Broadcasting Corporation, NYC, NY; 3. American Library Association, Chicago, IL; 4. Genesis Project, NYC, NY; 5. Public Affairs Television, NYC, NY; 6. Jewish Media Fund, NYC, NY; 7. Institute for Christian Jewish Studies, Baltimore, MD; 8. Educational Broadcasting Corporation. WNET Channel 13, NYC, NY; 9. Fetzer Institute, Kalamazoo, MI; 10. Communications Consortium Media Center. Media Center, DC; 11. MDC, Chapel Hill, NC; 12. ETV Endowment of South Carolina, Spartanburg, SC; 13. Chicago Educational Television Association, Chicago, IL.
Grants Bill got:
Record 1
FOUNDATION NAME: Geraldine Rockefeller Dodge Foundation, Inc.
RECIPIENT: W N E T Channel 13, NYC, NY
ABSTRACT: For teacher's guide and Web site to accompany PBS series Fooling With Words, with Bill Moyers, based on 1998 Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival
AMOUNT: $150,000 YEAR AUTHORIZED: 1999
Record 2
FOUNDATION NAME: The Kohlberg Foundation, Inc.
RECIPIENT: Educational Broadcasting Corporation, NYC, NY
ABSTRACT: For Bill Moyers-On Our Own Terms
AMOUNT: $500,000 YEAR AUTHORIZED: 1998
Record 3
FOUNDATION NAME: The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
RECIPIENT: American Library Association, Chicago, IL
ABSTRACT: For public education programs in conjunction with PBS Series, On Our Own Terms: Moyers on Dying in America
AMOUNT: $170,313 YEAR AUTHORIZED: 1999
DURATION: 1.25-year grant
Record 4
FOUNDATION NAME: The Nathan Cummings Foundation, Inc. (The Sara Lee foods fortune)
RECIPIENT: Educational Broadcasting Corporation, NYC, NY
ABSTRACT: To conduct research for television series, Living with Dying, with Bill Moyers
AMOUNT: $40,000 YEAR AUTHORIZED: 1997
Record 5
FOUNDATION NAME: Charles H. Revson Foundation, Inc.
RECIPIENT: Genesis Project, NYC, NY
ABSTRACT: For various nonprofit organizations to create educational materials and education programs in conjunction with the series, Genesis: A Living Conversation, with Bill Moyers
AMOUNT: $150,000 YEAR AUTHORIZED: 1996
Record 6
FOUNDATION NAME: Charles H. Revson Foundation, Inc.
RECIPIENT: Genesis Project, NYC, NY
ABSTRACT: For various nonprofit organizations to create educational materials and education programs in conjunction with the series, Genesis: A Living Conversation, with Bill Moyers
AMOUNT: $34,500 YEAR AUTHORIZED: 1996
Record 7
FOUNDATION NAME: The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation
RECIPIENT: Public Affairs Television, NYC, NY
ABSTRACT: For research and development of Bill Moyers television special on South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission
AMOUNT: $40,000 YEAR AUTHORIZED: 1997
Record 8
FOUNDATION NAME: Charles H. Revson Foundation, Inc.
RECIPIENT: Public Affairs Television, NYC, NY
RECIPIENT TYPE: Television (A32); Public affairs (W99)
ABSTRACT: To complete film production and development of educational materials for public television series based on stories in the Book of Genesis, with Bill Moyers
AMOUNT: $50,000 YEAR AUTHORIZED: 1995
Record 9
FOUNDATION NAME: Charles H. Revson Foundation, Inc.
RECIPIENT: Jewish Media Fund, NYC, NY
ABSTRACT: For initial development phases of educational and outreach activities for Genesis series with Bill Moyers
AMOUNT: $18,000 YEAR AUTHORIZED: 1995
Record 10
FOUNDATION NAME: Charles H. Revson Foundation, Inc.
RECIPIENT: Institute for Christian Jewish Studies, Baltimore, MD
ABSTRACT: To develop model for interfaith and interracial discussion groups in conjunction with Genesis series with Bill Moyers
AMOUNT: $10,000 YEAR AUTHORIZED: 1995
Record 11
FOUNDATION NAME: The Joyce Foundation
RECIPIENT: Educational Broadcasting Corporation. WNET Channel 13, NYC, NY
ABSTRACT: For What Can We Do About Violence, program by Bill Moyers
AMOUNT: $150,000 YEAR AUTHORIZED: 1994
Record 12
FOUNDATION NAME: The California Wellness Foundation
RECIPIENT: Public Affairs Television, NYC, NY
ABSTRACT: For Bill Moyers production, Overcoming Youth Violence, four-hour introduction to The National Public Television Campaign to Combat Youth Violence
AMOUNT: $250,000 YEAR AUTHORIZED: 1994
Record 13
FOUNDATION NAME: The Annie E. Casey Foundation
RECIPIENT: Educational Broadcasting Corporation, NYC, NY
ABSTRACT: For production and promotion of Families First with Bill Moyers
AMOUNT: $35,000 YEAR AUTHORIZED: 1992
Record 14
FOUNDATION NAME: John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation
RECIPIENT: Public Affairs Television, NYC, NY
ABSTRACT: For cultural and public affairs productions of Bill Moyers
AMOUNT: $1,500,000 YEAR AUTHORIZED: 1992
DURATION: 3-year grant
Record 15
FOUNDATION NAME: The Nathan Cummings Foundation, Inc.
