Google severs ties with ALEC
Wednesday, Sep 24, 2014 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Google is just the latest in a string of companies that is moving away from the conservative American Legislative Exchange Council…
The decision marks a major victory for a campaign by environmentalists, union activists and other liberal groups that have pushed companies to drop support for ALEC. Microsoft ended its ties to the group a few weeks ago.
“The consensus within the company was that that was some sort of mistake,” Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt said, referring to the initial decision to support ALEC.
“Everyone understands climate change is occurring, and the people who oppose it are really hurting our children and our grandchildren and making the world a much worse place,” Schmidt said in an interview with National Public Radio’s Diane Rehm. “And so we should not be aligned with such people — they’re just, they’re just literally lying.”
* ALEC’s response…
“It is unfortunate to learn Google has ended its membership in the American Legislative Exchange Council as a result of public pressure from left-leaning individuals and organizations who intentionally confuse free market policy perspectives for climate change denial,” said ALEC chief executive Lisa Nelson. “ALEC believes in freedom of speech and opinion. Google is an important voice on these and many other issues, and we will miss their perspective in our discussions.”
* Some context…
Google isn’t the first to succumb to such public pressure. Microsoft (MSFT) confirmed last month that it had left ALEC, and the progressive group Common Cause says corporations including Coca-Cola (KO), Bank of America (BAC), and General Motors (GM) have done the same. The Center for Media and Democracy, a foundation-funded progressive nonprofit, says at least 80 corporations have publicly dropped their ALEC affiliations since 2011, when it launched its ALEC Exposed website to track the group’s activities and the name-brand companies that help fund them. Common Cause and CMD were among 55 organizations, mostly labor and liberal groups, that sent a letter to Google earlier this month urging it to dump ALEC.
The success of the push against ALEC illustrates the effectiveness of going after what in labor circles are known as “secondary” targets: people or organizations that provide funding, support, or some kind of cover for an activist group’s primary opponent. Since those secondary targets have their own interests and reputations to protect, it’s often easier to cajole them into cutting ties than it is to get your primary target to change its ways. Peel off enough of the groups that bring their backing or their business to an organization, and you can cause it serious headaches. Unions made such effective use of “secondary boycotts” that Congress, in the 1947 Taft-Hartley Act, restricted their ability to use them.
Discuss.
…Adding… Facebook is leaving, too…
Facebook is set to become the latest tech company to end its support for a controversial rightwing lobby group that works against climate change legislation. […]
Facebook said: “We reevaluate our memberships on an annual basis, and are in that process now. While we have tried to work within ALEC to bring that organization closer to our view on some key issues, it seems unlikely that we will make sufficient progress so we are not likely to renew our membership in 2015.”
- Yellow Dog Democrat - Wednesday, Sep 24, 14 @ 9:40 am:
Tom Cross and Bruce Rauner both have ALEC ties, right?
Rut-roh.
- Anon - Wednesday, Sep 24, 14 @ 9:45 am:
I know at very least Cross does…crazies have no business in our state’s elected offices
YDY, I didn’t know Rauner did too. Where did you see that.
- LittleLebowskiUrbanAchiever - Wednesday, Sep 24, 14 @ 9:51 am:
Why were they members in the first place? What did they hope ALEC would achieve for them? Weird.
- 47th Ward - Wednesday, Sep 24, 14 @ 9:52 am:
If you like the Illinois “Policy” Institute, you’ll love ALEC. They go together hand and glove.
- OneMan - Wednesday, Sep 24, 14 @ 9:56 am:
Generally less government regulation, unless your firm profits from it most of them do not want additional regulation.
- wordslinger - Wednesday, Sep 24, 14 @ 10:02 am:
Why would consumer brands associate with hyper-partisans?
When some tried to get Michael Jordan to step up politically, he said: “Republicans buy sneakers, too.”
- VanillaMan - Wednesday, Sep 24, 14 @ 10:27 am:
We continue to see free speech shut down by people whose heritage was defending it - and this is a concern.
It is as though we are living in Puritan Massachusetts, Victorian England, or during the Red Scare.
This is what you are to believe, or we shut you down. It is insanity.
- Anon - Wednesday, Sep 24, 14 @ 10:30 am:
VM
That’s like the most overreaction to this I could have imagined. Are you kidding me?
- Reality Check - Wednesday, Sep 24, 14 @ 10:35 am:
@VanillaMan’s view seems to be ‘free speech for me but not for thee.’ ALEC’s opponents are speaking freely, as are its supporters, and these companies on balance are deciding to drop their support. In a democracy, isn’t that how it’s supposed to work?
- Anon - Wednesday, Sep 24, 14 @ 10:38 am:
Right RC, companies and citizens have the right to blast whoever they want. If you call that limiting free speech you clearly don’t understand what free speech means.
No offense VC, I’m sure you’re an intelligent person, but come on
- wordslinger - Wednesday, Sep 24, 14 @ 10:40 am:
VMan it’s Wednesday morning, not Saturday night. Pace yourself.
