Secretive D.C. firm says corn growers' anti-Google letter is legit
A secretive Washington, D.C., group linked to an anti-Google letter signed by corn farmers says cable providers, which have retained it as a client, have nothing to do with its attempts to convince Congress to hold hearings critical of the search company.
Guillermo Meneses, previously a press secretary for the Democratic National Committee, is now a senior vice president at the LawMedia Group. He said that he was "unaware" of any communications between the American Corn Growers Association--which has no history of being interested in the antitrust implications of online advertising--and the National Cable and Telecommunications Association.
We reported on Wednesday that the anti-Google letter to Congress, signed by a number of farmers' groups who insisted they were the only ones to write it, included the name of a LMG staffer in the PDF metadata. Meneses said that the staffer, Alexandra Esser, "merely PDF'd a copy before distributing it."
Meneses, who refused to disclose the identities of other LMG clients, added that: "LMG is a public relations firm, not a lobbying firm. I want to make that very clear...We're simply a public relations firm like any other PR firm that you've dealt with in the past."
An advertisement for LMG on Democrats.org lists Meneses by name and shows "grassroots lobbying" as a service that both he and the firm provide. The ad lists "government relations" as another LMG specialty. An old version of LMG's Web site saved by Archive.org--the current site is password-protected--boasts of being able to come up with "robust coalitions" to influence "lawmakers."
LMG filed disclosure forms with the U.S. Senate for outsourced lobbying work in 2008. A Washington Post article from 2005 talking about LMG said it was "expected to stop lobbying for non-Bell companies" after the AT&T-SBC merger.
When asked about LMG's advertisement offering to provide "lobbying" services, and how to square it with his claim that LMG does not do lobbying, Meneses said he was not able to answer the question on the record.
Disclosure: Declan McCullagh is married to a Google employee.
Declan McCullagh, CNET News' chief political correspondent, chronicles the intersection of politics and technology. He has covered politics, technology, and Washington, D.C., for more than a decade, which has turned him into an iconoclast and a skeptic of anyone who says, "We oughta have a new federal law against this." E-mail Declan. 
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- by adamdc June 13, 2008 9:07 AM PDT
- The democrats' database appears to be a free service (not advertising) intended to provide community contacts and listings of services, all while helping increase diversity in these fields (see the title). Sure a bunch of groups are listed under "grassroots lobbying," but they also are under the media relations listings. That certainly doesn't mean those groups provide direct lobbying, which itself can be a powerful service, though different and separate. A call to the DNC to ask about the listing and how they chose terms would have added to your blog post.
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(5 Comments)Google these terms and you'll find the distinctions. Sure some groups, which I found by Googling or Yahooing, want to change the law and restrict the grassroots stuff and essentially change the definitions, but shouldn't you provide the context of your criticism? Including the fact that lots of national groups, big or small, do grassroots, every day. PTA says: "Grassroots lobbying is appealing to the general public to contact the legislature about an issue."