ALEC is now doing cookie-cutter news stories or press releases about INDIVIDUAL legislators

[highplainsdem]

to go with their cookie-cutter legislation...

I ran across the first of these yesterday but didn't think it was worth posting about since this "news story" is a puff piece that's clearly based on a press release:

http://www.forsythnews.com/section/1/article/8523/

A state senator from Cumming recently participated in the American Legislative Exchange Council’s annual Spring Task Force Summit in Cincinnati.

The event brought together hundreds of legislators and policy leaders from across the country to discuss issues ranging from education and health care to fiscal responsibility.

Jack Murphy, a Republican who represents District 27, offered suggestions to assist colleagues in other states. He also returned with information that could help Georgia become a more economically stable and successful state.

“Georgia faces similar economic issues as other states in terms of commerce, health care, business growth and crippled state budgets,” Murphy said.

-snip-

But the wording of that bland puff piece suddenly became more interesting when I ran across a post on the Ohio House GOP blog about an Ohio state representative:

http://ohiohousegop.blogspot.com/2011/05/martin-joins-state-legislators-from.html

Recently, State Representative Jarrod B. Martin (R-Beavercreek) participated in the American Legislative Exchange Council’s (ALEC) annual Spring Task Force Summit in Cincinnati, Ohio, where hundreds of legislators and policy leaders from across the country gathered to discuss policy issues ranging from education to health care to fiscal responsibility.

Representative Martin offered suggestions to help colleagues in other states and also brought back a great deal of information to help Ohio become an economically stable and successful state.

“Ohio faces similar economic issues as other states in terms of commerce, health care, business growth and crippled state budgets. It’s our responsibility as elected officials to have the most current information and best choices possible when making policy decisions to help Ohio succeed out of this recession,” said Representative Martin.

-snip-

Emphasis added. And the first article has a fifth paragraph, which I couldn't quote, which has the Georgia legislator saying almost exactly the same thing as was said by the Ohio legislator in the second sentence quoted there. Change "our responsibility as elected officials" to "my responsibility as an elected official" and "Ohio" to "Georgia" and you get the quote, which in both cases ends with the clumsy "succeed out of this recession" wording.

Amazing, isn't it, how two legislators in different states came up with such similar wording????

I wonder how many of these cookie-cutter stories designed to offset the recent negative publicity about ALEC are being published around the country.

I don't know whether ALEC sent out the press releases directly, or whether it sent its legislator puppets home with instructions on what they should say.

But these stories create an image of legions of puppet legislators being programmed to spew ALEC propaganda.


See the long compilation topic on the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) for more on this group.

[shraby]

1. K&R

[highplainsdem]

5. Thanks!

[glinda]

2. Alec and Koch Brothers need to be brought to the public's consciousness.

[Angry Dragon]

3. The Kock brothers fund ALEC

Alec is destroying this country with their buying of politicians
I propose that the government look at charging them with the RICO Act.

[Snoutport]

4. k & r

[Armstead]

6. I hate ALEC, but this is standard practice in public relations

I work at a newspaper, and see a lot of press releases from businesses and organizations. Generally, when there is a national event, or some other activity involving local people, there are similar cookie-cutter press releases.

As a hypothetical example, if McDonald's were to sponsor a national campaign to donate 1 penny from the sale of Big Macs to Japan relief efforts there might be a press release to the local media with a "quote" from the local franchise owner "We are proud that our McDonald's can give our customers in Oshkosh the opportunity to offer aid to the victims of this disaster."....Meanwhile the exact same press release with different towns and owners names are sent out all over the country.

ALEC itself is nefarious, but this particular publicity tactic is standard operating procedure.

[highplainsdem]

7. I have no problem with cookie-cutter press releases for businesses. But these are elected officials

and they're supposed to be representing their states and districts, NOT the American Legislative Exchange Council. If ALEC is putting words in the mouths of those elected officials, sending out press releases saying that an elected official actually said something that in fact is simply ALEC propaganda and is being attributed to other legislators across the country as though they also made those individual statements, voters should know that.

[Armstead]

8. You're right....It's not a practice that shoupld be done in politics

I wasn't condoning it. Just pointing out that it's business as usual today. Not good for politics, but most GOP politicians don;t appear to be capable of much independent thinking anyway.

Actually, if you follow any Republican campaigns during national election years, you'll often see identical ads for different (insert name and photo here) GOP candidates, and often hearing them repeating the same phrases in their debates and other public appearances....(I haven't noticed the same similarity among Democrats, although they may have their own version of that.)

[crickets]

10. 'saying that an elected official actually said something that in fact is simply ALEC propaganda'

You're right. This is a problem, whether or not it's standard protocol in other areas of news reportage.

[spanone]

9. cousins of faux news and politico.....right wing media center