Name that PR Firm???
December 8, 2008
by The New Agenda
|6 Comments
Find the PR Firm
Our old friend Larry Summers was in the news this past week. Wow, was he ever!
Notice last week that almost every major newspaper was carrying a glowing article on Larry Summers? From The Washington Post to The Boston Globe to The New York Times and more.
I mean how many more times do we really need to see David Gergen quoted about how terrific his pal from Boston, Larry Summers, really is. As if – Gergen has much credibility left himself after his biased coverage in the 2008 Presidential Election.
Rumor has it that Summers has hired a PR Firm to rehabilitate his image.
Let’s see which one of our viewers can be the best detective and find the name of the PR Firm putting out this crap!
Will there be prizes? – sure!
If they need to rehabilitate him, we’re working.
Let’s keep the pressure up. Send Summers to pasture.
Great idea! While we’re looking for Larry’s PR firm, here are some facts and words to use to respond to each of the ‘glowing’ articles on Larry Summers. (Usually the newspapers have a place to voice your opinions on articles. Also, letters to the editor, etc wouldn’t hurt).
1. (from Sheryl Robinson’s post on The New Agenda): Summers was a main player in financial deregulation, a primary cause of the present economic crisis. Summers sought to silence Brooksley Born, head of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, who correctly foresaw that unregulated derivatives trading could put other financial markets at risk. While Born attempted to draft regulations to address this risk, Summers and his cronies accused her of fostering a financial crisis. Congress, apparently under pressure from Summers et al, suspended Born’s Commissions’ regulatory authority. Born then left her position as head of the Commission. “It was Larry Summers who called her up and screamed at her,” according to Siskind, who notes that the financial meltdown might have been averted if Summers had listened to Born (a woman).??
2. While at the World Bank, Summers signed a memo that declared: “Just between you and me, shouldn’t the World Bank be encouraging MORE migration of the dirty industries to the LDCs [Least Developed Countries]?” The memo noted, “I think the economic logic behind dumping a load of toxic waste in the lowest wage country is impeccable and we should face up to that.”?.
?
3. Andrei Shleifer, a close friend of Summers cost Harvard a $26 million settlement with the U.S. government. A federal court found Shleifer liable for conspiracy to defraud the U.S. Government, after Shleifer violated conflict-of-interest rules by making secret investments in Russia at the same time he was working for a Harvard group contracted by the U.S. Government to advise the Russian government. While Shleifer was being investigated, Summers pushed to have Shleifer promoted to a prominent chair at Harvard.
4. Conflict of interest: Summers is a managing director of the hedge fund D. E. Shaw & Co. Will he try to help his friends by continuing to bail out businesses?
Keep up the pressure!
P.S. Ignore the ?-marks in the post above. Not sure why they showed up.
[...] now haven’t we. Remember Larry Summers suddenly getting all sort of adulating press (e.g. hiring a PR firm to repair his [...]
[...] We’ve seen this kind of rehabilitation before. We saw it with Summers and Favreau, when articles that showed them a favorable light, especially articles by women began to emerge from various media [...]
[...] a trick. We’ve seen this kind of rehabilitation before. We saw it with Summers and Favreau, when articles that showed them a favorable light, especially articles by women began to emerge from various media [...]
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