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January 26, 2005
Another paid influencer
It must be tempting, even flattering, to be offered money from influential people to evangelize something you already support.
Conservative commentator Armstrong Williams was caught up in the headiness of it all by taking money from the Bush Administration to support its conservative positions. And it appears another syndicated columnist fell for the bait, too.
The Washington Post reports that Maggie Gallagher (pictured), president of the Washington-based Institute for Marriage and Public Policy and a syndicated columnist, took $21,500 as part of a $300 million Bush initiative to encourage marriage. Other than the obvious question of "$300 million to promote marriage?" one might ask, how does this square ethically?
"Did I violate journalistic ethics by not disclosing it?" Gallagher told the Post. "I don't know. You tell me." She said she would have "been happy to tell anyone who called me" about the contract but that "frankly, it never occurred to me" to disclose it. Later in the day, Gallagher filed a column in which she said that "I should have disclosed a government contract when I later wrote about the Bush marriage initiative. I would have, if I had remembered it. My apologies to my readers."
Gallagher's rather callow response is surprising, especially for someone whose primary asset is credibility. She says her case is "a very different sort of government contract" than what Armstrong Williams had, but is that the point? The mere appearance of impropriety is enough to impugn credibility in the advocacy of a position.
Credibility is the foundation for those of us who evangelize ideas, products or services. If the rationale of our advocacy of a cause is supported with financial support from the beneficiary of our ideas, then the conviction of our ideas is circumspect. In that scenario, evangelism becomes just another paid placement, another cog in the advertising machine.
All of this seems like a solid rationale for those who traffic in ideas to create and maintain a transparency statement. All of this seems to illustrate, too, why stealth marketing, aka paid evangelists, are bound to draw heavily on credibility equity.
UPDATE: A third columnist admits to being a paid advocate for Bush Administration policies:
Columnist Mike McManus received $10,000 to train marriage counselors as part of the agency's initiative promoting marriage to build strong families, said Wade Horn, assistant secretary for children and families.
The disclosure came as the Government Accountability Office sent a letter to the Education Department on Friday asking for all materials related to its contract dealings with commentator Armstrong Williams.
That department, through a contract with the public-relations firm Ketchum, hired Williams to produce ads that featured Education Secretary Rod Paige and promoted the No Child Left Behind law. The contract also committed Williams to provide media access for Paige, who was replaced this week by Margaret Spellings.
Federal law bans the use of public money on propaganda.
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