pudge's Journal: Lobbying, NPR, Astroturfing, and Congress

This story is amazing. Basically, lobbying groups wanted campaign finance reform, but there was no real public cry for it, so they manufactured it, and even paid American Prospect and NPR to produce reports about campaign financing.

That's not to say there was any lie in what was reported, or in what the lobbyists said, but the way it was all done was certainly dishonest. There was no public cry for it, and the lobbyists made it look like there was. Worse, they directed groups they gave their money to -- like NPR -- to not disclose that they funded the reports.

And you thought you could trust NPR more than NBC. As my family clan's motto goes, "Think On."

I am not noting this because its liberals, although I suppose I should mention that this is similar to the sort of things liberals have been bashing conservatives over recently. But my purpose in posting it is because I hadn't heard about it before, and it's a fairly stunning story.

crap

[robi2106]

These foundations were: the Pew Charitable Trusts ($40.1 million), the Schumann Center for Media and Democracy ($17.6 million), the Carnegie Corporation of New York ($14.1 million), the Joyce Foundation ($13.5 million), George Soros' Open Society Institute ($12.6 million), the Jerome Kohlberg Trust ($11.3 million), the Ford Foundation ($8.8 million) and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation ($5.2 million).

Holy crap! That is the major list of underwriters that constantly is dronned into my he

There was no cry?

[Sloppy]

I can believe this astro-turfing happened, but I can't believe that there wasn't already a public cry for somehow screwing around with campaign finances. People have been bitching about the role of money in politics since .. um .. even before man gazed up into the night sky and thought about scoring with hot alien babes.

Re:There was no cry?

[pudge]

But there was no public cry for specific action. The McCain-Feingold bill largely instituted things that the public didn't care about. Like changes in soft money rules that didn't have any real effect on the system, or restrictions on free speech a certain number of days before an election, that sort of thing.

Yes, a lot of people complain about money in politics, but people were not clamoring for this type of "reform."

Arrogance...

[FroMan]

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,151996,00.html [foxnews.com]

Pew issued a statement to FOX News saying it did nothing wrong and is proud of the $40 million it spent to get other people's money out of politics.

Translation: We are glad we spent moeny to influence politics so other people's money doesn't have a chance to influence politics.

On "Reform"

[M.C. Hampster]

I love how most media outlets will call anything they agree with "Reform", like McCain-Feingold, but when referring to something they might not agree with, like private SS accounts, it becomes "so called reform".