[corp-focus] Cesspool

[robert weissman]

Cesspool
By Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman

Ah, the cesspool.
	That would, of course, be Congress.
	Aka Capitol Hill.
	We caught a whiff of the cesspool the other day when a group of 
corporate liberals announced that they were going to launch yet another 
"newspaper" to cover the cesspool.
	Millionaire media mogul Robert Allbritton and journalist Martin Tolchin 
have teamed up to launch something they will call The Capitol Leader.
	The Capitol Leader will begin publishing on November 21 and will join 
an already crowded field consisting of Roll Call, The Hill, the National 
Journal and Congressional Quarterly.
   	Allbritton succeeded his father, Joe L. Allbritton, as chief 
executive at the Washington, D.C.-based Riggs Bank. Riggs, you may 
recall, was sold in 2004 after it pled guilty to criminal charges 
related to illegally operating bank accounts for former Chilean dictator 
Augusto Pinochet, and routinely ignoring evidence of corrupt practices 
in managing more than 60 accounts for the government of Equatorial Guinea.
	Junior is now runs Allbritton Communications Co. -- which owns two 
local DC television stations -- and is set to be publisher of the 
Capitol Leader.
	Tolchin is a former New York Times correspondent who co-founded the 
Hill in 1994.
	"There is so much going on up there that there's definitely room for 
another publication, and probably many more publications," Tolchin told 
the Washington Post. "I don't think we'll be the last."
	Indeed, it won't. 	
	And although there's surely a lot of fodder for investigative reporting 
on the Hill, that's not why.
	It's about corporate advertising.
	These Capitol Hill publications are fundamentally high-priced corporate 
issue-ad delivery devices to our anesthetized elected representatives. 
Members and staff on the Hill read the publications, so corporations 
know that if they take out ads in them, they reach a very select audience.
	Let's look at the September 12, 2006 44-page issue of Roll Call.
	It ran 19 full-page ads -- 16 of them from corporate sponsors. (The 
other three were ads by TIAA-CREF, Roll Call itself (promoting a 
Congressional basketball game), and the Alaska Wilderness League.)
	The 16 full-page corporate advertisers were:
	* National Cable & Telecommunications Association
	* American Hospital Association
	* American Petroleum Institute
	* Mywireless.org (a front group for the Cellular Telecommunications & 
Internet Association)
	* Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America
	* Shell Oil
	* Coalition for Community Pharmacy Action (a front group for the 
National Association of Chain Drug Stores and the National Community 
Pharmacists Association)
	* Global Military Aircraft Systems, AleniaNorthAmerica, L3 
Communications and Boeing ("The C-27J JCA Is Needed Now More Than Ever.")
	* American Iron and Steel Institute ("More steel is recycled each year 
than all other materials combined.")
	* Genentech
	* Lockheed Martin
	* National Association of Realtors
	* The Auto Alliance (BMW, DaimlerChrysler, Ford Motor, General Motors, 
Mazda, Mitsubishi, Porsche, Toyota, Volkswagen) ("9 Million Alternative 
Fuel Vehicles and Counting")
	* USA For Innovation (corporate front group headed by Ken Adelman)
	* TV For Us (wewantchoice.com)(telecommunications astroturf group)
	* American Chemisty Council
	On September 11, 2006, Roll Call carried a special 40-page B section 
titled "What's Next -- Guide to Congress." (The newspaper itself for 
that day was itself 40 pages).
	This "What's Next" section carried 10 full-page ads -- nine from 
corporate sponsors and one from George Washington University.
	Here were the corporate ads that ran in the aptly named Guide to Congress:
	* Federalist Group -- An Ogilvy PR Worldwide Company ("From Capitol 
Hill to Main Street -- Getting Your Voice into the Conversation is 
Critical to Success.")
	* Investment Company Institute ("Mutual Funds -- the Retirement 
Investment of Choice.")
	* American Medical Association ("Congress Must Stop Medicare Physician 
Cuts Before Leaving for the November Elections.")
	* Southern Company ("Why Are We Investing More Than $6 Billion in 
Cleaner Energy? It's Our Backyard Too.")
	* DRS Technologies ("Keeping Watch -- Threat and Intelligence 
Surveillance, Critical Infrastructure Protection, Maritime Security, 
Border Management")
	* National Apartment Association ("Because Not Every Home Is a House.")
	* Dow Chemical Company ("Meet the Element of Change.")
	* American Health Care Association (nursing homes)
	* Bosch (auto parts conglomerate)
	Today's 36-page The Hill (September 24, 2006) newspaper carried 13 
pages of corporate ads. They are:
	* National Cable and Telecommunications Association ("Cable Delivers 
Today. Why Wait?")
	* Shell Oil Company. ("Lance Nacio is proud his office is the Gulf of 
Mexico, where the seafood and energy industries exist side by side.")
	* American Petroleum Institute ("It's time for Congress to put our 
offshore oil and natural gas resources to work for America.")
	* AstraZeneca (A two-page ad -- "AstraZeneca is the first 
pharmaceutical company to join the FDA Alliance -- a coalition committed 
to a strong, effective and well-funded Food and Drug Administration.")
	* American Health Care Alliance (nursing home industry -- "A special 
thanks to our nation's governors -- and a majority of the U.S. Congress 
-- for standing up for our frail elderly by opposing deep cuts to 
nursing home care.")
	* Nuclear Energy Institute ("Pass Yucca Mountain Legislation Now!")
	* ProtectingAmerica.org (Insurance industry and others)
	* National Association of Realtors ("Congress -- Pass Small Business 
Health Plans")
	* Lasker Foundation and Research America (primarily pharmaceutical 
industry supported) ("2006 Candidates -- Your constituents want to know.")
	* KnowLegis ("free e-mail alerts to put you in the know"
	* Bobby Van's Steakhouse ("Best porterhouse in town, five years in a 
row.")
	* United Technologies ("There's something in it for all of us.")
	While these papers do an admirable job covering the nuts and bolts of 
the legislative process, including how big business influences 
policy-making, they have actually become part of the influence game 
itself.
	Roll Call has a circulation of 18,000.
	A full-page ad in Roll Call costs $10,175.
	Unless you want the back page in color -- then you are talking about a 
premium.
	But don't ask about the back page. It's booked for the foreseeable future.
	That's why Marti Tolchin and Robert Allbritton are salivating.
	Not because they want to recreate the next I.F. Stone's Weekly.
	But because they want to run another K Street Weekly.
	Ching.
	Ching.

Russell Mokhiber is editor of the Washington, D.C.-based Corporate Crime 
Reporter, <http://www.corporatecrimereporter.com>. Robert Weissman is 
editor of the Washington, D.C.-based Multinational Monitor, 
<http://www.multinationalmonitor.org>. Mokhiber and Weissman are 
co-authors of On the Rampage: Corporate Predators and the Destruction of 
Democracy (Monroe, Maine: Common Courage Press).

(c) Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman

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