The Washington Times Gave Ben Carson A Magazine To Say How Great Ben Carson Is
Written by Oliver Willis
Published
The Washington Times' new digital magazine targeted at “conservative blacks” features Ben Carson as its “founding publisher,” his business associate as “executive editor,” and in its first issue it wants you to know how great Ben Carson is.
In the Washington Times press release about the launch of American CurrentSee, the digital magazine is described as a publication that “aims to empower its readers to embrace an agenda of economic opportunity, moral leadership and freedom from government dependency.”
In practice, the magazine is loaded with praise for Times columnist and Fox News contributor Ben Carson.
The lead editorial is from Carson, beneath a picture with a caption that describes him as someone who “has found himself in the middle of the 2016 presidential conversation.”
Carson's essay is followed by a column from Fox News contributor Juan Williams, which lists a series of successful African-American conservatives, including “The former head of neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins University Dr. Ben Carson.” Williams also goes on to compare Carson (as well as Clarence Thomas and Condoleezza Rice) to Booker T. Washington, who was also “maligned by the black establishment of his day.”
American CurrentSee executive editor Armstrong Williams has a column in the magazine, which is immediately followed by a report from Times correspondent Phillip Swarts that attacks the FCC for probing an arrangement between Williams and Sinclair Broadcast Group, from which Williams purchased two television stations. This bit of score-settling is done under the headline “TV 'diversity' FCC-style: Conservative blacks need not apply.” The story also includes an interview with Williams.
Armstrong Williams is also a columnist for the Times, and a recent story in that paper described him as Ben Carson's “business associate” and quoted him speaking on Carson's behalf.
In 2005 it was disclosed that the Department of Education, under President George W. Bush, paid Williams $240,000 to promote a law on his syndicated television show - a fact he failed to disclose to his audience.
The promotion of Carson and his interests doesn't stop there. The magazine uses eight pages to reprint the transcript of Carson's recent speech before the conservative CPAC conference, and also includes the video of the speech.
That is followed by a full page ad for Carson's upcoming book One Nation and a link to Amazon.com where it can be pre-purchased.
The final page of the inaugural edition of American CurrentSee describes the publication as “the brainchild of Dr. Ben Carson.”