Now that Dick Armey has successfully secured a golden parachute that should last him for the rest of his life following his attempted armed coup of FreedomWorks, he's dishing the dirt to former arch-enemy Media Matters.
Former FreedomWorks chairman Dick Armey says the conservative outlet that helped launch the Tea Party paid Glenn Beck at least $1 million last year to fundraise for the organization, an arrangement he said provided "too little value" for the money.
"The arrangement was simply FreedomWorks paid Glenn Beck money and Glenn Beck said nice things about FreedomWorks on the air," Armey, the former House majority leader, told Media Matters Friday. "I saw that a million dollars went to Beck this past year, that was the annual expenditure." [...]
Armey said he was told of the Beck arrangement when it first began, but that it would only cost the organization about $250,000 a year. "Once that was approved by the trustees, it then took on a life of its own, it got bigger than we understood it to be. All of a sudden it was we are paying Limbaugh as well as Beck." FreedomWorks did not respond to repeated requests for comment.
I wouldn't assume that very many of those who donated to FreedomWorks would have a problem with a significant portion of their donation being used to pay Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh's salaries, but I do wonder how many were aware of it. Saying nice things on air about an organization is not as explicit as reading an advert or disclosing that they are a sponsor.
The conservative movement, or what some are now referring to as the "conservative entertainment complex," is a money making machine and very little of that money is used to actually effect change. The majority is used to pad the pockets of ineffectual lobbyists, pundits, and shock-jocks.
This is not to say there aren't grifters on the left side of the aisle too, because there are, but it's nowhere near as virulent as it is on the Right.