Government funded propoganda?

I'm not excusing Armstrong Williams, but is it really unusual for the government to try to influence voters' opinions with information paid with tax dollars? My book, The Bias Against Guns, was written to make this point more broadly. Just look at all the money spend my the Clinton administration on propoganda. Rush Limbaugh makes the right point:

Now, here's a little bit of irony here. How can journalists question his ethics for taking marching orders from the Department of Education when those very same journalistas take their marching orders from the Democrat fax machines? . . . The idea here that Armstrong Williams is the only person that has taken money to work on something he agrees with. What do you think sustains the environmentalist wacko movement but government grants? How many professors get government grants to do research projects on things they passionately believe in and they go out there and they write position papers and they're inculcating young skulls full of mush with the pap that they end up believing. There really isn't any difference. He broadcasts on radio and television. All these other people write papers that the mainstream media then public sizes to who knows where, it gets broadcast all over college campi and classrooms.