Sorry if Dupe Third columnist caught with hand in the Bush till

[MSgt213]

Michael McManus, conservative author of the syndicated column "Ethics & Religion," received $10,000 to promote a marriage initiative.

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By Eric Boehlert

One day after President Bush ordered his Cabinet secretaries to stop hiring commentators to help promote administration initiatives, and one day after the second high-profile conservative pundit was found to be on the federal payroll, a third embarrassing hire has emerged. Salon has confirmed that Michael McManus, a marriage advocate whose syndicated column, "Ethics & Religion," appears in 50 newspapers, was hired as a subcontractor by the Department of Health and Human Services to foster a Bush-approved marriage initiative. McManus championed the plan in his columns without disclosing to readers he was being paid to help it succeed.

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2005/01/27/mcmanus/index_np.html

[TOOLZ]

1. FINALLY, we've vetted all of the paid-for press.

Right?

Guys?

[MSgt213]

2. More on Gallagher and Horn: Married To It

Throughout her career as a professional marriage tout, Maggie Gallagher has consistently played the "elite" card in her efforts to discredit the values and policies of her ideological foes.

Here, for example, Gallagher writes about the dangers of gay matrimony at The National Review: "Even as American cultural norms are dramatically reshaped by elites, we seem to deny the power of norms to shape our own lives or the lives of people we know."

Here, in a syndicated column about the virtues of traditional marriage, she writes: "In a nation dedicated to the progressive drama -- each generation better off than the last -- elite voices counseled, for reasons of their own, that this one problem was intractable, stubborn, impossible to reverse. Best (they urged us) just to ignore the fact that half or more of our children grow up in fatherless homes, and get on with the business of making the world a better place for single moms."

And here, perhaps on a day when the demands of keeping her own home sufficiently motherful were claiming her attention, she reheats the previous entrée and spices it up with a dash of racial animosity: "Another way of reading the last 40 years is that once again, white, educated elites are using their power to enforce the moral norms and sexual tastes of affluent white people with graduate degrees."

http://www.soundbitten.com/archives/week_2005_01_23.html#000590

[Robbien]

3. Ethics and Religion. What is ethical about taking taxpayer money

to shill propropaganda?

Once again the holy pious pushers travel a very dark low road.

[BrklynLiberal]

4. I just love it!!!! Can't wait to see the ever growing list....

[Cleita]

5. I think the whole MSM is getting kick backs of one sort or the

other. It's the only thing that would make sense as to why Bush hasn't been given the criticism and been investigated by intrepid reporters like a free press should have done from the moment of his selection. I think there is a big laundry operation of money being funneled to the press for favorable propaganda.

Where is that black hole that all our money is disappearing into, much of it unaccounted for?

[babylonsister]

6. Unbelieveable! They're seeping out of the woodwork!

Not really, but I hope Sen. Kennedy heard about this new evidence!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x1538220

[adigal]

7. NO!!!!! I'm shocked,

simply shocked!!! I could not imagine there would be any more! What is Bushie thinking???

[Pirate Smile]

8. I haven't seen this anywhere yet. You should put this in LBN too.

[KharmaTrain]

9. Gallagher On PBS..."I'm A Opinion Journalist"...WTF Is That?

Gwenn Ifill all but rolled out a red carpet for this POS tonight...letting her ramble how she was an "authority on marriage" and her "work" was giving the government information about marriage. What a pile of crap.

First, what is an "authority on marriage"? From one whose been married for over 20 years, could I call myself one? Or does only James Dobson and Karl Rove determine this?

Ifill not only didn't really question this hagatha, she then brings on Tony "Big Tuna" Blankley to give some "perspective" on this. Of course, this shill (whose on the GOOP take, no doubt), says there's "no there there...move along". Then Ifill brings on one other "expert" on journalistic ethics who went into some J-school gobbildy gook about what is ethical and what isn't. It was a total joke...but then what did you expect from PBS on a day when they were involved in another right wing witch hunt.

