Skippy the Bush Kangaroo…whoops, his blog is all in lower case so:
skippy the bush kangaroo has a MUST READ post here that crystalizes the let’s-circle-the-wagons mentality of a not-unanimous part of the administration’s supporters. Ever since it came out that conservative commentator Armstrong Williams had been paid $250,000 to shill the Education Department’s policies (and get Education Bigwigs on his shows) there has been a steady effort to — and we detest the journalistic phase — change the subject.
The whole point of the Williams outrage was that no one knew about his work as basically an undeclared Public Relations man for the Education Department until USA Today wrote about it.
All the broo-ha-haa about bloggers — coincidentally on the left (so Williams’ defenders could say "See? Everyone does it.") generally downplayed one tiny fact: unlike Williams, the bloggers had disclosed their relationships. They let readers know. Williams’ recent attitude has been to act like a victim and almost say: "Well, no one ever asked me." If USA Today hadn’t reported it, he’d probably still be picking up his undisclosed p.r. paychecks.
Enter skippy the bush kangaroo with his post…which captures this issue perfectly — particularly the last two sentences of his post.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.