techcentralstation.com: Reinventing lobbying as journalism?

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

---

To: "Declan McCullagh" <declan () well com>
Subject: Reinventing Lobbying as Journalism
From: david.e.young () verizon com
Date: Fri, 2 Jan 2004 08:09:37 -0500

Declan,

I thought you [and Politech]  might enjoy this essay on the blurring line 
between journalism and lobbying.  The title is "Meet the Press", by 
Nicholas Confessore from the December 2003 Washington Monthly.

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2003/0312.confessore.html

<snip>
James Glassman and TCS have given birth to something quite new in 
Washington: journo-lobbying. It's an innovation driven primarily by the 
influence industry. Lobbying firms that once specialized in gaining 
person-to-person access to key decision-makers have branched out. The new 
game is to dominate the entire intellectual environment in which officials 
make policy decisions, which means funding everything from think tanks to 
issue ads to phony grassroots pressure groups.

<snip>
But TCS doesn't just act like a lobbying shop. It's actually published by 
one--the DCI Group, a prominent Washington "public affairs" firm 
specializing in P.R., lobbying, and so-called "Astroturf" organizing, 
generally on behalf of corporations, GOP politicians, and the occasional 
Third-World despot. The two organizations share most of the same owners, 
some staff, and even the same suite of offices in downtown Washington, a 
block off K Street. As it happens, many of DCI's clients are also 
"sponsors" of the site it houses. TCS not only runs the sponsors' banner 
ads; its contributors aggressively defend those firms' policy positions, on 
TCS and elsewhere.

<snip>

Best regards and Happy New Year,

-David

--------------------------------
David E. Young
Director, Internet & Technology Policy
Verizon Communications
1300 I Street NW
Washington, DC 20005
+1 202-515-2425  <Office>
+1 202-365-4755  <Mobile>
+1 202-336-7923  <Fax>
david.e.young () verizon com

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