The Buying of the Press

Even journalism isn’t sacred anymore. Although Republicans love to talk about the conspiracy of the “liberal media”, it was revealed a few weeks ago that the conservative pundit Armstrong Williams had been paid $240,000 by a public relations firm that had been hired by the Bush Administration’s Department of Education. Mr. Williams’ job was to promote the “No Child Left Behind” education reform plan with advertising. Just this week, CNN reported that syndicated columnist Maggie Gallagher had a contract with the Department of Health and Human Services to promote the President’s initiative on marriage. President Bush has stated that he disapproves of the practice [of paying for positive press] and has stated that “Our agenda ought to be able to stand on its own two feet.” Indeed, and give the man credit for saying so. CNN also reported that the Bush administration spent more than $88 million on contracts with public relations firms in 2004. This was a 128% increase since 2000. Not surprisingly, Democratic lawmakers are introducing a bill to stop “tax-payer funded covert propaganda” campaigns, although language prohibiting this type of spending has been included in annual appropriation bills since 1951.

Could this be happening at the local level? Perhaps. Although we may never really know just how much money the school department spends on advertising, the amount on the books is still significant. There can only be one explanation for the lengths that some of our local newspapers are willing to go to for the Superintendent, and that is “revenue.” Those full-page ads, complete with photographs, don’t come cheaply – and neither does loyalty. Nowhere else would you find a local newspaper that would call the Boston Globe article something “nice to read.” Here’s something else to consider; there is something fundamentally wrong when the school department complains that it doesn’t have enough teachers but seems to have plenty of money for non-essentials like advertising. Are their priorities in the right place? We think not.

Call your local school committee member and ask him or her to take the pledge. No taxpayer money for public relations. Just like President Bush, the Superintendent’s agenda should be able to stand on its own two feet.