Limbaugh, Matalin to visit Afghanistan

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Limbaugh, Matalin to visit Afghanistan

Monday, February 21, 2005

From The Houston Chronicle: Conservative radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh is expected to visit Afghanistan with the top U.S. aid official to spotlight America's aid work there, officials said last week.

Political commentator Mary Matalin will also be on the trip. She said she was not being paid to go and would pay her own way to Dubai but she believed the U.S. government would cover the cost of her visit to Afghanistan from there.

The Bush administration has come under sharp criticism for the Education Department's payment of $240,000 to conservative commentator Armstrong Williams to tout Bush's education plan. Spokesmen for Limbaugh were not immediately available to comment.

I have no idea what the third paragraph has to due with the story, if anyone does, please let me know. He seems to continue on with the original story after that spastic detour.

UPDATE: My wife seems to think that perhaps it's some type of misprint or typo, so I checked at the main Reuters site, same thing. So we've decided to write to Reuters.

Here's what I wrote to the editors via their contact form,"I ran across a story in the Houston Chronicle Online that seemed to have an extraneous sentence stuck in the middle of it. I first thought it might have been a misprint or typo so I checked it at your main site where it was exactly the same.

In the story by Arshad Mohammed about Rush Limbaugh and Mary Matalin going to Afghanistan he adds the following all by itself in the third paragraph:

"The Bush administration has come under sharp criticism for the Education Department's payment of $240,000 to conservative commentator Armstrong Williams to tout President Bush's education plan."

I was wondering what that has to do with the story? The administration hasn't come under criticism from Rush Limbaugh or Mary Matalin, and neither of them have been tainted in that scandal. So why would it be included in that story?

I look forward to your response.

UPDATE 2: I just ran across Arshad Mohammed's email at Reuters, so I will also email him directly.

While running a google search on the writer I ran across a post from Roger L. Simon that may explain things a bit more. Arshad Mohammed has been using Reuters as his personal propaganda tool.

I'll keep you updated.

Jeffrey Grieco, a deputy assistant administrator at the U.S. Agency for International Development, declined comment on the trip or on whether Limbaugh and Matalin would accompany USAID Administrator Andrew Natsios.

"The successful reconstruction of Afghanistan is a story that has not yet reached a wider American audience," he said.

"The administrator of USAID is anxious to get that message out to the American public about our successful programming ... on democracy building, improved health care, improved access to education for women and children," Grieco added.