President Bush, asked about the practice at a news conference this morning, acknowledged that his administration had made a mistake by awarding contracts to commentators who support his policies. Bush said he expects his Cabinet secretaries to end the practice. “Mr. Armstrong Williams admitted he made a mistake,” Bush said. “We didn’t know about this in the White House. There needs to be a nice independent relationship between the White House and the press, the administration and the press.” Bush said in response to a follow-up question that the Education Department had made a mistake as well. “All our Cabinet secretaries must realize that we will not be paying commentators to advance our agenda,” he said. “Our agenda ought to be able to stand on its own two feet.”
One way to insure this would be for Bush to order all his cabinet secretaries to release all the information they have on payments to individuals who also write as allegedly independent journalists. Meanwhile, Ryan Sager defends Gallagher.
The Dish 