TPMMuckraker Consumers for Competitive Choice
Stop Too Big To Fail
Shady Anti-Financial Reform Outfit Cites Robert Reich In New Ad (VIDEO)
Justin Elliott | April 27, 2010, 12:50PM
A screen shot from a Stop Too Big To Fail ad featuring former Labor Secretary Robert Reich
The shady anti-financial reform group Stop Too Big To Fail today announced a new TV advertising push in three key states that features an out-of-context quote from former Labor Secretary Robert Reich to bolster its case to kill financial reform.
As TPMmuckraker has reported, Stop Too Big To Fail is the project of a veteran astroturf operation called Consumers for Competitive Choice, and it's using the services of an ad agency that worked with the Swift Boat Vets For Truth in 2004. It has already spent $1.6 million on anti-reform ads and won't say who's funding the group's efforts.
Stop Too Big To Fail previously featured progressive economist Simon Johnson on one of its media conference calls before he realized the goals of the outfit and demanded it stop using his name. Now, Stop Too Big To Fail has turned to using Reich to add credibility to a message designed to sound progressive, while in fact advocating to kill the financial reform legislation.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS (4) | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (2)Topics: Consumers for Competitive Choice, Financial Reform, Mitch McConnell, Robert Reich, Simon Johnson, Stop Too Big To Fail, Wall Street
Stop Too Big To Fail
Rent-A-Front: New Group Wages Stealth Battle Against Wall Street Reform
Justin Elliott | April 21, 2010, 2:50PM
Consumers for Competitive Choice President Bob Johnson (inset)
In the last few weeks, a new player entered the financial reform fray with a $1.6 million ad buy, a respected economist on board, a blitz of opinion columns on left-leaning websites, and a message, cooked right into the group's name -- Stop Too Big To Fail -- that liberals could love.
But as TPMmuckraker has looked into the group, every indication is that Stop Too Big To Fail is an astroturf operation funded by corporate interests to give the appearance of grassroots opposition to reform.
The group's leader has a long history running a rent-a-front operation: offering up his services to large corporations who are willing to pay top dollar for a "consumers group" that will engage in stealth advocacy on behalf of industry. The group refuses to divulge its funding sources. The respected economist whose support the group touts now says he was deceived. And Stop Too Big To Fail has links to DCI Group, one of Washington's best-known astroturf operators.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS (21) | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (13)Topics: Astroturf, California Small Business Association, Claire McCaskill, Consumers Voice, Consumers for Cable Choice, Consumers for Competitive Choice, DCI Group, Harry Reid, Jim Conran, League of United Latin American Citizens, Mark Warner, Robert K. Johnson, Sam Zamarripa, Simon Johnson, Stop Too Big To Fail
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