Commentator to return federal cash

October 3, 2005





BY GREG TOPPO
USA TODAY


Commentator Armstrong Williams said Sunday he is in negotiations to return some of the money he received under a Bush administration contract to promote the president's education law.

Federal investigators, in findings issued Friday, said the contract violated a government ban on covert propaganda. Investigators said the Williams contract and others -- including a government-produced video made to look like a news report -- amounted to illegal propaganda because the government's role wasn't made clear to viewers or readers.

Williams, a prominent conservative columnist and pundit, denied some central findings of the investigation and said he was negotiating to return some of his fees because he didn't promote the law or ask others to do so, as the contract required.

The three Government Accountability Office reports issued Friday come nearly six months after the Education Department's inspector general criticized the Williams deal, in which Ketchum Public Relations arranged for him to promote the No Child Left Behind law on his syndicated TV show -- and to encourage others to do the same.

One of the reports cited monthly accounts submitted by Williams' company that showed he promoted the law at least 168 times, in syndicated columns, on radio and on television, in addition to ads he was paid to produce. Investigators could find only a few newspaper columns.

In an interview Sunday, Williams said confusion about the agreement was to blame; the monthly reports, he said, merely logged his media appearances in general.

Williams reiterated that he was paid only to produce ads and said negotiations to return part of his fees stem from the fact that he didn't promote the law or ask others to do so, as the contract required.

"I've said all along that there were things that they asked me to do that was clear in the beginning that I would not do."
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money back guarantee..if we don't shine your shoes to look like mirrors and repeat your words EXACTLY like you instructed us to....we give you back the money.....rent-a-negro warranty










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Those in the states are already aware of this clown. Fed. ivestigation found the Bush admin to be guilty of disclosure laws. He was basically an informercial...



a clown ......a ventriloquist dummy

with George Bush's hand up his ....(bum)