Conservative Journalists Tainted by White House Payola

Conservative Journalists Tainted by White House Payola

January 28, 2005

We've always suspected conservative journalists took their marching orders from the Bush administration, but now we find out they are literally being paid—with taxpayer money—to peddle White House propaganda. Yesterday, Salon revealed that a third conservative syndicated columnist, Michael McManus, was paid off by the Bush administration. McManus received $10,000 to promote President Bush's marriage initiative, the same program columnist Maggie Gallagher was paid to promote.

• Conservative pundits should disclose all financial ties to the White House.  Like Gallagher and Armstrong Williams, McManus failed to disclose that he was on the administration's payroll in his column, which appears in 50 newspapers nationwide including the Washington Times, the Dallas Morning News and the Charlotte Observer.  The payoffs to both McManus and Gallagher connection back to one man, Assistant Secretary of Health and Human Services Wade F. Horn. Horn's staff cut McManus the $10,000 check and Horn is also a former board member of Marriage Savers, the group McManus founded in 1996.
  
  
• Don't believe anything you read from conservative pundits.  Given the Bush administration's reliance on misinformation and propaganda to sell its unpopular agenda, you can be sure there are more pundits out there trying to scrub their columns and cover up their expense accounts.  Americans should be skeptical when assessing conservative "journalists" pushing the White House line. 
  
  
• Congress should immediately ban the use of taxpayer money to fund propaganda from journalists, pundits, and other commentators.  The government has no right to use taxpayer money to deceive the public.  These latest payola scandals are part of a long standing Bush administration pattern of abusing the public's trust in pushing its top priorities.  Honest conservatives are rightly appalled by these payouts and we would all be better off by completely banning government-media payments.  

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