The Lobbyist in the Gray Flannel Suit
By THOMAS B. EDSALL, NYT
As the American political classes become more polarized, with faction pitted against faction, there is a consolidating force at work in the $6 billion-a-year influence-peddling industry.
Once a free-wheeling, if ethically challenged, crowd of men (and almost no women), who swapped stories about their clients over Jack Daniels, these expert manipulators of the legislative process and of public opinion have become corporate employees. Slowly but surely, WPP, an immense international holding company based in London — with a workforce of 158,000 in 107 countries and 2011 billings of $72.3 billion — has been buying up Washington’s top lobbying, public relations, advertising and political strategy firms.
WPP has become, in effect, a special interest mega-firm, with offerings for conservatives and liberals, environmentalists and polluters, gun lovers and gun haters, Tea Party die-hards and public sector unions, old guard media and their high tech competitors – the entire gamut from left to right, top to bottom.
Companies once viewed by those in politics as independent powerhouses — QGA (formerly Quinn Gillespie), Glover Park, Hill+Knowlton, Burson-Marsteller, Public Strategies, Prime Policy Group, Dewey Square, Ogilvy Government Relations, Wexler & Walker – are now minor players in a marketing-communications conglomerate.
(More here.)
As the American political classes become more polarized, with faction pitted against faction, there is a consolidating force at work in the $6 billion-a-year influence-peddling industry.
Once a free-wheeling, if ethically challenged, crowd of men (and almost no women), who swapped stories about their clients over Jack Daniels, these expert manipulators of the legislative process and of public opinion have become corporate employees. Slowly but surely, WPP, an immense international holding company based in London — with a workforce of 158,000 in 107 countries and 2011 billings of $72.3 billion — has been buying up Washington’s top lobbying, public relations, advertising and political strategy firms.
WPP has become, in effect, a special interest mega-firm, with offerings for conservatives and liberals, environmentalists and polluters, gun lovers and gun haters, Tea Party die-hards and public sector unions, old guard media and their high tech competitors – the entire gamut from left to right, top to bottom.
Companies once viewed by those in politics as independent powerhouses — QGA (formerly Quinn Gillespie), Glover Park, Hill+Knowlton, Burson-Marsteller, Public Strategies, Prime Policy Group, Dewey Square, Ogilvy Government Relations, Wexler & Walker – are now minor players in a marketing-communications conglomerate.
(More here.)
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