"Usually the way it works is people prostitute themselves after they become reporters."

That's a quote from the infamous Jeff Gannon. Turns out it not only applies to reporters, it also applies to op-ed writers from conservative think tanks. Not to mention Armstrong Williams, et al. Not to mention military authors of articles in Iraqi papers. Has there ever been an administration (and its "friends," like Jack Abramoff) that has gone to these lengths (and crossed this many ethcal boundaries) to control the message?

They've even got this guy at a conservative think tank who has no problem with it:

Bandow isn't the only think-tanker to have received payments from Abramoff for writing articles. Peter Ferrara, a senior policy adviser at the conservative Institute for Policy Innovation, says he, too, took money from Abramoff to write op-ed pieces boosting the lobbyist's clients. "I do that all the time," Ferrara says. "I've done that in the past, and I'll do it in the future."

Unbelievable.