Sept. 10, 2006
 
COMMENTARY: Failed Government Bribed Flacks and Journalists Exposed
 
By Joseph J. Honick
 
Bainbridge Island, WA (HNN) -- In non-governmental circles, hiring public relations firms to sell client images is quite routine and accepted. When the government, especially the federal government pours out hundreds of millions for such work, especially work that flops miserably, the issue becomes one of major concern politically, legally and morally. No administration in history has blown so much taxpayer money not only with private PR propagandists but in funneling tens of thousands of dollars to journalists who are not supposed to be taking that money to report the news.
 
The first major embarrassment came with the exposure that the administration had paid more than $200,000 to talk show host Armstrong Williams to propagandize for the No Child Left Behind campaign.
 
Hundreds of millions have been shelled out to firms like the Lincoln Group, Rendon Public Relations and other to help sell the Iraq war, while a huge investment was made to install Bush loyalist Karen Hughes in a special kind of diplomatic public relations position on the public tab in the State Department.
 
Given the lack of success virtually anywhere, in private industry, all of these people would have been fired or at least pushed to the side. If all of this were not bad enough, it has now surfaced that the United States paid at least 10 journalists to harass Fidel Castro, and some of them were so obvious the Cuban dictator figured them out almost immediately. Were these reporters acting in some sort of idealistic fashion, however unprofessional, there might have been some small understanding of that kind of naivete. Not so, however, as the reporters were happy to be on the receiving end of taxpayer payoffs.
 
According to the New York Times, one Pablo Alfonso who reports for El Nuevo Herald on Cuba received the largest payment for almost $171,000 since 2001, while presumably also collecting his pay from his newspaper. In addition to Alfonso, three other reporters and a free lancer collected almost $100,000. All were cut loose by the publishers of the Miami Herald and El Nuevo Herald for their conduct.
 
When such events are exposed to public scrutiny, it is not always easy to pin the blame on specific individuals who were seduced by the deals offered them, there is good reason to nail the government officials who saw nothing wrong in doling out money in this way, even as political leaders talk about American values.
 
Questions that hang over the government and Americans generally and collectively include those that suggest government officials may have broken the law, but there has been no revelation of who those officials are. Just as dicey and confusing is how the organized journalism professionals will respond and just how wide and deep are these alliances between government and what the public is being presented as truthful reporting.
 
In a democracy already tarnished by evidence of the violation of what we always treasured as American values, the strength of the government remains only as strong as those sworn to uphold its laws and values function legally and ethically.
 
The even larger question is whether a public, jaded by scandals in government and business of major proportions, will even blink at these latest revelations. Perhaps the arrogance of both government and industry shady characters rely on that apathy.