This is why we dropped Williams

e-mail this story discuss this issue in our forums Beth Padgett • We want to hear from our readers (01/23/05) • Real charity comes from the heart (01/16/05) • This is why we dropped Williams (01/11/05) • We can have Jesus and Santa (12/24/04) • We can have Jesus and Santa (12/23/04)

We want the opinions carried on this page to challenge you, enlighten you, reinforce your own beliefs or quite possibly cause you to reconsider where you stand on an issue. What's absolutely critical, though, is that you are able to open these pages every day knowing the opinions you see are the deeply held beliefs of the writers — nothing less but certainly nothing more.

We expect readers to sometimes disagree with a particular column, but we don't want them to ever question whether a columnist's opinions have been colored or influenced by a business relationship that hasn't been disclosed to our readers. And if a writer has a vested interest in an issue, as our guest columnists frequently do, we want you to know that when you read the column.

Armstrong Williams crossed a line in our business that cannot be blurred, moved or erased. With one hat on, he has taken money to help the Bush administration promote the No Child Left Behind Act. And with another hat on, he has commented on that legislation, including one time overtly on our opinion pages and at least one more time, and possibly others, in more subtle ways.

That cannot happen. That's why we decided Friday to no longer carry Williams' syndicated column. And that is why his syndicate, Tribune Media, terminated its business relationship with him Friday for a violation of provisions of his syndication agreement.

USA Today reported Friday morning that Williams had taken $240,000 from the federal Department of Education as part of a public relations campaign to build support for the No Child Left Behind Act. The campaign required him "to regularly comment on NCLB during the course of his broadcasts," and to interview Education Secretary Rod Paige for TV and radio spots that aired last year.

For years now, Williams has tried to maintain a dual role in Washington: He has run a small public relations business. And he has been a national commentator appearing on radio, television and, through a syndicated service, in our newspaper and a couple dozen other ones.

TMS said Friday that it accepted Williams' explanation that the payments from the federal Education Department were for advertising messages broadcast on his radio and TV shows. Nevertheless, by accepting such compensation, the columnist created "at the very least, the appearance of a conflict of interest."

I talked to Williams Monday as he was trying to get out his side of the story. He admitted to using "bad judgment," and he said he was having an independent person go through all of his business contracts to make sure there won't be any future conflicts of interest. That's a chance not many newspapers will be eager to take at this point.

We're letting him have his say on this page, but we have no plans to pick up his column again.

This is not a conservative vs. liberal issue, as one angry caller charged in a voice mail on Monday. We're not dropping Williams because he's conservative or because he supports President Bush. We're doing so because he lost his independence and credibility as a commentator in a glaring and unfortunate manner.

Whether you agree or disagree with what Cal Thomas writes about Israel, we want you to have confidence that a pro-Israel group hasn't subsidized his paycheck. And whether you love or hate Ellen Goodman's columns on abortion, we don't want you questioning whether a pro-abortion group has fattened her bank account. We want you to look to our pages for opinions that are passionate, subjective, but unbought.

And by the way, this editorial page has supported most, though not all, of President Bush's policies. And we've supported most, but not all, of the No Child Left Behind initiative. We've done so for only one reason: Because these ideas have been consistent with the philosophy and tradition of this opinion page. Write to Beth Padgett, editorial page editor, at bpadgett@greenvillenews.com.