Admin Told PBS: Stay Mum on Pundit’s PostYesterday afternoon I spoke with Bonnie Erbe, whose political discussion show has featured a senior Bush-appointed official without identifying her job for the administration.
Erbe said she sees nothing wrong with the arrangement, even when the official — Karen Czarnecki, a top aide to Labor Secretary Elaine Chao — discussed policies and issues on which she worked.
“She’s appearing independently and her opinions haven’t changed at all,” Erbe told me. “She’s always been a pretty conservative commentator. That’s why we used her, we want all views expressed.”
The reason the show has not disclosed Czarnecki’s day job, Erbe said, was because the government asked her not to. “Those are the terms on which she could continue to appear,” the host said, explaining that Czarnecki had appeared on her show for several years before she took the government position. “The only terms on which we could keep her was to not identify her as a Bush person.”
