WASHINGTON — As another conservative journalist is exposed on the payroll of the Bush Administration, the nation’s leading media watchdog, Accuracy in Media (AIM), called on public television and radio to give up their $400 million in taxpayer subsidies. AIM Editor Cliff Kincaid says that it is obvious that the liberal media are only against taxpayer subsidies for journalists when they are conservative.

“The liberal media have found another conservative scalp, that of syndicated columnist Maggie Gallagher, to hang on their wall, along with that of Armstrong Williams. But the money involved in these two cases is peanuts compared to the $400 million being taken from U.S. taxpayers every year to finance the Corporation for Public Broadcasting,” charged Kincaid.   “Yet we don’t hear any cries from the press about liberals on NPR or PBS getting government hand-outs.”

The Washington Post media reporter Howard Kurtz revealed today that conservative columnist Maggie Gallagher accepted more than $40,000 in federal money to promote or help prepare pro-family government policies. This comes in the wake of Armstrong Williams, a conservative commentator, admitting that he accepted $241,000 to promote government educational policies.

“It’s wrong to take this money and wrong not to disclose it,” said Kincaid. “But it’s also wrong to force the taxpayers to pay for public television and radio. The federal government should get out of the business of paying for journalism, whether it’s on the right or the left.”

Accuracy In Media (AIM) is a non-profit, grassroots citizens watchdog of the news media that critiques botched and bungled news stories and sets the record straight on important issues that have received slanted coverage.

To schedule an interview with AIM Editor Cliff Kincaid, contact Anne Tyrrell at (703)739-5920 or (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

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