ALEC Sends Out an SOS to Breitbart Bloggers

[kpete]

NEWS
ALEC Sends Out an SOS to Breitbart Bloggers

by Rebekah Wilce — April 18, 2012 - 7:52am

Shortly after issuing a press release announcing that it was disbanding its "Public Safety and Elections Task Force" after 30 years, the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) held a training for the right-wing blogosphere.

ALEC Director of External Relations Caitlyn Korb spoke yesterday at a Heritage Foundation "Bloggers Briefing," begging conservative bloggers for help while prepping "a very aggressive campaign to really spread the word about what we actually do." Korb appears to be a new ALEC employee who recently worked for the Cato Institute. Both ALEC and Cato have received funding from Koch family foundations. The Heritage Foundation is an ALEC member.

The "Bloggers Briefing," which was started by Heritage's Rob Bluey and "a dozen conservative online entrepreneurs" six years ago, was broadcast online on "Breitbart TV," a project of the late Andrew Breitbart. Breitbart's team of bloggers and apparatchiks most recently gained notoriety for getting U.S. Department of Agriculture official Shirley Sherrod fired. Breitbart released a clip of a speech given by Sherrod deliberately edited to create the false impression that she was prejudiced against white farmers. Her actual speech was a personal tale rejecting prejudice. Sherrod was later offered resinstatement by USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack, with apologies.

"We Haven't Been the Subject of Many Headlines"

The blogger briefing was in response to an effective campaign by the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) and allies to convince ALEC corporate funders to drop the organization due to its extreme agenda, an agenda made apparent when CMD published over 800 ALEC cookie cutter "model" bills in the summer of 2011.

MORE:
http://www.prwatch.org/news/2012/04/11458/alec-sends-out-sos-breitbart-bloggers

[calimary]

1. So they're beginning to feel actual pain. Well boo-hoo.

First thing that came to mind, for me, was - hmmm... this is one way we can fight back and make them hurt, give them another hurdle to jump that they weren't expecting (yeah, sometimes THEY get complacent, too, and they always overreach). Mess with them. Inconvenience them. Bother them with some shitty little details they never expected to have to get mired down into. Throw them off their game. They're used to liberals and progressives just saying "oh, okay..." and bowing and scraping and apologizing, and certainly backing down from going on offense with our strategy and tactics.

So,
A) they suddenly realize they don't have an open road ahead. Now there are obstacles, patrols, impediments, bad pavement, and detours. This was not what they were planning. They thought this'd just keep on sliding in over home plate with nobody noticing. The opposition is NOT asleep at the switch this time, much to their surprise.

and

B) they didn't think they were gonna run low on money! Had NO idea. Nobody saw this coming - guaranteed. Never expected it in a million years! They thought they were invulnerable, AND invisible. They had all these blue-chip sponsors who were fed only the propaganda about public service and meeting challenges and other lofty-sounding PR BS. Nobody bothered to consider the very profound downside of these moves of theirs at the state level, and their cumulative effect because there are frickin' HUNDREDS of them in a few DOZEN states all being rushed, pushed, or slid through all at about the same time!!! And when you start making noise about that, no corporation in their right mind wants too much of that kind of negative PR, even if they believe in what's being done. It makes them look bad and they don't need the bad press or the questioning because it's bad for business. So they pull their support.

And what does that mean? It means that they're gonna have to raise money in other realms than, and well beyond, they were expecting. This might mean that an ad buy will be 50-thousand dollars less in some market because the same donor base had to spread out farther to cover ground that hadn't been anticipated. It might mean three or four or a half-dozen fewer GOTV people in some local areas can be hired because there wasn't enough money - that had to go to ALEC. And meanwhile, what doesn't go to ALEC to make up the difference means maybe there isn't as much oomph to push all of those bills through, or slide them through under the radar. Maybe they won't be able to do anything else in Kansas for awhile. Or South Carolina. Or maybe instead of pushing 20 bills in Texas, they'll only have the funding to promote 13 or 14.

Yeah, I know. It isn't nearly as good or desirable for our country, but every little bit we can erode their power and influence and effectiveness, the better for EVERY American.

Oh yeah, and they're selling it on some breitbart vehicle. Well, with no breitbart around anymore to push this baloney with those obnoxious, rude, loutish bully tactics of his, this effort overall won't go nearly as far.