RECIPIENT: Fetzer Institute, Kalamazoo, MI
ABSTRACT: For Healing and the Mind, with Bill Moyers
AMOUNT: $250,000 YEAR AUTHORIZED: 1990
Record 16
FOUNDATION NAME: The Edna McConnell Clark Foundation
RECIPIENT: Communications Consortium Media Center. Media Center, DC
ABSTRACT: For staff to work with grantees to develop communications strategies in states where family preservation programs are well-established by focusing national media attention on initiatives and by building additional communications activities around Bill Moyers' documentary on family preservation
AMOUNT: $175,000 YEAR AUTHORIZED: 1991
DURATION: 1 1/2-year grant
Record 17
FOUNDATION NAME: Charles Stewart Mott Foundation (General Motors money)
RECIPIENT: MDC, Chapel Hill, NC
ABSTRACT: For outreach work related to documentary All Our Children with Bill Moyers and subsequent teleconferences
AMOUNT: $20,000 YEAR AUTHORIZED: 1991
Record 18
FOUNDATION NAME: Charles Stewart Mott Foundation
RECIPIENT: ETV Endowment of South Carolina, Spartanburg, SC
ABSTRACT: For additional promotional and production costs for Bill Moyers' documentary, All Our Children
AMOUNT: $75,000 YEAR AUTHORIZED: 1991DURATION: 1 1/4-year grant
Record 19
FOUNDATION NAME: Charles Stewart Mott Foundation
RECIPIENT: ETV Endowment of South Carolina, Spartanburg, SC
ABSTRACT: For reprinting and distributing additional promotional materials and technical assistance guides in support of repeat telecasting of Bill Moyers All Our Children documentary
AMOUNT: $35,000 YEAR AUTHORIZED: 1991
Record 20
FOUNDATION NAME: Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, Inc.
RECIPIENT: W N E T Channel 13, NYC, NY
ABSTRACT: To produce teacher education guide for high schools and colleges to accompany Moyers: The Power of the Word, six-part series on contemporary poetry inspired by Dodge Foundation's biennial Poetry Festival at Waterloo Village
AMOUNT: $80,000 YEAR AUTHORIZED: 1989
Record 21
FOUNDATION NAME: Charles Stewart Mott Foundation
RECIPIENT: MDC, Chapel Hill, NC
ABSTRACT: For outreach activities related to Mott-funded documentary on at-risk youth being produced by Bill Moyers for airing in early 1991 on national public television network
AMOUNT: $99,221 YEAR AUTHORIZED: 1990
Record 22
FOUNDATION NAME: Charles Stewart Mott Foundation
RECIPIENT: ETV Endowment of South Carolina, Spartanburg, SC
ABSTRACT: For outreach programs and activities related to Mott-funded documentary on at-risk youth produced by Bill Moyers for airing in early 991 on national public television network
AMOUNT: $300,000 YEAR AUTHORIZED: 1990
Record 23
FOUNDATION NAME: John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation
RECIPIENT: Educational Broadcasting Corporation, NYC, NY
ABSTRACT: For production of programs by Bill Moyers for WNET, Channel 13
AMOUNT: $625,000 YEAR AUTHORIZED: 1989
DURATION: 3-year grant
Record 24
FOUNDATION NAME: John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation
RECIPIENT: Educational Broadcasting Corporation, NYC, NY
ABSTRACT: For challenge grant for weekly production of The World of Ideas, under direction of Bill Moyers, for WNET, Channel 13
AMOUNT: $1,875,000 YEAR AUTHORIZED: 1989
DURATION: 3-year grant
Record 25
FOUNDATION NAME: John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation
RECIPIENT: Chicago Educational Television Association, Chicago, IL
ABSTRACT: For weekly production of The World of Ideas, under direction of Bill Moyers
AMOUNT: $1,875,000 YEAR AUTHORIZED: 1989
DURATION: 3-year grant
Record 26
FOUNDATION NAME: John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation
RECIPIENT: Chicago Educational Television Association, Chicago, IL
ABSTRACT: For production of programs produced by Bill Moyers for WTTW, Channel 11
AMOUNT: $625,000 YEAR AUTHORIZED: 1989
DURATION: 3-year grant
Record 27
FOUNDATION NAME: Charles Stewart Mott Foundation
RECIPIENT: Educational Broadcasting Corporation, NYC, NY
ABSTRACT: For production costs of 90-minute documentary by Bill Moyers building upon findings of 1988 Mott-sponsored report, America's Shame, America's Hope: Twelve Million Youth At Risk
AMOUNT: $850,000 YEAR AUTHORIZED: 1989
O'Reilly had his staff check the dude out as well, but I am not a BO fan and he has some numbers that were a bit off.
The fact was, here we have "unbiased" PBS hiring a very well-connected lobbyist/activist to do a news-oriented show. Moyers, to my knowledge, had never disclosed his affiliations with these groups, certainly not on TV. It would probably take the whole show to do that.
BUSH LIED!
We need an Anti-American Activities Committee in the House to consider reprimands for house members who support our enemies. First they should investigate the Black Congressional Caucus.
That NCLB is a Socialist Boondoggle and your tax dollars were used to promote this Teddy Kennedy Government School Program.
The FCC jumped right on this, Where were they when CBS was leading a crusade to beat The President.
Maybe a trip to an ear/nose/throat specialist?
It stinks to high heaven.
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