Pundit Payola-Money talks. It writes, too. By Michael Kinsley

[kpete]

Pundit Payola
Money talks. It writes, too.
By Michael Kinsley
Posted Friday, Dec. 23, 2005, at 6:25 AM ET



Opinions for sale

If I were just a tad more pretentious, I would call this an article—wait, make that an essay—about the commodification of opinion. It came out last week that a couple of conservative pundits have been on the take from lobbyist extraordinaire Jack Abramoff. He would pay them up to $2,000 for columns and op-ed pieces that advanced the interests of his clients. This is on top of the $3.95 or so these writers collected from the newspapers themselves.

How embarrassing: opinions for sale, like cheeseburgers. Can I supersize that tax break I'm advocating for you, sir? You can buy a pundit for even less than it costs to buy a politician.

In retrospect, there were clues. For Washington policy nerds, a passionate interest in developments among the Choctaw Indians does not arise naturally. And like that old joke about Henny Youngman's eulogy for Jack Benny's cat (punchline: You wouldn't believe what that cat had done for the State of Israel), it is remarkable how the wisdom of so many conservative shibboleths can be demonstrated by looking at the government of the Northern Mariana Islands.

http://www.slate.com/id/2133079/

[Lefty48197]

1. Armstrong Williams writing in support of "No Child left behind..."

and now they're paying Iraqi "journalists" to write pro-Bush stories.

If they told the truth, they wouldn't have to pay people to lie.