How’s this a free speech issue?
- Buford T. Justice - Wednesday, Sep 24, 14 @ 10:46 am:
Climate change is a natural part of life. Taxing AKA: Buying carbon credits is just another form of taxation. I am so sick of LIBERALS!!!!!!!
- Jorge - Wednesday, Sep 24, 14 @ 10:50 am:
Buford, I’m sick of ring wing nutters spewing nonsense and ignoring the scientific method and empiricism that overwhelmingly supports reality which you are intellectually incapable of understanding.
- Roadiepig - Wednesday, Sep 24, 14 @ 10:50 am:
I don’t remember seeing a full moon last night but with some of these post…
- walker - Wednesday, Sep 24, 14 @ 10:51 am:
VMan: I’m afraid you are off the rails with this one. It’s not even remotely about constraining free speech.
ALEC was initially sold and bought as a pro-business group. It evolved into a group that advocated and wrote legislation for state legislators on all the right-wing political causes of the day. Large corporations are no longer well served by its scattergun approach. Google was not the first large company to show concern and leave. They wanted a “Chamber” they got an “Americans for Prosperity.”
It’s not a “free speech shut down.” It is companies sticking with their own corporate missions, when an affiliated group wandered far afield. Google isn’t saying “we shut you down for your beliefs,” but rather “we are no longer sending you money because you no longer effectively represent our company.”
Standard fare for lobbyists.
- vise77 - Wednesday, Sep 24, 14 @ 10:52 am:
VM: Uh, no, I don’t think you quite understand what free speech is (though I suspect you do know this). Decent swing, though: Next time, perhaps, aim for a single, not a home run.
- vise77 - Wednesday, Sep 24, 14 @ 10:53 am:
Anyway, good for Google and the rest. ALEC’s ideas re: climate change-among other issues–are, to put it as kindly as a can, grossly misinformed.
- Corbee Swanson - Wednesday, Sep 24, 14 @ 10:56 am:
Eric Schmidt ought to use his own Google.
Global temps have flatlined for 17 years. There is no global warming and the “scientists” can’t explain it.
Left-wing is just trying to silence critics. Typical.
- MrJM - Wednesday, Sep 24, 14 @ 10:59 am:
If the First Amendment doesn’t guarantee the right of a political organization to be funded by various multinational corporations, what good is it?
–MrJM
- 47th Ward - Wednesday, Sep 24, 14 @ 11:03 am:
===Left-wing is just trying to silence critics.===
We’re not doing a very good job apparently. Another Luddite heard from.
- vise77 - Wednesday, Sep 24, 14 @ 11:11 am:
“Global temps have flatlined for 17 years. There is no global warming and the “scientists” can’t explain it.”
Whatever makes reactionaries sleep better at night, I suppose.
- Anon - Wednesday, Sep 24, 14 @ 11:12 am:
==Corbee Swanson==
Just have to disagree with you there
https://www2.ucar.edu/climate/faq/how-much-has-global-temperature-risen-last-100-years
I mean, its been clear for a while that the global temperature is rising. That’s not even really up for debate in scientific circles. For the life of me I don’t understand why this is a partisan issue.
- MrJM - Wednesday, Sep 24, 14 @ 11:21 am:
“Eric Schmidt ought to use his own Google.”
Great call! Eric Schmidt can use Google to prove that them sneaky leftist scientists are wrong about so very many things, e.g. http://lmgtfy.com/?q=%22proof+that+the+earth+is+flat%22
– MrJM
- JS Mill - Wednesday, Sep 24, 14 @ 11:22 am:
@Corbee- maybe temps have stabilized because light is reflecting back into space from your tinfoil hat?
- Dazed and Not Confused - Wednesday, Sep 24, 14 @ 11:23 am:
“Global temps have flatlined.” What does that mean? We have had the two hottest summers on record the last two years. The polar ice caps and Greenland glaciers are melting at an astounding rate (watch the videos if you don’t believe it). Every time it rains in Miami now the streets flood because the ocean levels are up over 1.5 inches in the last ten years. We have the worst droughts on record in California and the south west. Even the Middle East is in the midst of a drought and famine (underlying causes of Arab Spring?) and temperatures have “flatlined”? What color is the sky in your world?
- Roadiepig - Wednesday, Sep 24, 14 @ 11:24 am:
If “supporting” ALEC includes corporate money, and said companies decide to no longer support ALEC with their money , isn’t that the right of that company to exercise THEIR free speech? And it’s not just left wingers who try to get fibers to stop supporting those they don’t agree with. That is also free speech.
- dupage dan - Wednesday, Sep 24, 14 @ 11:41 am:
Uh, actually, the polar ice caps are increasing in size, not decreasing. 2 hot summers? Doesn’t that constitute weather, not climate. Even the UN has had to accept that global temps have not increased in nearly 2 decades. In fact, climate change believers are scrambling to explain it. Why would they try to explain flat temps if the temps haven’t been flat? We are being told the North Pacific Ocean is absorbing the heat. While that is fine and good, why didn’t the vaunted climate models predict this would happen? Because the climate still isn’t well understood - the variables are too complex to account for.
