Most commentary I've seen on the Armstrong Williams controversy has been Crossfire-level at best - either it was an innocent mistake made by a PR firm, or a nefarious scheme to subvert democracy. But the best way to look at the story is as an example of how far the Bush administration will go in its use of the techniques of public relations, even if it means violating the norms of politics. This was the key point of All the President's Spin -- to understand the Bush administration, you have to understand its use of PR.
A classic example is the Karen Ryan incident, which we analyze in the conclusion of the book. It has all the same ingredients as Williams: a subcontracted PR agency does something that is considered normal in the world of business, but not in politics. When caught, the administration denies doing anything wrong, and says what was done is standard practice. (To review, Karen Ryan was the flack who posed as a reporter in a government-produced news segment designed to look like a real news story. It was then aired on a number of local newscasts without attribution. The Clinton administration previously engaged in this practice as well.)
As we wrote in ATPS, here's how Health and Human Services spokespeople replied to questions about the Ryan incident:
"The use of video news releases is a common, routine practice in government and the private sector," Kevin W. Keane said, adding, "Anyone who has questions about this practice needs to do some research on modern public information tools." Another HHS spokesman, Bill Pierce, later claimed, "There's no way this can be deceptive," saying, "If [local newscasts] run the whole package, that's their choice."
And here's Education Secretary Rod Paige's response to the Williams controversy as reported in Editor and Publisher - note in particular the third paragraph, which directly mirrors Keane and Pierce above:
In a statement e-mailed to E&P and other publications, Paige said: "I am sorry that there are perceptions and allegations of ethical lapses." But he defended the expenditure, saying it "went exclusively toward the production and airtime of advertisements in which I described the law and encouraged viewers and listeners to call the Department's toll-free information line. The funds covered those costs alone and nothing more. All of this has been reviewed and is legal."
But USA Today reported today that the Department of Education contract with Williams also called for him to "comment regularly on NCLB during the course of his broadcasts."
Paige also said in his statement: "Hiring outside experts to help communicate a complex issue is standard practice in all sectors of our society: local, state and the federal government; the private sector; and the non-profit sector. The work for which the Graham Williams Group was paid through Ketchum was part of a larger minority outreach effort by the Department because economically disadvantaged and minority students and families are most affected by the educational achievement gap that the law seeks to eradicate."
(Paige appears to contradict himself here, saying first that the money went only for advertisements and then later stating that Williams had been hired "to help communicate a complex issue.")
In the end, the message is the same: the Bush administration wants to win, and it will use all the tools of corporate PR to do so.
Update 1/19: I missed this when I was sick, but the Office of Drug Control Policy was recently caught issuing a Karen Ryan-style video news release.
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