Get News & Views Updates
Most Popular This Week
Popular content
Today's Top News
Journalist Kicked out of ALEC Conference, Threatened With Arrest
In late July, shortly after the launch of ALECexposed.org, Lousiana State Rep.Noble Ellington, a Republican from the state's 20th district and the national chairman of the American Legislative Exchange Council, spoke to NPR about the recent spate of criticism leveled at his organization. When discussing the behind-closed-doors process used to craft ALEC model legislation, Ellington dismissed NPR’s concerns, assuring interviewer Terry Gross that the public "have an opportunity to talk to their legislators about the legislation -- so I don't see how you can get more transparent than that."
Similarly, Ohio State Senator Bill Seitz, a former "ALEC Legislator of the Year," laughed off the notion of ALEC's secrecy secrecy, telling a Cincinnati newspaper that the organization is just like any other professional association.
So it was with these assurances that I headed to New Orleans for ALEC's 38th Annual Conference. Surely as a member of the fourth estate, the good folks at ALEC would value my investigative efforts and grant me access to their back room dealings.
Boy, was I wrong.
Denied Access, Kicked out, and then Kicked out Again
After filling out my registration form to receive press credentials, I was told by an alarmed ALEC intern to wait while she fetched her boss. While I did not think she had ever heard my name, the look on her face made me think that perhaps she had heard of our new project ALEC Exposed.org. A very stern looking gentleman -- Ted Wagnon of Vox Global Communications -- arrived and told me my application would be denied on the grounds that the Center for Media and Democracy was an "advocacy organization." I asked Wagnon for a written explanation, and he handed me ALEC's Media Policy, which bears no mention of "advocacy organizations." Instead, news outlets funded by a "think-tank, political party, lobbying organization, trade association, or corporation" are forbidden from registering. CMD complies with this criteria even though most media outlets (owned by major corporations) do not.
Discouraged by by dismissal from the registration table, but not defeated, I headed to the Marriott hotel lobby to do some writing and ALEC sightseeing. I was greeted by there by a contracted security guard with no hotel affiliation, and told to leave. I asked if I was being kicked out of the hotel, to which replied that I would be removed if I didn't depart immediately. I left, a bit miffed. A quick phone call later in the day to Marriott management confirmed that I by sitting in the lobby filing a story I had not violated any of the hotel's rules, and would be welcome back in the lobby the next day.
Thursday morning I sat down once again in the Marriott lobby, where I decided to start tweeting the names of some of the ALEC corporate lobbyists. Apparently tweets like, "South Carolina Rep. Liston Barfield #spotted at #ALEC Annual Meeting. He's wearing a name tag that says 'Legacy Member'" and "Some legislators have 'New Member' ribbons attached to their name tags. Makes it easier for the corporations to track them down" drew the attention of ALEC's communications team. A senior staffer raced towards me, asked if I was Eric Carlson, and then screamed "that's him!” (See the offensive tweets here).
Marriott security guards swarmed to where I was standing, demanding again that I leave the hotel or "face arrest." I escaped before they could follow through on their other promise of taking my picture for their permanent records. My only comfort? Al Jazeera English was also denied credentials on the grounds that ALEC was not an “international” conference -- even though it has an International Relations Task Force whose priority results in the offshoring of U.S. jobs and even though international politicians were addressing the conference.
On the Trail of Public Policy on Bourbon Street
The hypocrisy of ALEC's media policy is astonishing. Not only are vast majority of news organizations owned by major media corporations (perhaps with the exception of Al Jazeera), but the majority of ALEC's conference events and even speaker are sponsored by Fortune 500 firms and trade associations. Governor Bobby Jindal was sponsored by big PhRMA. Dick Armey by Visa. I am not kidding.
