While the media continue their quest to "expose" conservative pundits on the Bush administration payroll, reporters don't seem to have any qualms about the fact that the nation's top elected Democrats helped bankroll liberal commentators on Air America and North Dakota talker Ed Schultz.
Unlike the Armstrong Williams case, there's been no outrage over the fact that Sens. Hillary Clinton, Tom Daschle and Debbie Stabenow lined up $1.8 million in funding for Democracy Radio, which underwrote Mr. Schultz's show.
According to the Washington Post, Democracy Radio is "a non-profit organization" run by Stabenow's husband, Tom Athans, "with a board composed of three Clinton administration veterans."
Last year, Sen. Mary Landrieu hosted a fund-raiser for Athans' operation at her Washington, D.C., home, which served as a kind of coming-out party for Schultz and Air America host Randi Rhodes. Clinton, Daschle and 20 other Democrat senators were on hand to encourage party fat cats to open their wallets.
Rhodes described the scene to the New Republic, which reported last February:
"[Florida Sen. Bob] Graham told the crowd about the many Democrats who had replaced Republicans in elected office in South Florida since Rhodes went on the air there; Graham went so far as to proclaim that no Republican could win wherever Rhodes was heard.
"It wasn't long before the money was rolling in," the magazine said.
"I heard people yelling out dollar amounts," Rhodes remembered. "I thought it was two hundred and fifty dollars, but it wasn't. ... They were pledging two hundred and fifty thousand dollars."
Mr. Schultz decided to express his gratitude financially, contributing $2,000 apiece to Democrats Daschle and Sen. Byron Dorgan in last year's campaign.
Like Mr. Williams, Schultz insists that all that cash hasn't influenced his radio show's content, noting that before the election he criticized John Kerry as a terrible presidential candidate.
So it was just a coincidence that when his show debuted in February, Daschle, Clinton and Dorgan were his first on-air guests.
And the fact that he won't discuss his pro-life views on the air has nothing to do with fears that it would anger his Democrat backers. Schultz maintains instead it's "a lousy talk radio topic."
One big difference from the Williams case: Schultz's media friends aren't raising any ethical questions about whether his show's content has been bought and paid for.
Well said.
