Advocay Groups: New Means to the Same End

Flipping through the internet looking for an article, I found this one about advocacy groups. Titled "Adovacy Groups Blur Media Lines" by Jeffery Birnbaum, it's an interesting look at other ways interest groups are acting to influence people. According to the article The U.S. Chamber of Commerce started a newspaper called the Madison County Record, which you can read online, in order to make the citizens of Madison Coutny, Illinois that their county was the "laughingstock of the country." The chamber, as their noted by i the article, are a pro-business lobbing group that is using the Record as a tool to bring a multi-million dollar lawsuit against lawyers who file outrageous claims, like those mentioned in the article. The chamber wants to make people aware that lawyers are using up valuable taxpayer money and resources filing class action lawsuits. Birnbaum goes on to list other groups that are using the media to promote their causes. One group has produced a made-for-tv movie concerning unprotected nuclear materials. Another such example is Congress.org, a website set up by a Fairfax, Va based lobbying firm. The group not only provides accesses to numerous local, state, and national policital venues, it has been attracting a growing number of people interesting in government and politics, but it also provides a forum for lobbying groups to promote their views. The url of the group attracts people interested in learning more about politics and while they can find that information through the website, they are also faced with causes of numerous lobbying groups that advertise there. It is idea that makes the article interesting, the almost deception of the advocacy groups through the media. A point brought up in the article is that people judge communication by its source. In essence, the point is that if you do not tell people exactly who is behind the message you are seeing, reading, or hearing, as many of the interest groups do not, then you are not being completely honest. But if it gets your point across doest it really matter? I believe that most people place a lot of faith behind what they see on TV or what the read in the newspaper or tabloids. Not to insult the American populus, but come on,most of us, when we think about it, blindly believe those things. How often does one really question the person or group behind the facts being presented? Not often. As one of the owners of the Record claims, he wasn't to worried about the ethics of disclosing who was behind the articles when he was getting his point out there to the public. As long as your cause gets the attention you feel it deserves, why worry about the means. Is producing a TV-drams about terrorists in control of a nuclear weapon, aimed to promote threat level awareness of terrorism, any different than Congressmen being lobbied with money or votes for their support on a particular issue? It seems not. When a Congressman votes a particular way on a bill or piece of legislature, the average voter would assume he is acting in their best interest. They are not made aware that he is perhaps voting in such a way in return for monetary benefits or votes in the upcoming election. By that reasoning then, lobby groups who take a different route, and inform the public through the media, need not worry either. It is just a different means to the same end. These groups are merely making the act of lobbying public which, according to Becker, creates an incentive to participate. I liked this article because of the different methods is illustrated that interest groups can take. They view of interest groups we studied in class were centered around lobbying directly to Congress and political activity, reference the Becker article. But this article shows that interest groups are active not only on Capital Hill, but in the communities as well. They do not have to take their cause directly to the legislator, for if they can get the voter involved then the voter can take the issue to their elected official. It is a great look into another way adovcacy groups act and can influence the political issue.