This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2012, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
- SuperPacs for better papers - George Pyle, The Salt Lake Tribune
The members of ALEC are right. We're just jealous.
Those who stood outside the past week's confab of legislators from the 50 states and lobbyists from the Fortune 500 and either sniped (activists) or viewed with alarm (editorial writers) are troubled by the fact that the alliance of middle government and high finance has apparently been much more successful than any analogous assemblage of either public interest groups or crusading journalists.
So, when Bob Edgar, the head of Common Cause, calls the American Legislative Exchange Council "the poster child for non-transparent infrastructure that puts corporate profits ahead of the public interest," it is easy for ALEC members, specifically New Mexico state Rep. Paul Bandy, to say that his group is a target simply because it works. And, by implication, works better than anything put together by organizations with different priorities.
It's true for progressive groups, of course. It's also true for the independent observers in the American news media.
Everyone knows our old business model is busted. Owning a newspaper through much of American history was basically a license to print money. Now, with the digital world drawing off readers and, much more importantly, advertisers, we are scurrying about trying to find a new way to make the news business profitable enough to pay for all the investigating and bird-dogging that real journalism entails.
What newspapers need, then, are their own SuperPacs. [Read the rest ...]
Related:
- ALEC works in secrecy, Utah activists in public - Peg McEntee, The Salt Lake Tribune
- ALEC in Utah: Clearing house for bad ideas - Salt Lake Tribune Editorial
- ALEC provides receptive crowd for Utah's land battles - Robert Gehrke, The Salt Lake Tribune
- DeChristopher backers say conviction shows corporate control - Brandon Loomis, The Salt Lake Tribune
- GM, Walgreen Latest Leaving ALEC - Bloomberg
- Report claims Florida lawmakers do bidding of corporate-funded ALEC - The Miami Herald
- Republican lawmakers in Utah for ALEC event - St. Louis Post-Dispatch