BUSH DRAWS FIRE OVER FEE PAID TO COLUMNIST TO PROMOTE POLICY

The Bush administration faces a closer look at how it tries to influence
public opinion as it readies campaigns to overhaul Social Security and the
tax code, following reports that the Education Department paid a
conservative columnist to promote its policies.

Armstrong Williams, a prominent commentator and frequent guest on
television news shows, lost his syndicated column after disclosures that he
was paid $240,000 by the Education Department to promote the "No Child Left
Behind" law to other black journalists. In an appearance on CNN's
"Crossfire" Saturday, Mr. Williams said, "I used bad judgment," and
apologized to his audience. "It's the first time we've done business with
the government, but I just would not do it again."

Tribune Media Services, a subsidiary of Chicago-based Tribune Co., said,
effective immediately, it would no longer distribute Mr. Williams's weekly
column. The column ran in newspapers nationwide, such as the Denver Post
and the Sun-News in Myrtle Beach, S.C. The company said in a statement that
the appearance of impropriety was enough to justify its cancellation.
"Under these circumstances, readers may well ask themselves if the views
expressed in his columns are his own, or whether they have been purchased
by a third party," the company said.

Though Mr. Williams didn't have the reach of some other newspaper
columnists, he appeared often on television news and talk shows. As part of
his arrangement with the Education Department, Mr. Armstrong used his
influence with other black journalists to get them to talk about "No Child
Left Behind," a 2002 law that aims to raise achievement among poor and
minority children, with penalties for many schools that don't make progress.

The White House largely deflected questions about Mr. Williams, saying the
Education Department made decisions regarding his contract. The department
said the contract was a "permissible use of taxpayer funds under legal
government-contracting procedures."

The administration previously tried to promote its agenda in the mainstream
media using less-than-upfront methods. In early 2004, the White House's
drug-control policy office sent local television stations around the
country packaged reports on a government campaign to curb drug abuse. The
materials included a "suggested live intro" for news anchors to read,
interviews with Washington officials and a closing similar to a typical
broadcast-news sign-off. The "reporter," a former Washington journalist,
was in fact working under contract for the government.

The Government Accountability Office later criticized the administration
for an illegal "covert propaganda" campaign. The GAO also concluded that
similar production pieces touting Mr. Bush's Medicare drug benefit were an
improper use of taxpayer money.

On Capitol Hill, Democrats leapt on the Williams incident as an abuse of
White House power. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and George Miller,
who sits on the House Education and Workforce Committee, called on the
White House to disclose "all past and ongoing efforts to engage in covert
propaganda."

Such opinion management isn't a Bush-administration invention. In 2000,
President Clinton's drug czar, Barry McCaffrey, secretly paid television
networks to propagandize its antidrug message. The scripts of "ER,"
"Chicago Hope," "Beverly Hills 90210" and other programs were altered to
include antidrug messages. In return for changing scripts, the networks
were allowed to sell to higher-paying advertisers advertising time that had
been promised to the government.

Journalism ethicists said cases such as Mr. Armstrong's fan public distrust
of traditional media outlets and the pundits who appear on them.

"We have to then say: 'Is this happening on other fronts? Are there any
other journalists who are being paid by the government or advertising or
public-relations agencies to bring forth messages?'" said Bob Steele, who
studies journalism ethics at the Poynter Institute in St. Petersburg, Fla.