While ALEC might not like independent media outlets like ours, they do love big media conglomerates and avidly promote Big Media’s agenda. ALEC members like Comcast, seem worried about feisty municipalities that think broadband should be offered as a public service, so ALEC's Municipal Telecommunications Private Industry Safeguards Act quashes the authority of municipalities to launch their own broadband services. ALEC members ATT, Verizon and now Time Warner seem worried that the FCC might stand up for consumers; ALEC's resolution on broadband regulation takes a "brave" stand against the FCC's authority to enforce Net Neutrality rules and for the destruction of the Internet as a platform for innovation, growth and the free exchange of ideas as we know it.
It is no wonder that Time Warner invited ALEC legislators and corporate lobbyists to a swank dinner at Emeril's Delmonico Thursday night. As I file this report, I am headed over there right now to get turned away from another great ALEC event by the people who say they have nothing to hide. Then I am going to explore rumors of a smoke-filled back room on Bourbon Street sponsored by ALEC board member RJ Reynolds. I just wish I were kidding.
Comments
Note: Disqus 2012 is best viewed on an up to date browser. Click here for information. Instructions for how to sign up to comment can be viewed here. Our Comment Policy can be viewed here. Please follow the guidelines. Note to Readers: Spam Filter May Capture Legitimate Comments...
38 Comments so far
Show AllYou can bet ALEC will be represented on the committee that will decide the economic future of this nation from now on, but they can tell the rest of us who's lobby we can sit in.
I guess if you can afford a private police force you trump the rights of individual citizens.
It's a brave new world we live in.
"I guess if you can afford a private police farce you trump the rights of individual citizens."
I fixed that sentence for ya'.
I know I quote this often but it always applies: "When offin' the pigs and smashin' the state, keep a smile on you lips and a song in your heart". Phineas Freak
There is just no accounting for smarmyness, let alone taste.
fabulous and furry
ALEC is fascist organization. If they don't have strom troopers or brown shirts yet, it's because they have avoided publicity up until now.
That will shortly change. These anti-democratic outfits are not known for possessing the milk of human kindness.
It's hardly like those two suited idiots are storm troopers or prison guards, but their smug resistance to a reporter is just like you'd expect from a representative of a fascist organization.... what complete POS they are..... ANYONE who thinks what the nazis, et. al., have done in the name of their state or organization, are blinded to the reality that an awful lot of people will tow fascist party lines.......
Anyone know the way to Freedonia? Uh, how 'bout Nutopia?.....
Agreed. It is only when the local enforcements and military/worker bees realize how they are being USED and turn their loyalties to their own kind, will this crap stop.
Gotta just LOVE what the right has turned this country into. May they ALL rot in hell for several eternities, AFTER their children all end up on METH. may ALEC be broken up and it's minions sent to SOLITARY CONFINEMENT for the rest of their miserable freaking lives. WHAT SCUM!
To call ANY of these scum bags an American is a disservice to REAL Americans.
Unfortunately, the ALEC officials may have a point. All too often, a politician gets little or no comment on proposed lesislation - or suggestions for new legislation, from private citizens or citizen's organizations. This leaves a huge vacuum the comments and proposed legislation to come for well organized corporations.
I understand that there are major impediments to participation - obscure legislative schedules, and a large number of politicians who have nothing but contempt for their constituents. When Pittsburgh's "Save Our Transit" went to Harrisburg, they were often refused entry to the State reps or state senator's offices, because ther weren't "important-looking" in sleek corporate suits - they were poor poeple in working class clothes and working class faces. Then, there is the problem with legislation affecting everyone in the state, yet, when you try to contact the politcians pushing the legislation - you are told "you are not in my district - go away".
But this state of affairs didn't happen overnight. Some politicians encounter private citizens so rarely that their non-businesseze concerns sound like a foreign language. There was a gradual relinquishing of control to corporations by citizens - the majority of which do not even know the name of their own state rep or senator.
pjd412 (in part) wrote:
Unfortunately, the ALEC officials may have a point. All too often, a politician gets little or no comment on proposed lesislation - or suggestions for new legislation, from private citizens or citizen's organizations. This leaves a huge vacuum the comments and proposed legislation to come for well organized corporations.
