ARMSTRONG AND ARNAUD

Liberal media journalists are all a-flutter about columnist Armstrong Williams being paid $240,000 by the Department of Education to promote the No Child Left Behind program. They are whipping themselves into a moral dudgeon over a conservative black writer besmirching his journalistic ethics. TMS, the outfit that syndicates Armstrong’s column to papers throughout the country, canceled him.

While they are so morally incensed, maybe now these folks can start investigating their brethren who are taking bribes from Saudi Arabia.

A year ago last January, the editor-in-chief of the prominent Saudi newspaper Al-Riyadh, Turki Al-Sudairi, disclosed that the Saudi government dispenses millions of dollars a year in bribes to journalists around the world to write articles sympathetic to Saudi Arabia and to attack Israel.

French newspapers are virulently anti-Semitic as it is, but Saudi money insures they stay that way. Hundreds of journalists, reporters, commentators, and talking heads from scores of publications and media outlets in dozens of countries are on the Saudi payroll. It’s a very sophisticated operation, and world-wide in scope.

That scope includes America – especially America. How many American reporters and columnists – liberal and conservative – are on the Saudi payroll? The best person to investigate this would be legendary journalist Arnaud de Borchgrave, whose deep contacts in both Saudi Arabia and throughout the entire global media community go back decades.

No one would be better than Arnaud at determining whether or not such prominent columnists as Robert Novak and Georgie Anne Geyer, who write consistently fawning columns on Saudi Arabia and blistering attacks on Israel, are beyond suspicion.

It would also be an excellent opportunity for Arnaud to dispel the persistent belief among a number of otherwise knowledgeable people in Washington that, given Arnaud’s own rabidly anti-Israel columns, he himself is on the Saudi payroll – which I am sure could not possibly be true.

The Saudi press has acknowledged that the Saudi government is bribing journalists all over the world. The Armstrong Williams scandalette should be a springboard to find out who the Saudis are bribing in the American media. After all, Armstrong’s being on the take is of little consequence, while Saudi bribes materially endangers our national security.

Dive in, Arnaud. We’re waiting to learn what you’ve discovered when you surface.