I just watched the You Tube video of Wendell Potter discussing his new book, out this fall, Deadly Spin. This former insurance industry spokesperson outlines in great details the techniques the industry uses to appear to be supporting reform while underwriting "grassroots" or "business people" shadow groups to undermine the same reforms. While I probably knew, deep inside, from my own years in public relations that a lot of this goes on, it turned my stomach to hear his description of something so detrimental to so many people in this country.
It makes me wonder how many other shadow groups operate in politics. Certainly we see less sophisticated and hidden efforts when Republicans are involved in crafting legislation they know they will vote against. At least they can't use a shadow group to vote...
We've seen something like this here in Colorado when the Romanoff campaign used someone to secretly shop a negative story about Bennett to national media. They may succeed in defeating Bennett in the primary. In the end, their opponents may publicize such under-handed techniques to the detriment of Romanoff. The end result? The people of Colorado lose! It happens all too often in politics. Good candidates knock each other out of the ultimate race with dirty tactics and negative advertising.
I was raised to be honest. My faith leads me to seek justice and truth. Everything in me seeks a way to help good people triumph over evil. Yet I am at a loss to see a way to overcome the evil that runs so deeply throughout the layers of society where real change can happen.
Sigh...
No comments:
Post a Comment