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 Let's Talk
Denise Rolark Barnes
Columnist Page
Friday, January 14, 2005; Page 17
Armstrong Williams’ Wrongdoing Reveals a Greater Wrong
Okay, Armstrong. You have really done it now. For all of those who have grown to dislike or even despise you over the years for your conservative views, you have given them a reason to celebrate your troubles due to your own admission of a lapse of good judgment. Stones are being thrown at you from the left, right and center and all I can say to you is, “Peace be with you, my brother.”
The “maintstream” media, including the Black folks who are employed there, are raking you over the coals for contributing to the media’s demise of its waning credibility. They are accusing you of giving journalists a bad name and making a mockery of the news business by proving that some unbiased opinions are actually bought.
Your syndicated column has been cancelled. CNN may never invite you to appear as a guest again, and the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) has asked Black newspaper publishers to discontinue your column, as well.
Furthermore, members of Congress have named your contract “covert propaganda” and Rep. George Miller (D-CA) has requested that the Education Department’s Inspector General investigate its relationship with you.
Wow, son, this is deep.
You are on the apology circuit now, telling those in the media who want to know why you did what you did and that you are sorry. And, your most recent column that may not see the light of day states: “I accept full responsibility for my lack of good judgment. I am paying the price….And I have learned a valuable lesson. I just want to assure you that this will never happen again, and to ask for your forgiveness.”
On that note, Armstrong, I forgive you, but let’s take a look at the bigger picture.
What most folks don’t know is that you are an entrepreneur. You own a public relations firm, Graham Williams Group, formed by you and Stedman Graham, Oprah Winfrey’s beau, that has provided the income for you to do what you do. And what you do, not unlike what hundreds of marketing companies around the world do, is to get paid to promote a product, service or cause. Unlike most PR companies, however, most minority-owned firms, like yours, only get a small piece of the pie. The Department of Education’s No Child Left Behind contract earned Ketchum Communications, the primary contractor, $1 million, and you, the subcontractor only $240,000.
Federal government advertising contracts have proven to be lucrative for large White-owned firms, even when the message is aimed at minorities. The promotion of homeownership, seat belts, anti-tobacco, HIV/AIDS prevention, alcohol and drug abuse prevention and Homeland Security, to name a few, are among the issues that are marketed by large advertising agencies under contracts with the federal government that rarely include minority owned agencies, like the Graham Williams Group, to help deliver the message to their constituencies.
The problem is so severe that in 1998, Congresswoman Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick (D-Mich.) began to look at the issue of advertising equity in the federal government. According to the General Accounting Office in a report released in 2000 that was requested by Rep. Kilpatrick and Rep. Robert Menendez (D-NJ), the total federal advertising contract obligations in 1994 increased from $139 million to $368 million in fiscal year 1998. During the same time, obligations to small disadvantaged businesses peaked at $3 million or 3.1 percent of obligations in fiscal year 1995, and declined to 1.2 million or 0.3 percent in fiscal year 1998, with 66 percent going to women-owned businesses. In 1998, some 91 percent of the total federal advertising budget was allocated to large agencies, none of which were owned by women or minorities.
Granted, this report was released in 2000, but the inequities still prevail.
The American Advertising Federation (AAF) took on the matter not long after Tom Joyner launched his campaign against an advertising agency in New York that described Black consumers as “suspects” rather than “prospects.” The AAF launched its Mosaic Center on Multicuralism when it also discovered that federal government agencies were ignoring what “the new world consumers look like.”
AAF President Wally Snyder stated: “Advertising must respond more quickly to the growing value of ethnic minority groups as customers. Certainly, this includes using minority media as part of the media plan. Minority professionals should be called upon to advise how to creatively reach targeted audiences.”
Instead of continuing to bang Armstrong upside the head, which he probably deserves, the focus needs to be on the blatant discriminatory practices of federal government contracting and the agencies that get the awards.
For Denise Rolark Barnes send email to drbarnes@washingtoninformer.com |
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