politics

The Birth of the Madison County Shill

December 6, 2004

Add this one to the ever-growing list of deceptive tactics that corporations, interest groups, and government agencies are using to gain the upper hand in the quest to shape public opinion: The Washington Post reports today that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce has created a newspaper, the Madison County [Ill.] Record, that bills itself as a legal journal, and focuses on the unusually large number of class-action lawsuits filed in the county. Nowhere in its pages does the paper disclose that it was created, and is in part owned, by the Chamber.

This latest gambit takes its place alongside time-honored PR classics like creating fake “grassroots” groups to give to corporate-backed causes the illusion of popular support, or producing video news releases touting a product or initiative that are designed to look like genuine news stories (“I’m Karen Ryan, reporting from Washington”) and distributing them to the news media.

The Post has rounded up the usual communications experts to decry this new venture as “deceitful and imbalanced.” Now, granted, CJR is usually first in line when there’s some deceitful and imbalanced journalism to decry. And we’re happy to add our voice to the opinions of the experts quoted by the Post.

But doing so misses the point. When media ethicists complain about breaches of journalistic integrity by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, it’s the equivalent of the city council in Peoria passing a resolution against genocide in Sudan. The rebuke is well-intentioned, but it doesn’t mean much, because the transgressor isn’t playing by the same set of rules as the disapprover. After all, the Chamber of Commerce’s only purpose is to advance its pro-business agenda. Unlike, say, the Washington Post, it has no need to preserve its reputation as a responsible news outlet. (Indeed, its venture into the news media business, as reported by the Post, is predicated on the expectation that it can conceal its involvement from news consumers. If readers knew that the Madison County Record is an organ of the Chamber of Commerce, it would no longer serve its purpose.) Why, then, would the opinions of media ethicists be expected to have any influence on the Chamber of Commerce?

Which begs the question: Is there anything workable that can be done to combat these deceptive, and increasingly sophisticated techniques? Other than working to ensure that this kind of sleight-of-hand is exposed as widely as possible (and here the Post deserves credit), we can’t think of any.

Now, if Congress ever chose to get interested in any of this (and some would argue that it shouldn’t), it could address the particular problem raised by the Madison County Reporter by outlawing any material disguised to resemble a newspaper, while promoting a particular political agenda — unless the project’s funders disclose their own identity clearly at the top of each page.

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But that, of course, would bring up a host of equally thorny issues. Some would argue, for example, that the Washington Post Company routinely seeks to promote a political agenda. Would the Post, then, be subject to such requirements? Where, and how, would the line be drawn between political advocacy by special interests and legitimate news operations with an editorial voice, run by private companies?

Just because this is a long way from Congress’ list of priorities doesn’t mean we shouldn’t start thinking about these issues. As advocacy and PR operations run by corporations, special interest groups, and government agencies become increasingly sophisticated, it’s worth considering just how news organizations and consumers can defend themselves against the tide of deception and misinformation.

–Zachary Roth

Zachary Roth is a contributing editor to The Washington Monthly. He also has written for The Los Angeles Times, The New Republic, Slate, Salon, The Daily Beast, and Talking Points Memo, among other outlets.