The word 'author' loses its meaning (Pete Peterson -Fix The Debt mischief)

[Snarkoleptic]

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel pushes back on billionaire astroturf media blitz.

Two weeks ago, we published an opinion piece in Crossroads on the perils of the national debt, purportedly written by a student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

I'm writing today because there was a serious problem with the article: The student didn't write it. As a result, we have removed it from our website.

The day after the essay was published, the student sent us an email explaining that, "While I agree with and have supported the expressed ideas for a long-term solution to our country's debt, it was misleading for the organization to state that I wrote this...."

--snip--

Some liberal groups see the campaign as a corporate front and distrust its motives. Earlier this year, the Center for Media and Democracy, based in Madison, worked with The Nation, a progressive journal, to produce a series of articles critical of the group's activities.

In introducing the articles, The Nation wrote that the campaign was "the latest incarnation of Wall Street mogul Pete Peterson's long campaign to get Congress and the White House to cut Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid while providing tax breaks for corporations and the wealthy."

--snip--

We want to encourage a robust debate on this important issue.

The problem here was that one of the "debaters" didn't realize she would be debating. In a phone conversation, she told us that she was contacted by the organization but it wasn't made clear to her that her name would be on an opinion piece that would be offered to publications such as the Journal Sentinel.

http://www.jsonline.com/news/opinion/the-word-author-loses-its-meaning-b99141746z1-232139211.html

[enlightenment]

1. Good for them.

And shame on this group. Their spokesperson can apologize all he wants, but without a banner headline accepting responsibility for this on their website, the words are hollow - and there is jack-all admitting this "mistake" on their website.

[Snarkoleptic]

2. How warped does a Peterson-type have to be to climb the ladder then burn it behind himself?

Peterson is a money horder, he's 87 years old, worth $1.5billion and is on the hunt for more.
Ted Kennedy nailed it here-