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By Andy Sullivan
WASHINGTON, Dec 19 (Reuters) - Two U.S. newspapers said on Monday they would stop publishing articles by a conservative commentator who was paid by a criminally indicted lobbyist to write pieces favorable to his clients.
Peter Ferrara has admitted taking payments from Washington lobbyist Jack Abramoff, a key figure in a growing probe into payments to members of Congress who has already been indicted for fraud in the purchase of a casino cruise line in Florida.
The Manchester Union Leader and the Washington Times, which run influential conservative opinion sections, said they did not know that Ferrara took undisclosed payments for his op-ed pieces and did not think the activity was appropriate.
Washington Times editorial page editor Tony Blankley said, "Obviously you can't write an article where you have a financial interest in it and not identify that. That's simply wrong."
Ferrara, a prominent advocate of Social Security reform, told BusinessWeek Online last week that he takes payments from lobbyists "all the time" to write articles favorable to their clients and did not see anything wrong with the practice.
In a prepared statement, Ferrera said he had not accepted payments from Abramoff or other lobbyists for his op-ed articles for several years and he relied only on think tanks and other policy outfits where he works for financial support.
"I am glad to ask people to contribute to my work if they agree with what I have been writing for years now and want to support it," Ferrera said in a statement posted on the Web site of the Institute for Policy Innovation, a conservative thinktank where he works as a policy fellow.
Ferrara did not immediately respond to a request to clarify his statement.
Abramoff is at the center of two influence-peddling investigations that have implicated top Republican lawmakers.
Former Abramoff partners have pleaded guilty to fraud or conspiracy charges for overbilling Indian tribes by millions of dollars and falsifying loan payments in the purchase of a Florida casino cruise line.
Abramoff paid at least one other opinion-maker to write columns favoring his client's positions. Doug Bandow had his column suspended by Copley News Service and resigned from the libertarian Cato Institute last week.
The Institute for Policy Innovation said Ferrara did not work there when he took payments from Abramoff and never identified himself as an IPI fellow when writing articles paid for by others.
Two other prominent Washington thinktanks, the conservative Heritage Foundation and the liberal Brookings Institution, said their policies prohibited employees from taking secret payments for op-ed columns.
The Bush administration has also paid commentators who support its views.
Armstrong Williams took $240,000 to tout Bush education policies in TV appearances and in his column, while the Pentagon has secretly paid Iraqi newspapers to run pro-American stories.
(c) Reuters 2005.