That really is the issue. If Williams had simply admitted that he was taking the money when he wrote about it and advocated for it, he wouldn’t be in this trouble. Of course, he would have jettisoned his credibility had he admitted it. Imagine if he wrote, “the White House has given me a quarter of a million dollars to say this, but let’s talk about the merits of the No Child Left Behind….” The fact that he didn’t write such disclaimers should be a sign that he realized how bad it would appear. And if it appears bad it’s a good hint that it might also be bad.