I dug up an old college paper after reading: Campaign Vets: Ben Carson's Manager Is Bullying Him
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COM 362
Fred Slocombe
2/22/05
Public Relations Case Study: Burden
of News: What is News and what is not?
Ketchum Communications, which is
owned by Omnicom, set up a Public Relations contract between Armstrong Williams
and the Department of Education to promote President Bush's No Child Left
Behind program. According to Ray Kotcher, CEO of Ketchum, "Ketchum was
awarded the contract from the Department of Education through a competitive
bidding process two years ago" [2003].
In December of 2003 Sinclair
Broadcasting Group's "News Central" division produced a television
program that featured an interview with Vice President Dick Cheney. “News
Central Analyst Armstrong Williams” conducted the interview. According to New
York Times columnist Frank Rich in an article published Thursday, January 13,
2005, Armstrong Williams was the only person at that time that was able to sit
down with the Vice President for an in-depth interview.
Sinclair Broadcasting Group is a
corporation that owns a large number of local television stations that are all
affiliates of major networks. The website for Sinclair Broadcasting Group is
www.sbgi.net which proudly states "Sinclair's television group includes 20
FOX, 19 WB, 6 UPN, 8 ABC, 3 CBS, 4 NBC affiliates and 2 independent stations
and reaches approximately 24% of all U.S. television households."
According to Greg Toppo of USA TODAY
in an article Posted 1/7/2005, "The campaign, part of an effort to promote
No Child Left Behind (NCLB), required commentator Armstrong Williams "to
regularly comment on NCLB during the course of his broadcasts," and to
interview Education Secretary Rod Paige for TV and radio spots that aired
during the show in 2004."
"According to a Freedom of
Information act obtained by USA Today, Armstrong Williams was encouraged to use
contacts with America's Black Forum, a group of black broadcast journalists,
"to encourage the producers to periodically address" NCLB. He
persuaded radio and TV personality Steve Harvey to invite [Education Secretary]
Paige onto his show twice. Harvey's manager, Rushion McDonald, confirmed the
appearances." (Toppo)
Armstrong Williams never revealed
that he was under a contractual obligation to the Department of Education,
persuaded other journalists to act on his behalf without disclosing full
knowledge of his contract with the government, created paid video press
releases with the aid of Sinclair Broadcasting, under the "blanket"
of News Central's new feed service,
After USA Today broke the story,
there was an immediate and fierce reaction to Armstrong Williams' actions.
Tribune Media Syndication Services terminated his contract, which effectively
cut his column from about 50 newspapers.
According to Richard Prince of the
Maynard Institute for Journalism Education wrote that The syndicated TV show
"America's Black Forum" and The State, the newspaper in the capital
of Armstrong Williams' home state, South Carolina, have dropped the commentator
in light of the disclosure that Williams' firm accepted $240,000 from the
Education Department to promote the No Child Left Behind Act.
According to Richard Prince,
Williams claimed that his actions had nothing to do with public relations, and
that the Department of Education only bought ad space on a television show that
Armstrong owned and hosted.
Following Armstrong Williams
disaster that hinged only on his disclosing his contract ahead of time, Three
more people were revealed to have been paid to promote a government program
without disclosure: Syndicated columnists Maggie Gallagher was paid 21,500 and
Michael McManus was paid $10,000, by the Department of Health and Human
Services to develop policy on strengthening marriage. Later, not for pay, they
wrote about the policy in their columns without disclosing their contracts.
Finally, Jeff Gannon, who worked
for GOPUSA, happened to have access to the White House already and had the
bright idea one day to start up a website called Talon News Service, and tried
to become what he though was a journalist.
My questions are:
1. How
do you define the difference between a qualified journalist and Public
Relations Practitioner?
2. Do
journalists have the right to cross the line into Public Relations? Do PR
Practitioners have the right to cross the line into journalism?
3. When
was the last time you saw a public service announcement with the disclaimer
“This message brought to you by the Department of Education”? Or The Centers
For Disease Control? When did it start being OK for the government to not
identify itself as the source of a message?
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Greg Toppo, Education Dept. paid commentator to
promote law; USA TODAY Posted
1/7/2005 12:17 AM Updated 1/7/2005 11:16 AM). www.usatoday.com
Frank Rich, All The President's Newsmen; New
York Times, January 13, 2005. Reprinted at www.commondreams.org
Ray Kotcher, Williams Scandal is a 'transformational
event' in PR; PRWEEK January 13, 2005. www.prweek.com
Richard Prince, 2 More Drop Armstrong Williams.
January 12, 2005; Journal-isms. The Maynard Instutute for Journalism Studies. www.maynardije.org/columns/dickprince/
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