Editorial Board
Now, ill-considered letter-of-the-law logic has led the panel into extending the definition of lobbying to include communication between paid representatives of interest groups and the media.
The draft of its rule would have covered “a public relations consultant who contacts a reporter or editorial board in an attempt to get the media outlet to advance the client’s message.”
This happens, oh, thousands of times a week at media organizations across the state as PR representatives offer reporters and editors information helpful to their clients. Those reporters and editors determine if the information is in any way useful.
So clear was the looniness of categorizing those interchanges as government lobbying that the commission trimmed its rule to include only discussions aimed at producing editorials.
Clearly, panel members have no clue.
