Volume III. No. 25
 01-10-05
 Armstrong Williams Paid Political Pundit
 author: Vance Cureton
 © Copyright 2005
 

 Well, hello... Another holier-than-thou conservative pundit has been forced 
 to admit in public that's he's been a bad boy. This time Armstrong Williams 
 is the culprit. Williams has been caught with his hand in the cookie jar to 
 the amount of $241,000 U.S. government dollars.

 That's two-hundred thousand LARGE of American taxpayer money that 
 Williams and his public relations firm received from the Department of 
 Education { Bush! } as payment for promoting the goverment's No Child 
 Left Behind Program. That's right. Williams was on the government { Bush! } 
 payroll while in disguise as an independent media journalist.

 In other periods of American history, Williams would now be labeled as 
 a government propagandist. And fairly so! But, his groveling appearances 
 on network television this past weekend where he "apologized," while at 
 the same time declaring he was not inclined to return one single dime of 
 his earnings, were absolutely hilarious.

 The hypocricy on display was stratospheric. Williams has appeared on
 television numerous times lauding practically EVERYTHING about the Bush
 administration, and yet his connection with Bush was kept hidden.

 That is not just bad judgement. It is dishonesty.

 Here's a man who didn't want to hear any mea culpa's from Bill Clinton, who 
 defended Trent Lott when Lott put his foot in his mouth about the good old 
 days down in the "Jim Crow" South, and who came to the defense of that 
 racist bigot Strom Thurmond when the news hit the wire that Strom really
 did have a Black daughter. 

 { Armstrong Williams is himself an African American }

 There is no schadenfrued here. But the hyprocricy that is so often layed
 bare on the right side of the political aisle is telling, merely because fellow 
 hypocrites, Bill Bennett, Rush Limbaugh, Bill O'Reilly, and Williams are
 so unforgiving and judgemental of the faults of others. -- Particularly when
 such such personas are liberals or democrats.

 But will Armstong Williams' breaking of one of the cardinal rules of journalism 
 mean the end of his career as an outspoken conservative pundit? Don't count 
 on it. Not when networks such as the Kerry-hating Sinclair Broadcast Group
 and other Far Right media organizations are in need of culturally-conservative
 voices such as Williams to promote their world-view.

 Fox News certainly didn't distance their network from Bill O'Reilly when he
 was involved in some hanky-panky involving phone sex and "allegedly"
 was inappropriate in his attitude and behavior toward a female subordinate. 
 The case was settled out of court less the ugly details - even if only partly 
 true - were to have destroyed O'Reilly and stained Fox.

 In Williams' case, his skin color will probably protect him, as articulate
 African-American conservative pundits are in somewhat short supply.

 Thus, if Williams journalistic career is not to to be totally shattered by his 
 lapse in judgement over the No Child Left Behind contract, what he will need 
 most of all is a little forgiveness. Something he has in the past, found hard 
 to express towards any but fellow hardcore conservative mouthpieces.
 

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