* * * * *
pjd412,
Actually, I don't think the ALEC officials have a point. Most of the rest of your own comment tends to refute the idea that ALEC officials have a point.
What's more it is well known that when U.S. Senators and U.S. Representatives vote on legislation that has come out of some committee and has been brought to the floor for a vote most of them (and that is putting it optimistically, all of them is generally more accurate) have not had a "chance" to actually read the legislation that they are voting on.
I don't think that legislators in state legislatures are that different than legislators in the U.S. Congress.
The primary problem here is that all of our legislators, if they are alive and breathing and the least bit conscious, know that corporations "help" write legislation and most of them are ok with that.
This must be stopped.
- - - - -
P.S. ezeflyer, The same is true for referendum and initiative questions placed before the public on a ballot and other forms of direct democracy.
- - - - -
P.S.S. pjd412, How's the ALEC research coming along (regarding Rep. Daryl Metcalf, Gov. Corbett, etc.). I am interested in hearing about what you come up with.
Step-By-Step Guide to Understanding ALEC’s Influence on Your State Laws
by Lois Beckett
Article URL: www.commondreams.org/headline/2011/08/02-6
PuffinThrush,
Well said!
Comforting to know investigative journalism is not completely dead in this country. Good job Carlson. Just donated $10 to CD to honor your work.
I frequently drive past a cemetary that has a lot of WW2 vets. I can only imagine how they weep in heaven to see what has become of the country they fought and died for, and how it has morphed into the very fascism they gave their lives fighting.
I was looking forward to spending my fast approaching "golden years" puttering in the garden growing roses. Who'd have thought I'd end up a radicalized senior, fighting fascism in my own country. Bring on the revolution!
Boycott Marriott !
Boycott every corporate member of ALEC and kick every legislative member of ALEC out of office.
Goddamned fascist motherfuckers. Just watch the short video.
Excerpt from "Journalist Kicked out of ALEC Conference, Threatened With Arrest" by Eric Carlson
Thursday morning I sat down once again in the Marriott lobby, where I decided to start tweeting the names of some of the ALEC corporate lobbyists. Apparently tweets like, "South Carolina Rep. Liston Barfield #spotted at #ALEC Annual Meeting. He's wearing a name tag that says 'Legacy Member'" and "Some legislators have 'New Member' ribbons attached to their name tags. Makes it easier for the corporations to track them down" drew the attention of ALEC's communications team. A senior staffer raced towards me, asked if I was Eric Carlson, and then screamed "that's him!”
* * * * *
My Comment:
I am glad Eric Carlson is having some fun with his ALEC investigative reporting efforts. The Keystone Cops absurdity and silliness of the seriousness with which ALEC takes shutting out unfriendly media makes for entertaining reading about what otherwise is disturbing, detailed news about what many folks have already known for quite some time in a more general sense.
Thanks too Eric for the video of the woman gatekeeper and the two guys in suits. God, I am glad I don't work for a large corporation anymore. Not that there aren't many "nice" people working for large corporations, particularly at the lower levels of the hierarchy, but . . . .
Don't forget to check out the noble mug of ALEC National Chairman Louisiana State Represenative. Noble E. Ellington II.
See "National Chairman Of ALEC Responds To Report"
URL: www.npr.org/2011/07/21/138575665/national-chairman-of-alec-responds-to-report
ALEC National Chairman Louisiana State Represenative Noble E. Ellington
Term Limits and Party Politics
- - - - -
Excerpt from Nobel Ellington, Wikipedia webpage:
Noble Edward Ellington, II (born May 25, 1942), is a wealthy cotton merchant from Winnsboro, the seat of Franklin Parish in northeastern Louisiana, who is a freshman, and as of December 17, 2010, a Republican, member of the Louisiana House of Representatives from District 20. Ellington served previously in the House from 1988 to 1996, and then in the State Senate (District 32) from 1996 to 2008. He returned to the House on January 14, 2008, after an absence of a dozen years because he was term-limited from seeking a fourth consecutive Senate term.
