Well, I guess it was inevitable with the growth of Talk Radio and the increasing power of those who run the shows. But it just ain't right. Apparently, the Bush Administration paid Armstrong Williams to push the No-Child-Left-Behind bill on his syndicated talk show, and to encourage other hosts to do the same. For the amount of $240,000, he featured NCLB on his program, hawked it before friends and colleagues, and Steve Harvey, a TV personality.
Armstrong claims it was something he believed in strongly, so the money made no difference in his conduct, but frankly that is not the point. While Talk Show hosts are not newsmen in the same way that network anchors are supposed to be, they are part of the independent media. As soon as they start taking money from people to slant their stories or influence story choices, they are no longer independent but rather creators of propoganda. This is simply wrong - unethical - and needs to be repudiated by other Talk Show hosts and we need an apology from the Bushies.
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