MMFA: Broadcast Media Help Whitewash Romney's Olympics Record Lobbying For Taxpayer Money

[highplainsdem]

http://mediamatters.org/blog/201201250005

In 1999, Romney left Bain Capital to accept the job as CEO of the Salt Lake Organizing Committee (SLOC). The Romney campaign has regularly cited his work with the Olympics as central to his success in the private sector -- success Romney has sought to contrast with what he has derided as influence peddling in Washington, D.C.

In fact, The Salt Lake Organizing Committee spent millions on federal lobbyists under Romney's tenure, and secured millions in taxpayer dollars to pay for the 2002 games. The Wall Street Journal's Jonathan Weisman explained that Romney "began ramping up the Salt Lake lobbying effort shortly after taking over the Salt Lake Organizing Committee in 1999."

And those efforts paid dividends in the form of taxpayer dollars. As The New York Times reported:

(T)he federal government's contributions, thanks to Mr. Romney, were also immense. By the time the Games were over, about $342 million in federal money to plan and stage the Winter Games had flowed into Utah, a record outlay for the Olympics and nearly $50 million more in constant dollars than was spent for the Atlanta Olympics, according to a report in 2001 by the Government Accountability Office.

Media Matters points out that much of the money came from earmarks, which Romney now calls "wasteful."

And although a 2001 Sports Illustrated article mentioned the federal money involved and quoted Romney saying the Olympics Committee "couldn't have done it" without that help from the federal government, that side of the story is absent from more recent cable news coverage of Romney's claim that he helped save the Olympics. MMFA looked at 21 cable news (Fox, MSNBC and CNN) reports on Romney's claim and there were NO mentions of the federal money involved, or the increased lobbying under Romney.

Time for MSNBC's prime time shows to give this some attention?

[Aerows]

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