Could Pundits Not Receiving Government Funds Please Stand Up? [1]
Submitted by Diane Farsetta [2] on
"One day after President Bush [3] ordered his Cabinet secretaries to stop hiring commentators [4] to help promote administration initiatives, and one day after the second high-profile conservative pundit [5] was found to be on the federal payroll [6], a third embarrassing hire has emerged," reports Salon. "Michael McManus [7], 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 [8] to foster a Bush-approved marriage initiative." Like Maggie Gallagher [9], McManus "championed the plan in his columns without disclosing to readers he was being paid to help it succeed." McManus was paid $10,000 through the Lewin Group, a health care consultancy, for trainings and presentations. An HHS official said, "We live in a complicated world and people wear many different hats. ... The line has become increasingly blurred between who's a member of the media and who is not [10]."