GOP Hypocrite of the Week: Armstrong Williams
A BUZZFLASH EDITORIAL
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Welcome back to the BuzzFlash.com GOP Hypocrite of the Week.
Ever since he first began running for president, George W. Bush has tirelessly repeated the frayed cliché that he was giving the American taxpayers back our money with tax cuts. Of course, what he didn't tell us was that he was tossing a few hundred bucks at middle class families, while making them pay through the nose for the tax cuts for the wealthy, the Iraq War, a record-setting debt, corporate crony government contracts and local and state income taxes, among other expenses.
And, of course, there is also the taxpayer burden of paying off people like right wing columnist Armstrong Williams for printing Bushevik propaganda. That bribe cost the American taxpayers a pretty penny, or rather, a pretty $241,000.
And don't forget that Williams was double dipping, as they say, because he was also being paid as a so-called journalist to write a column and be a celebrity right wing pundit.
We don't know how many more journalists the Bush administration has paid off -- with our hard-earned money -- to spew right wing nonsense in the newspapers and on our airwaves. The White House Press Secretary was evasive and unconvincing when responding to questions from reporters as to whether or not -- well -- other reporters were also getting stipends.
Williams was paid through an intermediary Public Relations firm, Ketchum, which has been involved in some other questionable journalism tactics, all on our tab.
As the San Francisco Chronicle editorialized:
We're also outraged as taxpayers. A nation with a deficit in the hundreds of billions should not be enlisting high-priced public-relations firms -- such as the one that sought out Williams -- for such propaganda campaigns.
Federal education dollars would be better spent in the classroom, where they could be generating results worth touting -- without having to provide any payola to so-called journalists.
However, when exposed, Armstrong Williams refused to return the $241,000 propaganda payola the Bush administration paid him.
But, you see, Armstrong, you forget, it's not your money. Bush says it's OUR money -- and we want it back!
That's why we are honoring you as our BuzzFlash GOP Hypocrite of the Week. Because you are a model Bushevik: getting rich at the expense of the American taxpayer in return for churning out White House propaganda.
We know you are just the tip of the iceberg, although we don't expect the media to press too hard on this one. They would just end up exposing themselves, so to speak.
Until next week, just remember our motto at BuzzFlash.com: So many Republican hypocrites, so little time.
Catch up with you soon.
A BUZZFLASH EDITORIAL