Based on the undisputed facts, Howie Kurtz manufactured a controversy and with it a wholly new standard for (presumably only conservative) policy experts who do work for the government. HHS was not paying Maggie Gallagher to say she believed what they did, but rather to learn what she knows. Had we known and disclosed the work she did for HHS, she wouldn’t have looked conflicted, she would have looked even more credentialed as a recognized expert on marriage. That’s why we should disclose–to tell our readers “listen up” Maggie Gallagher really knows what she’s talking about.