ASSIGNMENT DESK
A new White House house press corps scandal emerging, blurbed for today’s Here and Now. On the heels of this, from pressthink, Jan. 19:
Elliott reported again today on the furor in public relations circles caused by the Armstrong Williams corruption case, in which one of the leading PR agencies, Ketchum, which is a big firm (1,100 employees) funneled $240,000 from the Department of Education (DoE) to Williams, the conservative syndicated columnist and television host, who was paid to promote the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB)…
The subtext of this item is: PR flacks make a lot more money than beat reporters. Where is the story exposing the hypocrisy of an administration that simultaneously scorns the press, its tactics and influence, and then pays it off? And where is the story about how cheaply such journalists are bought, what salaries are compared to PR firms and most administrative posts, and why any journalist would be sell their soul for such pittance?