Shading ethics at RedState
Michael Krempasky of RedState.org, "hobbyist" blogger turned corporate shill for WalMart, replies to my commentary on this post. He snidely offers as proof of his full disclosure, the "about page" of his own blog. Who knew he even had one of his own? His notoriety comes from RedState.
To be fair, I did a more thorough check of RedState this morning and found nothing to indicate he disclosed his new "day job" to his readers there. This is a group blog and in order to even find out who he is, you have to click around and check the Directors button. Here's what it says about him.
If you do make it through all that work, he does indeed disclose that he's taken a job with the mega-PR firm Edelman. He doesn't even mention WalMart by name but he gives them a plug in the disclosure for their "tremendous" response to Katrina.
Not to denigrate their help but come on. WalMart is multi-billion dollar company that donated $17 million worth of water to the effort. It's the equivalent of somebody like me giving a couple of bucks to the Red Cross and I would bet money they're paying Edelman more than 17 mil for the contract. The donation cost them less than a national ad buy.
Meanwhile, Krempasky allows that he is likely to be shilling for other mega-corps whom he will not be able to disclose, but the public shouldn't be worried because his cohorts at RedState, (whose stated mission is to help Republicans take over the world) will know who they are and will watchdog his posts accordingly. Yeah, you're a real upfront, full disclosure hero Mike.
Don't get me wrong, I got nothing against the guy personally, everyone has right to grind their own political axe or shill for GOP crony capitalists if they want to, but let's not pretend this "disclosure" is an honest attempt to inform the RedState readers of his potential conflict of interest. It simply isn't.
To be fair, I did a more thorough check of RedState this morning and found nothing to indicate he disclosed his new "day job" to his readers there. This is a group blog and in order to even find out who he is, you have to click around and check the Directors button. Here's what it says about him.
Mike Krempasky is from Pennsylvania, and would almost accept a Kerry presidency in return for a couple Steelers Super Bowl victories.So in order to find his disclosure, you have to know he has his own blog, find the bloody thing since the only mention seems to be under the profile you get if you click on his name, on his posts at RedState. Then you have to find the about button, which isn't even a button, just a word tucked under the header, or you can scroll all the way down and find it tucked into the footer. So do you know anyone who goes through all that trouble every time they read a post? Me neither.
He's worked in grassroots politics in a number of roles, from leading a national pro-life organization and training conservative activists all across the country, to raising money for Republican candidates and conservative causes.
He doesn't like the French.
If you do make it through all that work, he does indeed disclose that he's taken a job with the mega-PR firm Edelman. He doesn't even mention WalMart by name but he gives them a plug in the disclosure for their "tremendous" response to Katrina.
Not to denigrate their help but come on. WalMart is multi-billion dollar company that donated $17 million worth of water to the effort. It's the equivalent of somebody like me giving a couple of bucks to the Red Cross and I would bet money they're paying Edelman more than 17 mil for the contract. The donation cost them less than a national ad buy.
Meanwhile, Krempasky allows that he is likely to be shilling for other mega-corps whom he will not be able to disclose, but the public shouldn't be worried because his cohorts at RedState, (whose stated mission is to help Republicans take over the world) will know who they are and will watchdog his posts accordingly. Yeah, you're a real upfront, full disclosure hero Mike.
Don't get me wrong, I got nothing against the guy personally, everyone has right to grind their own political axe or shill for GOP crony capitalists if they want to, but let's not pretend this "disclosure" is an honest attempt to inform the RedState readers of his potential conflict of interest. It simply isn't.
posted by Libby Spencer at 11:48 AM
1 Comments:
Wal-Mart is pathetic. The Waltons are worth $90 BILLION collectively and Wal-Mart earned $285 BILLION last year. Their $17 MILLION dollar donation is less than one-half of one percent of Wal-Marts profit. Not too charitable in my book, especially when you consider the big tax deduction they get to take on that donation.
If the Waltons - and Bush - want to hang out with genuinely charitable people, they should give Bill & Melinda Gates a call. Those are two real philanthropists - not just wanabees.
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