The Orbis

    Since the dawn of time corporations have worked resolutely to find creative new ways of advertising their products. Early advertising executives sat for hours at meetings in caves, scratching at their sunken brows, thinking of ways to market their company's goods. The fruit of their labors was the earliest type of advertisement, the cave drawing. In some rocky enclaves throughout the western United States, you can still see crude depictions of the early Pepsi logo.

    Things then stagnated for thousands of years until the advent of the printing press in 1450, a technological development that would soon permit the mass dissemination of newspaper ads for Renaissance-era Macy's stores. Innovative new advertising media have exploded onto the scene in the past decade, as today's advertisers sitting around in caves scratching at their sunken brows have realized that nothing in society is sacred. The magic of television now allows television producers to digitally tattoo advertisers' logos on the backs of professional boxers for the benefit of viewers at home.

  And to those small-government advocates on the right who believe that private entities and not the government should lead the way in innovation, I have two words: Armstrong Williams. In a recent display of marketing savvy, the Department of Education shrewdly decided to bypass the tired system of paying for standard commercial spots on television and enlisted Williams, a conservative commentator, to serve as a conduit for propaganda in support of the No Child Left Behind Act. The Department paid Williams, who hosts his own news talk show, the princely sum of $240,000 to shill for NCLB during his appearances on various television shows. Naturally, Williams never divulged the contract to his viewers, effectively undermining the press's watchdog role in our democracy.

  There is no turning back now from the bold new advertising medium pioneered by the Department. With the government dipping its hand directly into news broadcasting, it is only a matter of time before private business tries to elbow its way in also. What company wouldn't want to buy an authoritative-sounding news story about its product? Just imagine flipping the channel to CNN: "This breaking story just in. Dodge is expected to announce in just a few moments that it will begin offering a $2000 rebate on all new 2005 Dakotas. Our own John King is standing by live at the press conference with details..."

  Or: "Tonight on ‘Hannity and Colmes' – a fair and balanced look at Subway's new low-carb menu."

  And remember those alert newscasts a few months back about how the arthritis drug Vioxx increases the risk of heart attack and stroke? Well, Brit Hume of FOX News may soon be telling viewers that drugs like Vioxx are candy. In fact, even his wardrobe will be fair play. The day will surely come when Brit Hume delivers the news in a suit covered by embroidered logos of sponsor companies so that he will look more like a NASCAR driver than a stuffy old newsman. You read it here first.

  Armstrong Williams, in his evident contempt for journalistic probity, has opened a new can of worms. Perhaps, though, he is not the only person in the media surreptitiously receiving government money to play lapdog to the administration. It is a true challenge for democracy when citizens do not know where their news is coming from each evening. Imagine if large corporations – many of which are quite literally trying to kill us – get in on the act, too. News networks themselves are owned by large corporations determined to maximize profits, so is it really such a stretch of imagination to envision a scenario in which corporations pay news networks for favorable coverage?

  And if you doubt that networks or individual journalists who rely on maintaining reputations for impartiality and hard-nosed journalistic rigor would so readily sell out to shill overtly for businesses, then clearly you have not talked recently with the good folks at...

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