Word is moving around - slowly, and certainly not as quickly as the Armstrong Williams and Maggie Gallagher stories - that liberal-thinking radio host Ed Schultz' radio program accepted financial backing from rich, left-wing sources.

Henry Hanks has some details.

Originally, stories out of Newsmax linked Randi Rhodes of Air America Radio to the hunt, but she got on the air yesterday and denied it. She half-defended Schultz and half left him out to dry:

I just want the record straight because Newsmax wrote this thing that implied that I took money from Democratic fundraisers at Sen. Mary Landrieu’s house. And the answer to that is no I didn’t, and that’s why I don’t work for that particular company that was raising money that way.

I didn’t like it. You know, I don’t even like the appearance of it. And that’s why I said, “Forget it. Forget it.” My listeners are probably like, “What’s the matter with you- we gotta get your voice out there.” And I said, “Listen. There’s a right way to do this and there’s a wrong way to do this. And for me, that’s wrong. It just doesn’t feel right to me."

I’m not going to carry anybody’s water. And if I have to get tough with Democrats and I have to start telling them we need a unified front, my phone is now going to ring saying, “You know, if it weren’t for our kindness and our goodness and our money you wouldn’t be where you are today." I just can’t answer to people like that. So I just walked away from the whole thing. Now Ed didn’t. But it’s still different.

Actually, during the scandal in which the term "payola" was invented, Alan Freed took money from record companies, and not a dime of government funding.

MORE: Bob Kohn: "Should journalists be accepting financing from partisen political groups?"

"Moose Lips", believes there is a difference between Armstrong Williams and Schultz - especially since the funding was from "private" sources. (No mention of the history with Alan Freed, though.)