Michael K. Powell, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, ordered an investigation Friday into whether Williams broke laws against payola by not disclosing the contract in his broadcast appearances.
Two Senate Democrats, Byron L. Dorgan of North Dakota and Ron Wyden of Oregon, asked the Government Accountability Office Friday to determine whether the Williams contract violated a ban on the use of government money for propaganda, and whether other agencies had struck similar deals with journalists, commentators or talk-show hosts.
Their request followed one Tuesday by seven House Democrats, who asked Comptroller General David M. Walker to examine all federal departments' contracts with PR firms and media organizations, including an assessment of whether they violate the propaganda ban.
"The federal use of covert propaganda is unethical, damaging to our democracy and open society, and, as you know, illegal," wrote the lawmakers, led by House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). ". . . [I]t would be abhorrent to our system of government if these incidents were part of a pattern of covert propaganda funded with taxpayer dollars."
A Senate Appropriations subcommittee on Wednesday asked Education Secretary Roderick R. Paige to turn over records concerning the payments to Williams. The panel also asked for information about any similar arrangements between 2002 and 2004. Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) has said that he plans to introduce legislation requiring federal agencies to report their advertising spending to Congress and to disclose their role in producing ads.
Paige defended the contract as a standard "outreach effort" to minority groups, maintaining that the money "went exclusively" to the production of advertisements. He said the department's inspector general would investigate the matter.
Despite the recent flaps over Williams and prepackaged videos, other federal contracts with PR firms are more typical, agency officials and industry executives said.
PR firms have been paid to push the introduction of the "golden dollar," to urge teenagers not to use illicit drugs, and make the public feel comfortable with the country's new, colored currency.
Government agencies have also turned to the PR industry to help manage crises, such as when the U.S. Postal Service hired Burson-Marsteller in 2001 to help deal with a crush of media calls in the aftermath of the anthrax attacks. Five postal staffers had been fielding as many as 400 calls a day, said Gerry McKiernan, a postal spokesman.
"Exhaustion begins to set in, and there was a need for someone outside of our immediate sphere to be helping us with strategic thinking," McKiernan said. "When should we have that press briefing? Is the information we're giving out being received? Do we need more detail? We needed someone . . . to just give us some guidance."
Ketchum, the firm at the center of the Williams storm, announced last week it had begun a review of its federal contracts and has retained an outside firm to recommend ways to increase the transparency of those contracts. A company spokeswoman declined further comment, referring questions to the Education Department.
Media organizations and advocacy groups have launched their own reviews. They have filed dozens of Freedom of Information Act requests with federal agencies seeking information about their contracts with Ketchum and other PR firms.
Melanie Sloan, executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a watchdog group that has filed FOIA requests with 22 agencies, said it is unlikely that the Williams deal was the only one of its kind.
"If the government wants to tell us something, then the government should just tell us," Sloan said. "They can't pretend that . . . some objective third party is telling us something. Because, in fact, it's the government, and that's propaganda."
