http://www.suntimes.com/output/mitchell/cst-nws-mitch16.html
Mary Mitchell of the Chicago Sun-Times writes that Armstrong Williams did not earn his pay when he accepted the $240,000 from the US Department of Education. Part of the deal was that Williams, using the Graham Williams Group, would contact Afro-American reporters and ask them to promote the virtues of No Child Left Behind. Mitchell, an Afro-American, reports that she did not get anything from Williams about NCLB even though she was on their mailing list and regularly got mail from them.
Mitchell also points out that there were many opportunities for Williams to promote No Child Left Behind that he failed to take advantage of:
Williams also wasn't at the Trotter Group's annual meeting at Harvard a couple of months ago. It would have been a perfect setting for him to carry out his covert mission. The annual gathering of black columnists attracted commentators from across the country. And while there was only one conservative columnist in attendance, we were respectful enough to let the man argue his point of view without subjecting him to derisive behavior.
Another thing Williams could have done was debate people about the merits of NCLB:
Had Williams brought his paid-for message to this group of journalists, he would have had an opportunity to earn his money by debating veteran commentators including USA Today's DeWayne Wickham and the Boston Globe's Derrick Z. Jackson.
It is time to start calling Bush, Williams, and others who refuse to debate us in the left about the issues what they are: elitists. They are stuck in the own private worlds with little or no interaction with people outside their bubbles.
This is very similar to the legions of suburban and exurban voters who flee from integration and shut themselves off in their own private worlds complete with megachurches headed by charismatic pastors who tell them to vote for the candidate who opposes abortion and homosexuality (wink, wink!). It is people like this who are the true French aristocrats.