Congressfolk pick up lobbyists’ talking points — and the press is shocked!
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Talk about physician heal thyself.
I giggled all the way through today’s front-page New York Times piece on the number of House members — Dems and Reps alike — have picked up talking points from speech drafts provided by lobbyists for Genentech, and asked that the statements be put in the Congressional Record under their names. The story was written with the air of an expose, and a sense of outrage.
So here’s my problem: Reporters get press releases all the time, and many of us do in fact do stories on the subjects suggested. And when we agree with the premise, our stories reflect the ideas in the release. Example: When I was covering the business side of “green,” I found I often agreed with the Rainforest Alliance, and wrote stories that reflected their thoughts — and, I often agreed with Nestle Water on bottled water issues, and my pieces could have been accused of buying their point of view.
Now, of course I didn’t pick up the language in releases — but that’s because, as a professional writer, I would be mortified if I was caught passing off someone else’s writing as my own. Congressfolk don’t claim to be writers — most would readily admit that their staffers write their speeches, etc.
So I ask again: What’s so upsetting about a legislator looking at a corporate-provided talking point, nodding his/her head in agreement, and reading it into the Congressional record? It’s not like Genentech was asking them to suggest outlawing all non-biotechnology drugs, or exempting biotech companies from taxes or FDA rules, or anything else outrageous. They talked about the industry creating jobs, exploring new drug therapies, etc. Shocking.
None of the parties involved seem particularly embarrassed — nor should they be. Here’s a Genentech lobbyist: “This happens all the time. There was nothing nefarious about it.” And here’s Stanley V. White, chief of staff for Representative Robert A. Brady of Pennsylvania: “We were approached by the lobbyist, who asked if we would be willing to enter a statement in the Congressional Record. I asked him for a draft. I tweaked a couple of words. There’s not much reason to reinvent the wheel on a Congressional Record entry.”
I gotta admit it, I agree with them. What’s the big deal?
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Perhaps you are right but as I watched the odd circus that is the Sunday morning news shows there on full display was the republican talking point discipline. All the republicans, when asked about the upcoming trial of Khalid the Terrorist, all clicked off the same points on CBS, NBC, ABC and CNN. It was a Gingrich inspired example of hive mentality but the question is who writes these talking points and how do they distribute them? Are there letters written in invisible ink sent to all who are to appear in the media? Is there a secret telephone number to call that will tell what to say and how to say it?
How can an entire party walk and think in lockstep on every topic? For a party that seems to have no leader they all function as one. I don’t know but I find it scary…thoughts of some secret lair inhabited by master of thought and policy. Maybe the rotate the responsibility among their think tanks.
The Democrats envy this universal thunking because they can’t seem to agree on anything, can’t help saying what’s on their minds, all victims of the Biden School of Thought where you form an opinion and voice it without venting the argument first.
Maybe the minds at Comedy Central can get to the bottom of this.
I watched the shows as well, but truth be told, I’m more shocked when reps of the same party disagree in public than when they all spout the same party line. I don’t think there’s anything secret or secretive about it — when there’s discipline in a party, they meet in private to hash out differences, but they try to be united in their opposition to the…well, to the opposition party. They don’t — cliche alert! — air their dirty laundry in public. I wish the Dems were more disciplined, not that the Reps were less so.
Ms. Deutsch,
It is the content of the talking points that interests me. If lobbyists are giving out good talking points, fine, that is good. It is merely representative of the laziness of the members and their staffs that they cannot even re-word it a little.
from what I could tell, there was nothing objectionable in the content. The industry does create jobs, and it does try to find viable treatments, even cures, for diseases. That’s why none of this upsets me
In response to another comment. See in context »