Journalists on the Take

Just a few weeks after the "No Child Left Behind"/AQrmstrong Williams payoff scandal, another case of the Bush administration paying off journalists to promote its policies emerges. In today's Salon:

"Washington Post columnist Howard Kurtz has revealed that conservative columnist
Maggie Gallagher wrote columns in support of President Bush's marriage
initiative for publications including the National Review but failed to
mention that she had received $21,500 from the Department of Health and
Human Services to promote the program. "Did I violate journalistic ethics by
not disclosing it? I don't know. You tell me," she told Kurtz, but later
wrote a column apologizing for the ethical lapse.

Maybe we need a new forum for journalists on the take.