August, 05 2011, 09:06am EDT
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Nikolina Lazic at (312) 731-1292 or nikolina@prwatch.org
Eric Carlson at (203) 273-6250
What is ALEC Hiding? Tweeting Now a Crime in ALEC's New Orleans
For the second time in two days, Center for Media and Democracy's reporter Eric Carlson has been kicked out of the ALEC hotel. Eric flew down to New Orleans to cover the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) annual meeting. After hearing from ALEC Board member and Ohio State Senator Bill Seitz that "there is nothing secret about it [ALEC]," Carlson was eager to attend ALEC workshops and interview state legislators about their priorities.
WASHINGTON
For the second time in two days, Center for Media and Democracy's reporter Eric Carlson has been kicked out of the ALEC hotel. Eric flew down to New Orleans to cover the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) annual meeting. After hearing from ALEC Board member and Ohio State Senator Bill Seitz that "there is nothing secret about it [ALEC]," Carlson was eager to attend ALEC workshops and interview state legislators about their priorities.
However, Carlson was denied press credentials Wednesday by ALEC's PR firm and then kicked out by security as he sat writing on his computer in the Marriott lobby. Marriott denies that it was their security personnel and speculates that it could have been private security hired by ALEC. Marriott gave CMD assurances that as long as guests were not being disruptive anyone could sit in their lobby.
On Thursday, Carlson was kicked out again and threatened with arrest apparently for the crime of Tweeting about sightings of corporate lobbyists and Heritage Foundation "experts" attending the ALEC meeting. Eric's Twitter handle can be accessed here: https://twitter.com/#!/theericcarlson.
Carlson is part of the CMD team that brought ALEC to public attention in recent weeks with the release of the ALECexposed.org website, which lists over 800 ALEC model bills.
"What is ALEC hiding? Our reporter was simply doing his job Tweeting about ALEC corporate lobbyists and legislators as they walked by. Tweeting is apparently a crime in ALEC's New Orleans," said Mary Bottari Center for Media and Democracy.
The ALEC press policy says: "ALEC invites credentialed members of both traditional and online journalist [sic] to attend ALEC events." No problem. CMD has been engaged in investigative reporting since 1993. We have covered and reported all sorts of conferences, domestic and international, events at the Wisconsin State Capital Building, the U.S. Congress and even the White House. The ALEC press policy also says: "Journalists may not register as media if their news outlet is funded by a think-tank, political party, lobbying organization, trade association or corporation. ALEC will not allow journalists to register as media for the purpose of writing a personal online blog." Again no problem. CMD is not funded by any of these entities.
But when Carlson went to register for his ALEC press credentials, he was handed the press policy and told that ALEC did not allow "advocacy" organizations. Notably, the ALEC press policy does not mention advocacy organizations.
The Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) is a non-profit investigative reporting group. Our reporting and analysis focus on exposing corporate spin and government propaganda. We publish PRWatch, SourceWatch, and BanksterUSA. Our newest major investigation is available at ALECexposed.org. We accept no funding from for-profit corporations or the government. If you would like to make a financial contribution to support our work, please click here.
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