The “science” is not settled. Science is rarely “settled”. Especially complex science.
- Aaron Burr - Wednesday, Sep 24, 14 @ 11:53 am:
For all those opposing taking action against climate change:
http://www.gocomics.com/joelpett/2009/12/13/
- IllinoisO'Malley - Wednesday, Sep 24, 14 @ 12:00 pm:
@DuPageDan, dude - you’re really using only 2 years of data for your anti-climate change armchair quarterback theory??? In response, look at the pictures of Glacier National Park over 80 years…yeah, climate change isn’t happening Professor.
http://nrmsc.usgs.gov/repeatphoto/overview.htm
- Rich Miller - Wednesday, Sep 24, 14 @ 12:05 pm:
The sometimes spurious back and forth on climate change is boring me to death. Move along.
- D.P.Gumby - Wednesday, Sep 24, 14 @ 12:24 pm:
ALEC was either a great con job from the beginning or became one as the right took it over. Like the astroturf of the tea party, the truth is coming into view.
- yo - Wednesday, Sep 24, 14 @ 12:33 pm:
The criticism of ALEC hasn’t scared of AT&T, they even sit on the “Private Enterprise Advisory Council” of ALEC. http://www.alec.org/about-alec/private-enterprise-advisory-council/
Google stated they were leaving over climate change, and Facebook because of differing views on “key issues” —I wonder how much AT&T’s stance on net neutrality had to do with their decision
- Demoralized - Wednesday, Sep 24, 14 @ 12:34 pm:
==We continue to see free speech shut down ==
That’s just dopey VMan. Nobody’s free speech is being shut down. Google exercised its right of free association by telling ALEC to go fly a kite.
Enough with the victim mentality.
- Judgment Day - Wednesday, Sep 24, 14 @ 12:35 pm:
Don’t care about climate change. Climate changes all the time. Until the Chinese (PRC) and the developing BRIC’s are all on board, it’s just a complete waste of time.
What I find interesting is that any number of those tech companies are easy to fold on climate change, but when it comes down to the really big issue - which is privacy - which is an issue that really affects all of us TODAY…..
All these companies are nowhere to be found.
Why? Because they are benefiting from acquiring and marketing our personal information. And they are using all this other stuff like climate change (which is an issue that is going nowhere) to divert us from the real issues. Which is our privacy.
Focus on what is important.
- vise77 - Wednesday, Sep 24, 14 @ 12:40 pm:
“Uh, actually, the polar ice caps are increasing in size, not decreasing.”
Uh, no. That’s been debunked. I would include the link but I doubt you would believe it in any case, so who cares?
- anon - Wednesday, Sep 24, 14 @ 12:45 pm:
I think its incredibly dumb when companies pull out of organizations like ALEC, as it makes it harder for them to get into offices that support ALEC.
As for the freedom of speech issue. I don’t think this is one, but there are examples of boycotts being used to silence people, ala the Mozilla CEO or that whole #gamergate thing that’s going on in the video game world.
- Going nuclear - Wednesday, Sep 24, 14 @ 12:48 pm:
It’s pretty simple. Google and other corporations are starting to figure out that climate change will be bad for business. They also recognize that if we don’t start dealing with the problem soon, there is going to be a need for some heavy-duty government intervention to both mitigate and respond to more extreme weather events caused or exacerbated by global warming.
I get it that most ALEC members don’t want the EPA jackbooters regulating carbon dioxide gases from power plants and other sources. How about working on a free-market solution to reduce emissions like a carbon fee, emissions cap and trade or low-carbon fuel standard with certificates trading? Heck, cap and trade worked pretty well for reducing the pollutants that contributed to acid rain, and was supported by most GOP congressmen at the time.
- Grandson of Man - Wednesday, Sep 24, 14 @ 12:56 pm:
I’m glad. I changed my shopping preferences to some degree to avoid corporations that support weakening unions, pushing the tax burden onto the poor and middle class, etc.
I can’t and necessarily won’t avoid all corporations with whom I disagree politically, but I absolutely avoid certain products sold by a particular pair of anti-union brothers, and I won’t eat at a particular anti-gay fast food chain. I also won’t shop at a grocery chain whose CEO compared Obamacare to fascism.
- Grandfather - Wednesday, Sep 24, 14 @ 3:58 pm:
Which products do you avoid? I would venture to bet that you support them one way or another…
- Senator Clay Davis - Wednesday, Sep 24, 14 @ 9:26 pm:
It’s a good thing you’re tired of the same old debate about climate change, Rich.
In Illinois, the debate ain’t gonna be whether climate change exists, it’s gonna be about how much ratepayers should bail out Exelon:
Crain’s: Exelon puts an opening price tag on nuclear rescue: $580 million
fw.to/kKM5qoQ