Excerpts from AP article at the Washington Post:

Ten South Florida journalists, including three with The Miami Herald’s Spanish-language sister paper, received thousands of dollars from the federal government for their work on radio and TV programming aimed at undermining Fidel Castro’s communist regime, the Herald reported Friday. …

The Herald said it reviewed articles by the three, including several about TV and Radio Marti, and found no mention of the payments. … The Cuban government has long accused the United States of paying South Florida journalists to promote anti-government propaganda. In an interview broadcast at a Hispanic media convention in June, the head of Cuba’s parliament denied that more than two dozen journalists had been imprisoned in his own country for speaking out against the Communist government, saying they were not independent journalists but U.S. agents.

Read entire article at source The AP article at the Post notes other instances of journalists losing jobs because of uncited payments by persons outside of their publications that have been mainstream news headlines. It includes a mention that the Pentagon has contracted for propaganda in recent years. It also notes Armstrong Williams receipt of payments from No Child Left Behind program and Maggie Gallagher’s payments from Health and Human Services for which she was exonerated IIRC.

The New York Times says up to 10 journalists were receiving money

Tim Rutten in a Jan 2006 column (usenet copy) named more names than ever saw the headlines over the taking of money under the table.

 He then says the cure is to hire regular columnists, pay them more and give them more benefits.

 But check out Mr. Rutten’s (who is a regular at the Times) columns of July and August and wonder if a certain Middle Eastern nation doesn’t slip him a few bucks themselves.  At least there is a strong self interest involved there.  A self interest that overwhelms  a sense of balance, it seems.

 As much as we laugh are reporters who refuse to vote because thinking about which candidate to vote for, seeing such high prejudice in one then makes you wonder if reporting on a subject that you have such strong feelings isn’t just as bad. 

 But then most reporters hide strong desires to get richer too.  We all do.  But in the case of reporters, if they play the game the way the Bush administration wants them too and they have a tremendous amount of power they will get richer and often poorer if they don’t play according to Roves rules.