USA Today is reporting that right-wing talk radio host Armstrong Williams was paid $240,000 by the White House to propagandize "No Child Left Behind" on the air and elsewhere.
The campaign, part of an effort to promote No Child Left Behind (NCLB), required commentator Armstrong Williams "to regularly comment on NCLB during the course of his broadcasts."
CNN reported this morning that Williams besmirched their airwaves on October 14, 2004 when Williams appeared on the cable newser to discuss NCLB.
A Congressional investigation appears likely.
The top Democrat on the House Education Committee, Rep. George Miller of California, called the contract "a very questionable use of taxpayers' money" that is "probably illegal." He said he will ask his Republican counterpart to join him in requesting an investigation.
Questions we should be asking... How often has this happened? How many other hosts and networks have received money from the White House? How does the White House answer for the tax money used? How illegal is it? (Answer: very illegal!)
The contract may be illegal "because Congress has prohibited propaganda," or any sort of lobbying for programs funded by the government, said Melanie Sloan of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. "And it's propaganda."
The subversion of the media by the White House, and a smoking gun to prove it. Let's roll.