I heard a thing about this yesterday, but I don't see a diary. If this is a repeat let me know and I'll delete.
Remember Armstrong Williams? Those "video news releases?" All those times when the Bush administration pays for placement and favorable coverage?
They've done it again, apparently.
Ten Miami Herald employees were fired for taking bribes from BushCo.
More on the flip.
They were paid to write unfavorable things about Cuba.
With a hat-tip to AP reporter Laura Wides-Munoz:
MIAMI (AP) -- Ten South Florida journalists, including three with The Miami Herald's Spanish-language sister paper, received thousands of dollars from the federal government for their work on radio and TV programming aimed at undermining Fidel Castro's communist regime, the Herald reported Friday.
Pablo Alfonso, who reports on Cuba and wrote an opinion column for El Nuevo Herald, was paid almost $175,000 since 2001 to host shows on Radio and TV Marti, U.S. government programs that promote democracy in Cuba, according to government documents obtained by The Miami Herald.
Olga Connor, a freelance reporter who wrote about Cuban culture for El Nuevo Herald, received about $71,000 from the U.S. Office of Cuba Broadcasting, and staff reporter Wilfredo Cancio Isla, who covered the Cuban exile community and politics, was paid almost $15,000 in the last five years, the Herald said.
Whatever your opinion of Cuba, Castro, whatever, you just can't do that.
I've been a journalist for 17 years. This offends me at a very deep level. I don't even talk to ad sales people for the publications I work for, just so they don't have a chance to influence me even by accident -- and most ad sales people would never think of influencing me on purpose. I've dealt with hundreds of PR flunkies, and none of them -- not one -- has ever even hinted at offering me anything except maybe a press pass to a boring business conferece.
How the Bush Administration just flushes 150 years of ethical standards down the drain is beyond me.
And those "journalists?" Don't get me fucking started.