It's Something I Believe In

Every time I think the administration has gone too far, they take another step down their road to hell. USA Today reports:

Seeking to build support among black families for its education reform law, the Bush administration paid a prominent black pundit $240,000 to promote the law on his nationally syndicated television show and to urge other black journalists [USAT apparently has a different definition of "journalist" than I] to do the same.

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," and to interview Education Secretary Rod Paige for TV and radio spots that aired during the show in 2004.

Williams said Thursday he understands that critics could find the arrangement unethical, but "I wanted to do it because it's something I believe in."

I mean, really. I know that many, if not most, pundits are hacks with a partisan agenda, but now WE (you and I) have to pay them with our tax dollars?

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."

You know, that Stalin fella was good with the propaganda too. Funny how the United States didn't think it was so cute back then.