Facts and Flacks and Free Speech

In her Feb. 14 commentary, “Liberal Media Ignore What They Don’t Want to Hear,” speaking of “special interest bureaucrats,” Norah Vincent claims that “today in America, such flacks are almost exclusively the property of the complainant left.”

This is blatantly false. According to data available at https://www.opensecrets.org/lobbyists, in 1999 “such flacks” accounted for less than 6% of all lobbying dollars spent in Washington, a figure that includes all single-issue lobbyists, not just the “liberals.” A big chunk of that special interest money comes from the gun lobby and the antiabortion lobby. Finance, insurance and real estate lobbyists spent three times more than all special interest lobbyists combined; energy lobbyists (e.g., those working for Enron) spent twice as much.

Bill Fancher

Los Angeles