Wolffe at the Door

Salon blogger Glenn Greenwald sullies the reputation of Newsweek reporter and frequent NBC commentator, Richard Wolffe, pointing out that he's a stratgist in his night job at Public Strategies Inc., putting the man's stylish Euro-vampire charms into darker context.

I'll huff... and I'll puff.

(HuffPo)

"Wolffe's role in life is to advance the P.R. interests of the corporations that pay him, including corporations with substantial interests in virtually every political issue that MSNBC and Countdown cover.

"This is a conflict so severe that it's incurable by disclosure: who wouldn't realize that you can't present paid corporate hacks as objective political commentators? But the fact that they don't even bother to disclose that just serves to illustrate how non-existent is the line between corporate interests and 'news reporting' in the United States."

— Glenn Greenwald, Salon blogger

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I've always liked Wolffe and was glad to see him show up on TV. I would read anything that had his name on it, but lately he has sounded a little slick, less journalistic, more sensationalistic, and it was somewhat troubling to be losing touch with his presumably trust-worthy political insight on the basis of style.

"NBC News has admitted an error in failing to disclose Wolffe's ties, telling Politico, 'We should have disclosed Richard's connection to Public Strategies. We will do so in the future.' The spokesman added, 'Richard has assured us that he does not offer commentary about any of his clients or their interests.'

"Richard Wolffe himself is not registered to lobby, so there are no records of which accounts he works for the firm."

This more serious revelation is disappointing, on the one hand, but it's heartening to see such cannibalistic housecleaning on the (somewhat) progressive political opinion scene. Heaping kudos to Glenn Greenwald and Salon.

Public Strategies Inc. in their own words:

"Much of our practice involves orchestrating high-stakes corporate campaigns and responding to crises. We also help forward-thinking companies to assess public opinion and risk, leading to strategies for influencing how they are perceived and systems for managing uncertainty. And clients often seek our help in building their own organizational capabilities or in managing entire functions such as government relations or employee communications on a day-to-day basis."

One wonders how they'll handle this brouhahah, but they're pretty proud about their part in current debacles, often as the cleaning team:

http://www.pstrategies.com/case_industry_coalition.php

http://www.pstrategies.com/case_prod_liability.php

Most notably: http://www.pstrategies.com/case_media_intelligence.php

Even in their own words, it's disconcerting.

Something from the Suits:

"Public strategies came through for us in total and in a hurry. They came into a powerful charged situation and masterfully helped us rein in. I'd call them again in a crisis, absolutely"

— Saul Solomon, General Counsel, Bridgestone/Firestone

For a major tire manufacturer, undergoing the largest tire recall in U.S. history, also facing possible punitive legislation and constricting regulations comes away that happy, their new-found lobbyist has GOT to be good.

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