Do MSM types (with hiring authority) read Instapundit? If so, contact me. 
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Armstrong Williams was right. He wasn’t the only one.
According to the Washington Post (reg. req.), Maggie Gallagher, book author and conservative columnist, was paid $21,500 to promote President Bush’s “strengthening marriage” initiative.
Did I violate journalistic ethics by not disclosing it?” Gallagher said yesterday. “I don’t know. You tell me.” She said she would have “been happy to tell anyone who called me” about the contract but that “frankly, it never occurred to me” to disclose it….Gallagher said her situation was “not really anything near” the recent controversy involving conservative commentator Armstrong Williams. Earlier this month Williams apologized for not disclosing a $241,000 contract with the Education Department, awarded through the Ketchum public relations firm, to promote Bush’s No Child Left Behind law through advertising on his cable TV and syndicated radio shows and other efforts.
Why not? Because she got only twenty grand? Whether it was “anything near” what Williams did or not, it still looks bad. In my eyes, it taints the rest of the writer’s work. And Gallagher, like Williams, should have known better.
I know Gallagher truly believes what she was paid to write, that marriage is better for women, children and society. I know she’s passionate about protecting and preserving the family. She co-wrote a book I never got a chance to read called The Case for Marriage: Why Married People Are Happier, Healthier, and Better Off Financially. But still.
Check out these NRO pieces, Marriage Matters and Why We Need Marriage. What we need are conservative writers and pundits who don’t take money from the Bush administration, that’s what we need! Read this Weekly Standard article, What Marriage Is For. This is good stuff! But how long will it take for her to recover from this scandal and continue writing columns like these? Williams’s syndicate dropped him. Will Gallagher’s drop hers? Whatever. She’s fallen. Williams has fallen. Who’s next? Am I going to be the only conservative pundit left, just me and my little blog?
Don’t think for one minute that this sort of thing didn’t happen under Bill Clinton (pardon the image). The Bush administration just got caught. Embarrassing. It might be unfair, but conservatives are held to a higher standard, and I think we should be. Why? Because we have a morally superior system of values. I’ll go to my grave believing that.
Note to MSM: Hire this thus-far-scandal-free conservative writer.
Related posts and links: Armstrong Williams: The Wrong Side, An Apology That Misses The Point, Covert Propaganda, War, Journalists, Etc., Michelle Malkin, The Moderate Voice, Polipundit, Wizbang…
Update: Maggie Gallagher responds:
I’m a marriage expert. I get paid to write, edit, research and educate on marriage. If a scholar or expert gets paid to do some work for the government, should he or she disclose that if he writes a paper, essay or op-ed on the same or similar subject? If this is the ethical standard, it is an entirely new standard.I was not paid to promote marriage. I was paid to produce particular research and writing products (articles, brochures, presentations), which I produced. My lifelong experience in marriage research, public education and advocacy is the reason HHS hired me.
Captain Ed says this is not another Armstrong Williams case.
Update II: The blogosphere has jumped all over this revelation. In fairness to Gallagher, I contacted her and asked for an interview so she could tell us what the deal is. She said she probably won’t do interviews today. I hope she’ll be willing to talk after the media storm has dissipated.
Free4Good has a warning for bloggers. In light of unknown factors surrounding the Gallagher story, I’ve added a question mark to the post title.
Update III: Notice how dissenters in the comment section hold Bush, myself and conservatives in general to a higher standard, even invoking the name of Christ for good measure. I told you we’re held to a higher standard, one that I proudly accept.
Just don’t go overboard, dissenters.
Update IV: Hugh Hewitt:
Howard Kurtz reports on Maggie Gallagher’s contract with the Department of Health and Human Services for $21,500 in writing services. Gallagher, who is one of the most prolific and respected writers working to promote the Defense of Marriage Amendment, provides Glenn Reynolds an additional comment. Gallagher did not disclose anywhere, so she doesn’t have the Kos defense, but the idea that what she wrote on the marriage amendment etc grew out of her contract with HHS is not plausible. Disclosure of all financial arrangements bearing on an intellectual’s work product, especially money from the government, is the best protection against allegations of impropriety, and folks in Gallagher’s position who want to take money from the government for legitimate work from the government, should find a way — establish a blog? — to list those contracts. (Emphasis added)
Also see this: Bush orders government agencies not to give payola.
Res Ipsa on Gallagher.
