White House uses big PR firms to kill stories
White House uses big PR firms to kill stories
It is amazing what the right amount of money in the right hands in the right places can do.
PR firms working for the Bush administration are able to exert much pressure on the media.
White House PR Firms Squash Stories on Small Business Contracting Scandal, Announces American Small Business League
White House uses big PR firms to kill stories on small business
PETALUMA, Calif., March 19 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- American Small Business League President Lloyd Chapman says he believes the Bush administration's expenditure of over $50 million a month to some of the nation's largest public relations firms is hampering his efforts to expose billions in fraud and abuse in federal small business contracting programs.
"White House PR firms have been working overtime to kill stories on Bush administration policies that have diverted over $300 billion in federal small business contracts to the top 2 percent of U.S. firms," Chapman said.
A 2006 Office of Government Accountability report found the Bush administration had spent $1.6 billion over 30 months on public relations campaigns and advertising. In some cases, journalists like Armstrong Williams were paid as much as $240,000 to promote pro-Bush administration policy and pass it off as unbiased opinion.
Chapman points to a pattern over the last few years wherein newspapers, magazines and even some of the largest television networks drop his story once Bush administration officials were notified.
NBC spent a week in California filming a story on Chapman and his successful legal battle to stop the Bush administration from diverting billions in federal small business contracts to Fortune 500 firms, but the story never aired. CNN's Lou Dobbs Tonight spent a month researching and filming a story on Chapman and his organization, but pulled the story just hours before it was supposed to air. When the story finally aired six months later, any mention of Chapman and the American Small Business League had been deleted. CBS spent weeks working with Chapman and his staff on what would have been CBS's third installment in a series of investigative reports on the diversion of billions in federal small business contracts to firms like Rolls Royce, Wal-Mart, Boeing and Lockheed Martin. The story was suddenly halted after the SBA found out about the piece.
After spending months working with the New York Times on a story, any mention of Chapman and his group was removed from the story after it was written.
"After the New York Times story, I was contacted by the Los Angeles Times. They wanted to do a story on my campaign to stop fraud and abuse in federal small business contracting," Chapman said. "I told the reporter if she mentioned me in the story, my name would be removed before the story ran, but she laughed. She called me the day the story ran, very upset, and told me her editor removed all references to me in the story."
Chapman says he believes other publications have suddenly dropped their stories on this issue after being pressured by White House public relations firms, including the Associated Press, USA Today, Wall Street Journal, Dallas Morning News, BusinessWeek, Inc Magazine, Entrepreneur, Fortune, Fortune Small Business and dozens of other smaller newspapers and magazines around the country.
"We intend to use the Freedom of Information Act to uncover more information on exactly how PR firms working for the Bush administration are able to exert so much pressure on the media," Chapman said. "I would like to see Rep. Henry Waxman hold hearings into why the Bush administration needs to spend $50 million a month on PR firms and exactly what those firms are involved in."
Contact:
Lloyd Chapman, president
American Small Business League
lchapman@asbl.com
(707) 789-9575
http://www.asbl.com
It is amazing what the right amount of money in the right hands in the right places can do.
PR firms working for the Bush administration are able to exert much pressure on the media.
White House PR Firms Squash Stories on Small Business Contracting Scandal, Announces American Small Business League
White House uses big PR firms to kill stories on small business
PETALUMA, Calif., March 19 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- American Small Business League President Lloyd Chapman says he believes the Bush administration's expenditure of over $50 million a month to some of the nation's largest public relations firms is hampering his efforts to expose billions in fraud and abuse in federal small business contracting programs.
"White House PR firms have been working overtime to kill stories on Bush administration policies that have diverted over $300 billion in federal small business contracts to the top 2 percent of U.S. firms," Chapman said.
A 2006 Office of Government Accountability report found the Bush administration had spent $1.6 billion over 30 months on public relations campaigns and advertising. In some cases, journalists like Armstrong Williams were paid as much as $240,000 to promote pro-Bush administration policy and pass it off as unbiased opinion.
Chapman points to a pattern over the last few years wherein newspapers, magazines and even some of the largest television networks drop his story once Bush administration officials were notified.
NBC spent a week in California filming a story on Chapman and his successful legal battle to stop the Bush administration from diverting billions in federal small business contracts to Fortune 500 firms, but the story never aired. CNN's Lou Dobbs Tonight spent a month researching and filming a story on Chapman and his organization, but pulled the story just hours before it was supposed to air. When the story finally aired six months later, any mention of Chapman and the American Small Business League had been deleted. CBS spent weeks working with Chapman and his staff on what would have been CBS's third installment in a series of investigative reports on the diversion of billions in federal small business contracts to firms like Rolls Royce, Wal-Mart, Boeing and Lockheed Martin. The story was suddenly halted after the SBA found out about the piece.
After spending months working with the New York Times on a story, any mention of Chapman and his group was removed from the story after it was written.
"After the New York Times story, I was contacted by the Los Angeles Times. They wanted to do a story on my campaign to stop fraud and abuse in federal small business contracting," Chapman said. "I told the reporter if she mentioned me in the story, my name would be removed before the story ran, but she laughed. She called me the day the story ran, very upset, and told me her editor removed all references to me in the story."