What was so Orwellian is when Gallagher called herself an "Opinion Journalist". If that isn't an oxymoron, I've never heard one. And Ifill just let that one roll. We do live in some very dark times.

[babylonsister]

11. Especially considering PBS is more librul than most.

At least I usually think so, or at least their level of discourse is usually more elevated compared to the other corp. media.

[KharmaTrain]

16. That Was Then, This Is Now

PBS is far more journalistic in their reporting, and they offer the best international coverage of any American-based network, but when it comes to political issues, they cowered to this regime when they brought in Ifill (a know regime whore) to do these interviews. She's awful...if her performance (or lack of it) during last year's debate should have demonstrated.

[EVDebs]

15. B.S., only Mickey Rooney is an 'authority on marriage'

[katinmn]

10. This is starting to break wide open like the pedophile priest scandals

It's about damn time, too.

[pk_du]

12. Drip.............................drip.........................drip........

until the FOIA requests get returned in a few weeks/months with the whole enchilada.

[Bark Bark Bark]

13. So Many Names I Wanna See On This S***-List

Bruce Tinsley ("Mallard Fillmore") will somehow either miss this controversy entirely, or try to twist it into a condemnation of liberals, but he's often asserted that he's not on the GOPayroll.

Now, maybe--just maybe--he's not lying in his teeth again, and he's just a "useful idiot." On the other hand, if his name popped up, I'd keel over dead. Grinning.

Ditto for Debbie Saunders (SF Chronicle) and Kathleen Parker (Orlando Sentinel). They occasionally feign independence, but when the time comes they regurgitate talking points memos for the GOP with the worst of 'em.

[EVDebs]

14. One more time,,,Operation Mockingbird apparently hasn't received the

attention it is due.

If you will, please refer to it at
www.prisonplanet.com/analysis_ louise_01_03_03_mockingbird.html

You may also wish to check the CNN and Psyops article (prelude to the 2004 election ?) at Counterpunch
http://www.counterpunch.org/cnnpsyops.html

What democracy ?

[EVDebs]

17. It's looking like Liberals weren't smart enough or connected enough to

cash in, huh ?

Krikey, when CIA spook William F. Buckley, jr. went into 'journalism' somebody would have SAID something....

[Walt Starr]

18. Pundit Payola is going to be THE SCANDAL

Wait and see, this violates federal law and it goes all the way up.

[cosmicdot]

19. they should've kept Richard Mellon Scaife writing the checks ...

a la Tony Snow-style 'mentoring'

instead of 'institutionalizing' their pay-offs, graft, influence-peddling and payola

seems there's a racket going on

show us the contract files on all of these as they break ... who released the contract? who signed the requisition?
where is the statement of work? were there competitive (haha) bids? could we see the sole source justification? It's been years since I did subcontract administration under gov't contracts ... things were tight back then ... audits were tough ... paper trails were mandatory ... wha' happened? Were the Federal Acquisition Regulations cheney'd? are media moles considered Off-The-Shelf commercial items exempt of the FARs through paperwork reduction acts? Once we might have once paid over $100 for a toilet seat, but I bet the paper trail existed to justify the taxpayer's $100-spent procurement.


Gallagher says she's an "authority on marriage" ... (probably like Neil Bush is an authority on education) ... show us the contract ... the common denominator is: $ ka-ching $ ... Grant and Harding are miniatures in comparison to this gang ... this has to be the biggest hustle of the US Treasury ever.

we're tired of being lied to and we're tired of the fraud and corruption ...

[Melynn]

20. Does anyone else get the irony here?

"Michael McManus, conservative author of the syndicated column "Ethics & Religion," received $10,000 to promote a marriage initiative."

A man who writes a column about "Ethics & Religion" is caught engaging in unethical behavior.

My guess is that Mr. McManus would say that receiving payola from government to write propaganda isn't unethical. And Mr. McManus should know because he is the "Ethics expert", (sarcasm).

This scandal is just too funny. Someone on DU should start a thread about what other right wing pundits may be on the take.