Late in 2007, Ellington, as a returning but still freshman member, sought to chair the House Appropriations Committee, but he ran into a bloc of opposition from conservatives, including the statewide radio talk show host Moon Griffon of Monroe. The conservatives stopped Governor Bobby Jindal from recommending that Speaker Jim Tucker name Ellington as the chairman of the critical committee. They contend that Ellington is an advocate of raising taxes to fund expanded government, rather than a lawmaker committed to reducing taxes and cutting programs. Ellington had asked for the appointment on grounds that no House members from northeastern Louisiana had otherwise been named committee chairmen. Jindal had agreed to the recommendation until Tucker informed him that Ellington does not share Jindal's philosophy of limited government.
[Please note: Eric Carlson reported that "the majority of ALEC's conference events and even speaker are sponsored by Fortune 500 firms and trade associations. Governor Bobby Jindal was sponsored by big PhRMA. Dick Armey by Visa. I am not kidding."]
- - - - -
Excerpt from Nobel Ellington, Wikipedia webpage:
Ellington won his current District 20 House seat in the state election held on November 17, 2007. Incumbent Lelon Kenney (born 1935) of Columbia was term-limited. Ellington hence defeated his runoff opponent, fellow Democrat Cleveland Webb "Cleve" Womack (born 1953) of Jonesville in Catahoula Parish,[14] 6,215 (52 percent) to 5,686 (48 percent). The district includes, Franklin, Catahoula, Caldwell, and two precincts of Tensas, the smallest of Louisiana's sixty-four parishes, which is located adjacent to the Mississippi River.
- - - - - -
Excerpt from Nobel Ellington, Wikipedia webpage:
On December 9, 2010, Ellington announced that he was likely to switch to Republican affiliation to seek renewed membership in the state House of Representatives in 2011. Four other Democrats announced that same month that they have switched affiliation, John R. Smith of Leesville, John Alario of Westwego, Fred H. Mills, Jr., of St. Martinville, and Simone B. Champagne of Iberia Parish.[25] A week later, on December 17, 2010, Ellington made the switch official, giving the Louisiana Republican Party its first majority in the Louisiana House since the Reconstruction era.[26]
Ellington explained that this party switch is "historically significant, but the truth is I've been a conservative for my entire career, so it won't affect the way I vote. . . . I found myself farther and farther away from what has become the liberal philosophy of the national party. My way of thinking, which falls along a more conservative line, has been shrinking within the party. At least nationally, the Republican Party seems to fit my philosophy more than the current Democratic Party."[27]
Speaker Tucker, who had opposed Ellington's committee chairmanship in 2008, said he is "excited to have Noble in the party and ecstatic about holding the majority. We as Republicans can continue to push for smaller, more efficient government, and we have the numbers to pass legislation that can do that if we stick together. . . . It's incredible that when I started in the House [in 2001] that we have more than doubled our numbers and indicative of where the state in going. It's also a tribute to those who preceded us to helped build the party in this state, in particular [Senator] David Vitter."[27]
Louisiana Republican Chairman Roger Villere issued this statement on Ellington's defection: "For more than one hundred years, the Louisiana House of Representatives has remained under Democrat control, but today that has all come to an end. In just three short years a 16-seat Democrat majority has been erased and Representative Ellington's decision to become the 53rd Republican in the House gives the GOP our first controlling majority in that body since Reconstruction. This is a great and historic day for the Republican Party of Louisiana and I'm pleased to welcome Representative Ellington to the new conservative majority in the House."
Wikipedia URL: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noble_Ellington
* * * * *
My Comment:
I think term limits are a good idea for chief executives, governors and presidents.
But we need to replace Plurality Voting (with or without a runoff) with a consent / dissent grading scale voting procedure such as Yes No 'Maybe So' Voting or Category Scale Power Voting which gives the voters the power of the boss, the power to say "No", the power to directly support or oppose each and any or all of the candidates on the ballot individually.
