Pretend Punditry

Here’s what taxpayers got for $1 million in federal education funds: a public relations company “judging” newspaper coverage of the department and giving its top ranking to an article written by the U.S. Education secretary himself. Actors taping some phony, little-noticed “news spots” about the federal education law. And a columnist and commentator touting the No Child Left Behind Act without disclosing he had been paid a quarter of a million to do so.

If nothing else, Education Secretary Rod Paige made it easy for his successor to outclass him. All Margaret Spellings will have to do is institute a few basic rules of ethics.

The most recent unsavory splash involves the Education Department paying $240,000 to conservative pundit Armstrong Williams so that he would, in essence, advertise the department’s big initiative on his public- affairs show without identifying the plugs as paid advertising.

After initially trying to defend himself, Williams explained that because he’s not a trained journalist, he couldn’t have known that he shouldn’t take money to skew his reporting and commentary. It doesn’t seem to have occurred to him that if he wanted to play journalist, it was his job to find out something about the rules.

Same goes for Paige and his subordinates. If Paige, whose background was in local schools, wanted to take on federal powers, he needed to learn about the big time. Outright propaganda, paid for with federal taxpayer funds, is not OK.

Paige continues to defend as “outreach” his misuse of public money. Inefficient misuse, to boot. Because Williams is African American, the Education Department seemed to assume that he was the media path to convincing black Americans that the law was a good one. There’s no evidence that Williams ever had the ear, or the confidence, of most African Americans.

Ditto for getting any benefit from the rest of the public relations contract. Phony news videos touting the law crossed the same line as videos produced to tout the new Medicare prescription drug law, which the government’s own watchdog agency declared to be “covert propaganda.”

The Education Department says it has “no plans” for more phony journalism, but hasn’t promised a thing. We’re still listening. It’s up to the free market to decide about Williams. He’s already lost his distribution deal with Tribune Co., the parent company of this newspaper. CNN and NBC left his future doubtful but unclear. Maybe the Home Shopping Network will sell him airtime.