EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR RESPONDS TO POSSIBLE ‘PAY TO SAY’ SCAM

A day after The Palmetto Scoop shed light on a Clemson University professor’s possible “pay to say” scheme, the head of the South Carolina Press Association is speaking out.

On Monday, TPS reported that professor Dave Woodard was “a quotable gun for hire” — giving frequent comments to national and local reporters under the guise of an objective analyst while taking money from the people about whom he was speaking.

That’s something that Press Association Executive Director Bill Rogers said raises questions about Woodard’s ability to speak as an unbiased observer.

“Even though he may be right on whatever issues are at hand, it’s hard for me to think he can be objective,” Rogers told the Seneca Journal-Messenger.

Woodard denied that his opinions were tainted by financial gain.

“I always say that I am a ‘political science professor’ and a ‘paid political consultant,’” Woodard said. “Of course I’ve been employed by these people just as the article says. I do polling, consulting and work for candidates who hire me. However, I am not in their employ now.”

Woodard added that “I did not sacrifice my right to be an American citizen when I obtained tenure at Clemson, or when I left the employ of these people. I assume the press calls me because I have ideas and opinions about politics.”

But finding an article in which Woodard is cited as “paid political consultant” is rare. The vast majority of articles in which Woodard is quoted couch him as a political science professor.