As we've learned in CA term limits can't work unless the LOBBIESTS are banned from the system, Pretty much all legislation in CA these days comes straight from the Lobbiest Office straight to the floor! Not like these two term twits could read or understand them! >^^<
1973, that would make it a Nixon and Kissinger thing.
"Countdown with Keith Olbermann ALEC & Corporate Influence with John Nichols" is worth a listen.
YouTube URL: www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7Tl9EwZSxA]
Will Spring ever come to America? Before these folks start burning our elderly?
Way back in the 18th century, Adam Smith obvserved that "merchants and manufacturers" were "the principle architects" of state policy in England.
The long history of the practice notwithstanding, corporations have no god damned business writing legislation, sample or otherwise. Its entire purpose is to undermine democracy.
The practice should be outlawed. Any organization that presents legislation to a legislator should be reported and should result in the prosecution of the individuals responsible. Any legislator found to have accepted pre-written legislation from a corporation, industry organization, or anyone else, should likewise be prosecuted.
I wonder if Bill Seitz, Noble Ellington et al will still be laughing about it when they're sitting in their prison cells.
Down with ALEC and all its members.
Death to fascism.
Knowing that it will broadcast ALEC messages without a fee, NPR will be more than welcome.
NPR can always be counted on, like FOX news, to give the rich and powerful more than their fair share of friendly broadcast time.
What is your point again?
Those are individuals involved in creating legislation. We are not. That seems a highly significant difference.
I've no idea who you are or under what handles you've been here before, but as long as you actually try to defend your indefensible positions I wouldn't vote to toss you out. Of course, if you're nobbut a pillock and a tape-recorder, endlessly repeating unsupported assertions regardless of response, that's virtually trollish and tiresome. I would vote to get rid of you in that case.
I hold no brief for liberals and wouldn't go out of my way to defend them. I speak only from my own standpoint, that of an anarchic socialist. If you're actually up for "reasonable discussion", emphasis on "discussion" then you've got my vote (fwiw).
Terry Gross should stick to interviewing entertainers.
Can anyone tell me how to get a list of the legislators who attended this conference? I know who some of the WV legislator members are, I just want to know which ones attended.
I really have no reasonable words anymore.... all I know is, the plutocracy DOES KNOW ABOUT THE LIMITS OF THE EARTH AND ARE PRETENDING STUPID.... so they can position them selves....it is so obvious..... they want complete control because they never learned how to share.... if we don't fight back, we will loose....more.
We got a similar reaction asking a legislator if he was an ALEC member.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDjQ1Zu4uHQ
ALEC is so transparently corrupt, it can't even do PR and the usual press coddling. The writing of public laws by corporations, with sponsorship by their Congressional dupes-for-hire, is pretty tough to sugar coat. If the traditional meaning of being a traitor is "selling out your country," then ALEC members certainly fit that description to the bill.
These corporate fronts are legion, although ALEC might be more arrogant than other special interest lobbying groups out there. Probably what ups the stakes for ALEC is its direct corporate lawyer-legislator connection, which used to be a somewhat discreet affair, perhaps. ALEC has simply taken the current "constituent service" relationship - between Dem/Repug elected representatives and their corporate masters - and turned it into a paid social junket. It's all smooth and easy when the corporations write the laws.
Will U.S. voters get the message in the face of this naked effrontery and camera blocking? Alas, loyalist Dem/Repug voters have no clue.
August 2, the debt ceiling impasse comes to an end.
August 2, the legislators leave in a big hurry, FAA, what's that???
August 2, Alec Conference begins.
I know, I am a conspiracy theorist.
What a wimp! No wonder you're denied entry! If you won't fight for your rights, what the hell good are you? Have you filed suit yet against the hotel for them allowing people to deny you entry to THEIR property? Just what is wrong with you that you have neither courage or even respect for yourself or your craft? Shame on you as much as they!