by the Way . . .

A real question of fairness has arisen concerning the way the Bush administration is treating domestic reporters. After it was disclosed earlier this year that columnist Armstrong Williams was paid $240,000 to plug No Child Left Behind legislation, and two other columnists were only paid $49,000 and $21,500, respectively, to push Bush’s $300 million initiative to encourage marriage, it was hard to avoid the conclusion that the administration thought children should come before marriage. In the face of this Bush immediately ordered that all U.S. reporters be taken off the government dole.

These disclosures came just a month after the discovery that an outfit called the Lincoln Group had received tens of millions of dollars to plant articles in the Iraqi press, paying Iraqi reporters for favorable treatment. This caused an outcry in Congress, but it turned out that military and White House officials didn’t know anything about it. President Bush was described as “very troubled” about it.

An investigation was ordered, and now that review, under Rear Adm. Scott Van Buskirk, has called caution in making such payments, fearing that the practice might somehow undermine American credibility, and even Iraqi freedom of the press. Payments are continuing, but pentagon officials do say that Secretary Rumsfeld is considering ordering a further review to clarify existing policy. This would presumably include clarification regarding payments to the Baghdad Press Club, set up by the military in 2004 to pay reporters for stories about reconstruction efforts.

General Casey, the senior American commander in Iraq, who appointed Van Buskirk to do the review, has made it clear that he favors the use of the media to influence public opinion, and plans to continue. While Van Buskirk found that hiding the source of the articles was “appropriate”, since Iraqis would not believe anything coming from the American military, he suggested that there should be some new guidelines to determine when and if attribution may occasionally be appropriate.

The Pentagon has an unreleased study commissioned from the RAND Corporation that is also critical of the military’s efforts, saying it has not been enough, and calling for a more sustained, coherent planting of paid articles. This, it says, is the “key” to changing the mindset of ordinary Iraqis. So it looks like the Baghdad Press Club will continue to get the secret payments, on a pay for performance basis, of course, but that the Washington D.C. Press Club will not, at least as far as we know. Is that fair?