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Stations
Face Fines
Over Use
Of Bush Anti-Gay Shill
From the
Web, October 21, 2007
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Washington -- Two broadcast
companies are facing FCC fines totaling $76,000 against two broadcast companies
for failing to tell viewers that programs in 2004 featuring conservative
columnist Armstrong Williams were sponsored by the Education Department.
Williams was hired by the Bush administration to promote its so-called marriage
initiative that would have banned same-sex marriage in the Constitution and to
promote the No Child Left Behind Act.
Williams (pictured) was paid nearly a quarter million dollars in 2003 by the
White House to promote the President's agenda in his columns and nationally
syndicated talk show.
Williams did not reveal the existence of the contract even as he expressed his
support for the agenda on the air.
The Federal Communications Commission says the two companies, which own multiple
stations, violated sponsorship identification rules by not revealing Williams'
financial relationship.
Sonshine Family Television Inc., owner of WBPH-TV in Bethlehem, Pa., is liable
for a fine of $40,000 for airing five episodes of "The Right Side with Armstrong
Williams."
The shows aired on 10 occasions in the first half of 2004 and included Williams
speaking about the education law.
Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc. of Baltimore was hit with a proposed fine of
$36,000 for airing an episode of "America's Black Forum" in September of 2004,
which also included Williams talking about the legislation.
The Sinclair stations involved are WABM-TV in Birmingham, Ala.; KSMO-TV in
Kansas City, Mo.; WVTV-TV in Milwaukee, Wis.; WUXP-TV in Nashville, Tenn.; KOCB-TV
and WEAR-TV in Pensacola, Fla; WPMY-TV in Pittsburgh; KABB-TV in San Antonio;
and WTWC-TV in Tallahassee, Fla.
The FCC said it began investigating following a complaint from Free Press, a
public interest media watchdog group, and "several thousand other complainants".
The attorney-general reportedly is also looking into the relationship between
Williams and the White House.
In 2005 the Government Accountability Office launched its own probe and
concluded that the Education Department engaged in illegal "covert propaganda"
by hiring Williams without requiring him to disclose that he was being paid.
The Education Department's inspector general also reviewed the Williams deal.
Williams is a former aide to U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.
In a column following the 2004 election Williams linked gay rights advocates
with organized crime.
"Despite the rhetoric that you hear from the homosexual Cosa Nostra, the lack of
support for the gay marriage amendment has nothing to do with prejudice," he
wrote.
"It's not about trying to dictate to adults what they should do in the privacy
of their own homes. Let's be clear about that. Opposition to the gay
marriage amendment isn't about disallowing homosexuals the same basic rights we
extend to everyone else. It is about recognizing that marriage between man
and woman is the bedrock of our society. It is about the citizens of this
country saying, en masse, that they are unwilling to deconstruct certain basic
and essential norms in our culture and society."
After Williams was exposed the White House pulled the plug on the operation, but
sources close to the investigation say that Williams did not return any of the
money, nor did the administration request it.
After Williams was exposed two other cases came to light where the
administration hired journalists to promote its agenda in the guise of unbiased
commentary and news.
Syndicated conservative columnists Maggie Gallagher and Michael McManus were
paid by the administration to promote the marriage initiative.
In 2003 Gallagher testified before a Senate subcommittee in support of a
constitutional ban on gay marriage but failed to mention she was on the White
House payroll.
McManus, whose syndicated column, "Ethics & Religion," appeared in 50
newspapers, was hired as a subcontractor by the Department of Health and Human
Services
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