In a recent report The politics’ of health care on WCAX (aka Vermont’s most trusted news source) three people were quoted; a pro,a con and a “political analyst”.
The pro and con, no problem .One a member of the pro single payer Health Care is a Human Right group and the con , executive director and chief fund-raiser of Vermonter’s for Health Care Freedom. The pro, the con, no problem were clearly identified.
Ah, but the third person the “political analyst” Chris Graff who dispensed this wisdom:
"It's in the specifics; the old devil is in the details. You will see lobbying become more intense,”
Indeed the lobbying may be underway even as he speaks.
Isn’t it long past over due, after five years as National Life’s Vice President of Corporate Communications & Government Relations Chris Graff comes out from behind the neutral moniker “political analyst” ? Especially when quoted in a story about Vermont’s biggest proposed health care /insurance regulation changes ever.
This kind of thing just burns my toast!
Not having seen the program, I wonder if Graff said anything untoward or biased in favor of his corporate paycheck signers.
Clearly there’s a conflict between his appearing as a presumably “impartial” “analyst,” without identifying his source of income and his job responsibilities. And any journalist worthy of the name would recognize that and at the very least provide full disclosure about ALL of the panelists.
So, BP, did Graff keep his (corporate) hat on?
NanuqFC
Healthy citizens are the greatest asset any country can have. ~ Winston Churchill
In a Time of Universal Deceit, TELLING the TRUTH Is a Revolutionary Act. ~ George Orwell
… I’ve noticed a whole lot of this in all walks of life: if you’ve been around, if you’ve got seniority, if people know you, then you can pretty much get away with murder. Not literally, of course, but you know what I mean: everybody knows Chris Graff. Chris Graff’s a good guy. So he is accepted as an “objective pundit” even when there are clear and obvious conflicts of interest.
Yes, there are other factors at work: the lack of boundaries between politics, punditry, and PR; the center-right tilt of most media; and the dearth of credible political analysts in the state. (I mean, how often can you call Eric Davis, anyway?) But this effective granting of tenure is something unique to Vermont, and quietly insidious in a number of ways. The light-bulb joke about this:
How many Vermonters does it take to change a light bulb?
“Change it? That was my grandfather’s light bulb!”
Chris Graff is your grandfather’s political analyst.
back & forth as commentator on issues all this time. I only realized he was a paid lobbyist w/in the couple of years or so, how many still don’t know?
When he comments, he is still called ‘veteran news commentator, analyst, formerly, blah, blah, blah’, not making it clear he is a lobbyist & not a journalist. Is this deliberate? Or, saying it in such an understated way it can be easily missed. Either way, shame on them all for using him as a former newsperson & not clearly id-ing him as a lobbyist & allowing viewer/reader to make up their mind as to his credibility.
Look @ the way WCAX fuzzied the IBM brouhaha & BFP’s starkly different analysis.
http://www.chrisgraff.com/revi…
Douglas regime notable for using entire staff as personal PR team, safely under the cover of VT legacy media. I see his college credentials served him well in his knowledge of the workings of the press. VT press as well as Graff has been very friendly to Douglas. The most critical was the Brattleboro Reformer which actually reported the details concerning Douglas staff, a cost of nearly half a million per year to taxpayers.
In hindsight, it’s clear Douglas had not a care in the world about VT media blowing his scam.
In the past I, like many (most?) Vermonter’s have suffered from the dilution that the Statehouse in Montpelier is just a little bit cleaner, a little bit more honest, than the politics that we see play out in Washington- with their lobbyists and everything is done for a deal and with a wink and there’s money to be made somewhere for everyone and backs getting scratched and Eddie Murphy saying “what have you done for me lately?!@?!?”.
The truth is that the lobbyists control Montpelier– as much, at least, as in any other capital including DC. Every single Bill that passes or dies in Montpelier does so with the express will of the most influential, well-conected, highest paid lobbyist’s interests at heart. And I hate to burst some bubbles (as mine was): It’s systematic and wide-spread, and nearly universal.
The above quote is highlighted merely because “more intense”- while maybe true, maybe there are bigger guns that are about to get pulled out- but the fact is that the forces against universal health care have been at the statehouse lobbying long since the idea was even a glimmer in some lawmaker’s eye.
The statehouse is a horrifically toxic environment, more or less bought and paid for by KSE, and to imagine that only now the lobbyists are coming out is a kind of ignorance that we cannot afford.