Genentech admits providing Congressional Representatives with speech material

The politicians and big corporations are manufacturing the news for our consumption. The New York Times reports that Swiss drug manufacturer Genetech used lobbyists to provide speaking points for both Republican and Democrat politicians. Their speeches both for and against health care reform sound eerily alike.

A well used phrase in text provided by Genentech suggests foreign drug companies are good employers in the US.

“One of the reasons I have long supported the U.S. biotechnology industry is that it is a homegrown success story that has been an engine of job creation in this country.”

That phrase was used, in whole or part, by Representatives Blaine Luetkemeyer (R), Joe Wilson (R), Phil Hare (D), Robert A. Brady (D), Yvette D Clark (D), Donald M Payne (D), K. Michael Conaway (R), Lynn Jenkins (R) and Lee Terry (R). 22 Republicans and 20 Democrats got help from Genentech’s lobbyist in writing their speeches, according to the NY Times.

In some cases the words were used verbatim. Other representatives added folksy touches.

Statements by more than a dozen lawmakers were ghostwritten, in whole or in part, by Washington lobbyists working for Genentech, one of the world’s largest biotechnology companies.

E-mail messages obtained by The New York Times show that the lobbyists drafted one statement for Democrats and another for Republicans.

The lobbyists, employed by Genentech and by two Washington law firms, were remarkably successful in getting the statements printed in the Congressional Record under the names of different members of Congress. NY Times

Big companies control the news and political agenda.

Politicians control the media. The White House routinely freezes out reporters who don’t follow the scripted version of the news. In Journalism – The Myth is Busted, Rob Patterson reported how the White House was able to control the press and get it’s stories on the front page of the news.

My own experience with the PEI press gallery illustrates perfectly that the PEI news media lets itself be controlled by the government. One day I was elected Secretary of the Press Gallery. The next day the clerk and the Speaker of the Legislature told the president of the press gallery to have me ousted. PEI press gallery hold kangaroo court to oust rebel blogger

There is no doubt the PEI media had their own petty little reasons to attempt to punish me. However, it is clear from CBC reporter Brendon Elliot, a press gallery VP, and the emails between Wayne Thibodeau, press gallery president, the orders came from the Speakers Office.

A rumour was passed along this weekend that one Guardian reporter who covers the PNP scandal has been promised a job in the Premier’s office when the government changes.

It is an incestuous three-some – business, politicians and the media. Of course, the media will tell you free-lance journalists who blog are evil because we don’t play the game.