PAY TO PLAY

You may be familiar with conservative radio host Armstrong Williams's admission that he took money from the administration to promote its policies. As Howard Kurtz reports in today's Washington Post, he was not alone.

encouraging marriage as a way of strengthening families.

"The Bush marriage initiative would emphasize the importance of marriage to poor couples" and "educate teens on the value of delaying childbearing until marriage," she wrote in National Review Online, for example, adding that this could "carry big payoffs down the road for taxpayers and children."

But Gallagher failed to mention that she had a $21,500 contract with the Department of Health and Human Services to help promote the president's proposal. Her work under the contract, which ran from January through October 2002, included drafting a magazine article for the HHS official overseeing the initiative, writing brochures for the program and conducting a briefing for department officials.

Now we know why the media parrots so much of the administration's propaganda without criticism -- it's not "frames" or slick appeals to patriotism. They're being paid off!