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Episode 202: Ideological Shaping of the Possible (Part I) - Democrats and the Black Box Corporate Consulting Industry

Added 2024-05-29 13:47:39 +0000 UTC

“David Plouffe's advice for 2020,” Axios shared in 2019. “James Carville: 'Stupid wokeness' is a national problem for Democrats,” CNN reported in 2021. “Robert Gibbs, former White House Press Secretary under President Obama, discusses the debt ceiling deal and the latest job numbers,” MSNBC announced in 2023.

On a regular basis, news media clue us into the latest prescriptions from so-called Democratic strategists: people who’ve served as advisers, cabinet members, or other high-ranking positions within Democratic presidential administrations, who’ve also gone on to make millions from corporate consultancy and PR. Whether Larry Summers, David Plouffe, or some other cable-news fixture, these figures are consistently trotted out to give a quasi-liberal, professional face to plain old pro-war, anti-Left austerity politics.

It’s an obvious conflict of interest. If a presidential alum joins the board or C-suite of Uber or McDonald’s, for example, they shouldn’t be given the authority to weigh in on regulations or labor policy, especially on media platforms that claim to be somewhat left-leaning. If they work for a military contractor-funded “Strategic consultant” firm or, as is sometimes the case, directly for a weapons maker, they shouldn’t be offering talking head opinions on issues of war.

But, within US media and politics, there’s a bipartisan, unwritten rule not to acknowledge this, let alone condemn it. There’s a taboo against acknowledging this widespread revolving door politics between the private sector, Gulf dictatorships, black box corporate consultancy firms and high institutions of government.

Instead, it’s simply accepted that every White House, State Department or Senate job is an audition for a cushy board membership at Amazon, McDonalds, Raytheon, or a shady “consultancy” firm.

On today’s episode, we’ll discuss the blurring of lines between Democratic and Republican politics and corporate PR, examining the revolving door between high status government jobs and the consultancy blob, as well as how cable and print news outlets give PR flacks a platform through which to treat horrible policies as just another product to sell.

Our guest is the Revolving Door Project's Jeff Hauser, founder and Executive Director of the Revolving Door Project.

Guest

Jeff Hauser (@jeffhauser) is founder and Executive Director of the Revolving Door Project. He is regularly cited by a broad array of media outlets, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The American Prospect, Associated Press, Bloomberg, Politico, Washington Post, HuffPost, and The Intercept.

Before founding Revolving Door Project in 2015, Hauser spent more than three years leading the AFL-CIO’s political media, economic policy outreach, and labor communications for their immigration reform campaign.

Show Notes

From the War Room to Wall Street

Christy Thornton | November 11, 2023 | Jacobin

The revolving door between Microsoft and the Biden administration

Daniel Lippman and Caitlin Oprysko | July 5, 2023 | Politico

Obama’s Campaign Manager Is Now Coaching TikTok’s CEO

Nikki McCann Ramirez | March 30, 2023 | Rolling Stone

Jen Psaki Is the Latest White House Press Secretary to Cash In

Julia Rock | May 13, 2022 | Jacobin

Amazon’s Union-Buster Consultants Are Also Consultants for Major Labor Unions

Julia Rock, Walker Bragman, Andrew Perez | April 13, 2022 | Jacobin

Amazon hired an influential Democratic pollster to fight Staten Island union drive

Annie Palmer | March 31, 2022 | CNBC

Why Has the Biden Administration Hired 28 People With Ties to Saudi Arabia and the UAE?

Sarah Lazare | March 14, 2022 | The American Prospect

Meet the Consulting Firm That’s Staffing the Biden Administration

Jonathan Guyer and Ryan Grim | July 6, 2021 | The Intercept

Biden Must Close the Revolving Door Between BigLaw and Government

Miranda Litwack and Molly Coleman | January 13, 2021 | The American Prospect

Biden's Foreign Policy Picks Are From the Hawkish National Security Blob. That Is a Bad Sign.

Sarah Lazare | November 23, 2020 | In These Times

Capitol Hill’s revolving door, in one chart

Ella Nilsen | June 19, 2019 | Vox

How Obama failed to shut Washington’s revolving door

Josh Gerstein | December 31, 2015 | Politico

Robert Gibbs took a job at McDonald’s. Here are the other Obama officials who cashed out.

Tez Clark and Joss Fong | June 11, 2015 | Vox

By Hiring Robert Gibbs, McDonald's Plays Politics

Madeline Berg | June 10, 2015 | Forbes

Jay Carney joins Amazon

Dylan Byers | February 26, 2015 | Politico

Uber Picks David Plouffe to Wage Regulatory Fight

Mike Isaac | August 19, 2014 | The New York Times

Study shows revolving door of employment between Congress, lobbying firms

T.W. Farnam | September 13, 2011 | The Washington Post

Despite Obama's Promises, Revolving Door Still Turning

August 10, 2009 | ABC News

TV’s Conflicted Experts

Daniel Benaim, Priyanka Motaparthy and Vishesh Kumar | April 3, 2003 | The Nation

Who Gets to Speak on Cable News?

Peter Hart | July 1, 2014 | FAIR

Why Are Progressives Cheering Cable News’ Parade of Hawks and Liars?

Jeff Cohen | March 26, 2018 | FAIR

Kissinger Means Business

Leslie H. Gelb | April 20, 1986 | The New York Times

3 I.B.M. Directors Appointed by Carter

December 22, 1976 | The New York Times

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Transcript

For a full transcript of this episode, go here. You can find transcripts of past episodes, interviews and News Briefs here.

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