Don't Be Evil — Hire It Done

MarkusQ writes, "The NY Times among others is reporting that Google is ramping up its lobbying clout (registration or bugmenot required). The 'Don't be evil' search engine company has hired the infamous astroturfing and dirty tricks firm Direct Connect, Inc. You may remember DCI from their recent attempts to pass off their 'Penguin Army' video as a product of some lone wit, unconnected with their client, Exxon. Or their involvement in Microsoft's 'even dead voters love Microsoft' campaign. With a staff of veterans in the biz (such as Chris 'Swiftboat' LaCivita and Jim 'Electioneering' Tobin), led by Tom 'Big Tobacco on the Dole' Synhorst, I'm sure DCI will be able to give Google whatever they're paying them for. The question is, what are they paying them for? And does 'Don't be evil' imply 'Don't pay professionals to be evil for you?' Or could there possibly be a non-evil reason to hire these clowns?"

Re:Surprise!

[Rocketship Underpant]

Actually, according to the terms of their incorporation, they promise to uphold certain principles above shareholder value, and they have no legal responsibility to reneg on this promise.

There's nothing wrong with hiring evil people..

[niceone]

..as long as you get them to do good stuff. Worked out great for the CIA and Osama afterall.

Corporations are psychopathic

[mspohr]

There is a basic conflict between the legal and financial mandate for a corporation (make a profit for the shareholders) and all type of "evil" behavior that facilitates the profit.

It is very admirable that Google is attempting to bridge this divide but the effort is ultimately futile. Google has shown that when it gets down to the bottom line, it must choose profit (i.e. China).

Hiring this lobby firm is just what is necessary for business as usual in the good old USA capitalist system. You buy youself whatever laws you need to maximize your profit. I love Google just as much as the next person but to expect a corporation to not be evil is unrealistic.

The Economist (a pro-capitalist magazine) has some more information on this: http://www.economist.com/business/displayStory.cfm ?story_id=2647328 [economist.com]

Re:Thanks

[HungWeiLo]

Most companies operating in the world have to pay off government officials in one way or another in order to operate successfully. Why should it be any different here?

Re:But astroturfing is what they DO

[MarkusQ]

DCI is a full spectrum political consulting, PR, and telemarketing firm; while some of the work it has done certainly has been "astroturfing", a lot of it seems to be routine political consulting and marketing.

They sure are. As they put it themselves "Whatever the issue, whatever the target--elected officials, regulators or public opinion--you need reliable third party allies to advocate your cause. We can help you recruit credible coalition partners and engage them for maximum impact. It's what we do best." The services they provide include:

• Astroturfing (see links in story)
• Push-polling [arstechnica.com]
• Telemarketing (as you mentioned)
• Grass-tops (their term, not mine, but I can guess)
• Fake blog and video production (see links in story)
• Journo-Lobbyists [washingtonmonthly.com]
• Spamming (see previous links)
• Junk mail (dead tree spam) (their original line)
• and employment services [washingtonmonthly.com]

What they don't seem to do is anything legitimate, or at least non-slimy. Got any examples you'd like to share?

--MarkusQ

Two Words...

[Etherwalk]

Net Neutrality.

Re:can we just agree

[Anonymous Coward]

Well, according to the press, Yahoo and MSN hand over email to the Chinese police. Google stores email & blogs outside of China and takes governments to court to keep government fingers off of personal info. You were talking about a double standard? Or do companies who say outright "oh, we're just in it for the money" get a free pass, ethically speaking?

Re:But astroturfing is what they DO

[MarkusQ]

The Swiftboat ads involved people who actually served during the time that John Kerry did and desired to state their opinion of the illegitimacy of his military decorations and military service in general - exactly who do you think such statements should be coming from?

The whole point is, the ads didn't come from such people, though they were designed to appear as if they had. That's what astroturfing is all about.

• The "vets" in the story by their own admission had no personal knowledge of the events in question [factcheck.org]
• Some of the "vets" were Bush staffers [cnn.com]
• The ads were put together by DCI employees (see link in story)
• The ads were funded by the Republicans, not by the vets (see first link, above)
• The affidavits they used were modified from what some of the vets had said [sourcewatch.org]
• ...and so on and so forth.

They were, in short, highly sophisticated trolls.

--MarkusQ

DCI is in fact evil

[glassesmonkey]

Sure stick up for DCI Group.. Maybe you should do a little 'googling' first.

The Hill March 29, 2006 Wednesday HEADLINE: Foreign-agent lobbyists amid uproars, duck for cover The brutal ruling junta of Burma dropped its last foreign-agent lobbyists, the Republican PR firm DCI Group, in 2003.

We're talking Swift Boat Vets, McCain 2000 push-polling smear, good friends with Rove and PFA.

Here's some links, you lazy bastard.
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=DCI_Gro up [sourcewatch.org]
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Tom_Syn horst [sourcewatch.org]
http://mediamatters.org/items/200408260008 [mediamatters.org]
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/001250.p hp [talkingpointsmemo.com]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DCI_Group [wikipedia.org]

Read my links

[MarkusQ]

Er, wait, DCI have gone from making dumb home movies to fraud?? Can you actually prove the company has been involved in money laundering, fraud and electioneering? Because if you can it seems to me you should be doing something about it rather than posting it to Slashdot ...

*sigh* And after all the trouble I went to to provide links. This isn't some "gosh I think they may have done it" speculation. Tobin, for example, is presumably telecommuting from prison [senatemajority.com] at this very moment, since he started his ten month sentence in May. And the other charges are likewise documented in the links I provided. At this point there's no reason for me to tell the authorities anything because they already know.

--MarkusQ