Talking Heads are On The Take!

Alas, it really comes as no huge surprise that corporations are bribing TV pundits to promote pro business opinions. After all, in Bush’s America we’ve seen our own government bribing columnists such as Armstrong Williams, and even planting the likes of Jeff Gannon / James Guckhert in the White House Press Corps to lob canned softballs at Scotty McClellan. Oh yeah, and there are those video news releases produced by the government that star fake journalists. Now, the daily FOXNews/White House “Snow Job” has further rubbed the line between news and shilling. Is anyone shocked that corporations are now paying pundits to toe their party line on all the talk shows? Today’s Gray Lady has the sordid details:

A public relations firm has apologized to General Motors after acknowledging that it may have offered money to former Labor Secretary Robert B. Reich in exchange for public comments supporting the automaker's employee buyout program.

Luckily, there are still a few public officials with integrity around. Clinton’s former Secretary of Labor is among them, and he’s blown the whistle on Punditry Payola.

Mr. Reich, who was labor secretary under President Bill Clinton and is now a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, had complained publicly about the incident, which he said occurred three weeks ago. He described the offer of payment as a new instance of how "corporate America is paying pundits to shill for them."

Neither Mr. Strauss nor Mr. Reich would respond to questions about how much money might have been offered. A spokesman for General Motors said the company had a strict policy barring payment to outside commentators to promote its interests.

So who among the small coterie of usual suspects on the Sunday and cable opinion shows is on the take? I recently wrote a diary about Andrea Mitchell misinforming America about energy policy on the Chris Matthew Show, which is sponsored by ConocoPhillips. I mean, where does the line between sponsorship, paid travel, speaking fees and downright bribery get drawn? Well, in this case it seems pretty clear that THIS …

In a statement on Wednesday, Mr. Strauss said, "I may have mentioned the possibility of an honorarium" to Mr. Reich "out of deference and respect to him and his position."

…constitutes bribery.

On his personal blog on April 7 and in a subsequent article for The American Prospect magazine, Mr. Reich said, "A public relations firm working for General Motors phoned to ask if I'd say on the media that the buyback G.M. was offering its employees was a good deal for them."

"G.M.'s public relations firm said they'd offer me money if I did this, as a show of respect," he wrote. "I told them I'd look at the deal and make up my own mind, and I told them to keep the money."

He described the offer of payment as "an integrity buyout" and said that "if we've got to the point in this country when big corporations feel free to offer what are essentially bribes to columnists and commentators, we're really in trouble."

Amen, Mr. Reich. I fear that we’re really in trouble.