For Only $850,000, These Lobbyists Will Take Down Occupy Wall Street
[There was a video here]
Worried about Occupy Wall Street's effect on your bottom line? Why not hire lobbying firm CLGC to conduct "opposition research [and] targeted social media monitoring" to "construct fact-based negative narratives" about the movement? That's right—for only $850,000 you can hire some guys to follow a couple Twitter accounts and write some chain emails!
Here's the leaked memo, obtained by MSNBC's Up with Chris Hayes, which outlines a hilariously stupid plan to undermine Occupy Wall Street using "opposition research" (read: searching Facebook for "Occupy Wall Street"), "targeted social media monitoring" (read: searching Facebook for "Occupy Wall Street"), "coalition planning" (read: searching Facebook for "I Hate Occupy Wall Street") and "advertising creative and placement strategies" (read: buying ads for "Occupy Wall Street" Facebook searches). How stupid is this memo? So stupid that not even the American Bankers Association, the target of the pitch, signed on.
And guess who wrote it?
Two of the memo's authors, partners Sam Geduldig and Jay Cranford, previously worked for House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio. Geduldig joined CLGC before Boehner became speaker; Cranford joined CLGC this year after serving as the speaker's assistant for policy. A third partner, Steve Clark, is reportedly "tight" with Boehner, according to a story by Roll Call that CLGC features on its website.
The brain trust at CLGC is convinced that if they do enough research they can find George Soros somewhere, and demonstrate that Occupy Wall Street has "the same cynical motivation as a political opponent." Because it's just impossible that people might gather organically to protest rising income inequality and corporate greed! There must be some top-down corporate sponsorship somewhere, right? Right?? (Possibly ACORN? The Black Panthers?)