Updated below.
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Good God, the next several months — then years — are going to be a slime fest, no matter what happens in November.
theintercept.com/…
A FEW DAYS BEFORE the Georgia primary, influential Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed published a column on CNN.com praising Hillary Clinton and ripping her opponent, Bernie Sanders. Reed attacked Sanders as being out of step with Democrats on gun policy, and accused him of elevating a “one-issue platform” that ignores the plight of the “single mother riding two buses to her second job.”
But emails released from Reed’s office indicate that the column, which pilloried Sanders as out of touch with the poor, was primarily written by a corporate lobbyist, and was edited by Correct the Record, one of several pro-Clinton Super PACs.
Anne Torres, the mayor’s director of communications, told The Intercept this week that the column was not written by the mayor, but by Tharon Johnson, a former Reed adviser who now works as a lobbyist for UnitedHealth, Honda, and MGM Resorts, among other clients. The column’s revisions by staffers from Correct the Record are documented in the emails.
Wonderful. I especially love the fact that Tharon Johnson, the guy who wrote this anti-Sanders, pro-Clinton screed, is a lobbyist for UnitedHealth — the ones who just pulled out of 34 state ObamaCare exchanges. It just doesn’t get more appropriate. (Note: This paragraph has been edited to correct the claim that Tharon Johnson became a lobbyist after writing the OpEd. He was a lobbyist while he wrote the OpEd.)
Update: Let’s note what fuckery CNN has done here, too: www.reddit.com/…
Update II: CenPhx with a great comment in the thread. Please read the whole thing through:
Yep. We loathe it when ALEC ghostwrites statutes for legislators, but somehow its okay when another lobbying group writes the words for our politicians.
Its bullshit no matter who does it. Highlighting “but politicians get help writing their statements” misses the point entirely and deliberately, I think.
The point is that 1) this shows way too close a collaboration between our politicians and industries we voters expect them to hold accountable and in check, 2) it shows lobbyists have much more access and control of our politicians than we could ever hope to have, 3) it is evidence that whatever positions the lobbyist wants, our politicians take, 4) and most importantly, by not disclosing/admitting that the lobbyist wrote the piece, the reader is misled. Readers consider the source when deciding how much credence to give to the writing and both the politician and the lobbyist know it — that is why they DON’T disclose the lobbyist wrote the piece.
I can’t stand the relationship between the Kochs/ALEC and Republican politicians and I can’t stomach our politicians the same thing.