Chapman says he believes other publications have suddenly dropped their stories on this issue after being pressured by White House public relations firms, including the Associated Press, USA Today, Wall Street Journal, Dallas Morning News, BusinessWeek, Inc Magazine, Entrepreneur, Fortune, Fortune Small Business and dozens of other smaller newspapers and magazines around the country.
"We intend to use the Freedom of Information Act to uncover more information on exactly how PR firms working for the Bush administration are able to exert so much pressure on the media," Chapman said. "I would like to see Rep. Henry Waxman hold hearings into why the Bush administration needs to spend $50 million a month on PR firms and exactly what those firms are involved in."
Contact:
Lloyd Chapman, president
American Small Business League
lchapman@asbl.com
(707) 789-9575
http://www.asbl.com
posted by The humble Farmer at 1:49 PM
1 Comments:
Go to this podcast to hear more about Lloyd Chapman
http://www.mysuccessgateway.com/guru/podcasts.php?id=59
Lloyd Chapman, President & CEO of the American Small Business League who is a man on a mission assisting small businesses taking back their government contracts from the Fortune 500-1,000 companies who kicked in the back door. Think about a million man small business march in Washington, D.C. and other cities demanding change and winning back their $50 Billion + of SBA contracts from the Fortune 1,000. Lloyd Chapman is a man on a mission, and if he chooses to set his mind to it you just might see it happen. This is an explosive interview. Break out the Red Bull or Mountain Dew and caffeine up, this will get your blood boiling.
In the summer of 2002 Lloyd was working with a small computer company and the young woman in his office broke down in tears after she learned that the Federally mandated small business contract that she worked on for 4 months was awarded to a Dutch contractor with 26,000 employees in 28 countries. When Lloyd found this out he went ballistic and he took action, big action! David is going to slay Goliath, that’s right, do you know anyone out there who has the heart big enough and the brains to take on the Federal government and the Fortune 500? Meet the one and only Lloyd Chapman and his American Small Business League.
This interview will amaze and astound you and hopefully inspire you to be aggressive enough to get a piece of your pie in the good ole USA. For those who are outside the USA, please excuse us because we are about to air some of our dirty laundry for the rest of the world to hear. Lloyd will present you in plain English just how business is done in Washington, D.C. and how small businesses are asleep at the wheel while Washington, D.C. does business as usual and rewards the guys who are funding the politicians’ campaigns, mostly big business. In return, big business is awarded contracts and legislation reserved for small businesses in the billions of dollars.
As a result of the Dutch company landing the contract Lloyd reviewed the database (Pronet at the time) of the SBA and realized that there were over 600 of the biggest companies in the world in that database. He could not believe it and he called everyone in Washington, DC that would answer the phone including: The White House, Congress, Senate, FBI, Justice Department and finally the General Accounting Office called him back and launched a 6 month investigation and found over 5,300 + large businesses being awarded Federal small business contracts. This got the ball rolling.
Sen. John Kerry is Chairman of the Senate Small Business & Entrepreneurship Committee for about 20 years and Chairwoman (D.NY) Nydia Velázquez of the Small Business Committee in Congress and she has been on the committee for about 10 years. Since the Democrats came into office in 2006 Lloyd is not seeing Nydia’s and Kerry’s web sites covering the abuse in the SBA. You will not see the “diversion of Federal small business contracts diverted to Fortune 1,000 corporations” issue covered in their web sites, even though there have been over 500+ articles about this issue since 2002. The SBA inspector general report of March 2005 said that “diversion of Federal small business contracts diverted to Fortune 1,000 corporations” is the biggest challenge facing the SBA and one of the biggest challenges facing the nation today.
Small businesses need to realize that the Federal Government is the single biggest purchaser of goods and services in the world. The government buys what you are selling. There is a Federal law in place since the Korean War that says the Government shall do 23% of all contracts to small businesses. Lloyd says that even My Success Gateway, LLC has the potential to be an information provider to the SBA and the Federal Government. The Federal Government must hold over 1,000 seminars per day around the country. The government has never met that 23% federally mandated small business contracting goal.
The American Small Business League has been making dramatic progress and their goal is to shift over $50 Billion per year in Federal Small Business Contracts into small businesses. My Success Gateway, LLC according to Lloyd Chapman can definitely do business with the US Government. The most commonly held perceptions about the government are probably incorrect. They place over 10,000 + orders per day, we are talking about volume here.
It is easy to do business with the government. How do you go about doing business with i.e. The White House, The Coast Guard and “prime contractors” who work with the Federal Government, i.e. Lockheed, Boeing, Bechtel, Halliburton, du Pont? 80% of Fortune 1,000 companies are government contractors. Contact the SBA and talk with them and ask them, where do you suggest I go? Go online and do some research look up in your local area a list of Federal offices and prime contractors in our local area. Every Federal Agency has prime contractors. Every prime contractor is required to have a small business liaison to help small businesses do business with them.
Lloyd got into the government business by doing a little dumpster diving after his company went out of business. Lloyd originally found a directory in the dumpster while looking for something else and found list of all defense contractors. He found 3,000 companies. He sent out 3,000 letters and got back 300 responses. And that company is in business and has been going for over 20 years now.
Lloyd’s advice is to either be doing business or be drumming up business and make at least 100 phone calls per day and you will find some business. It can only take a few days to a few months to do business. In the case of doing business with the Federal government you might call the right guy and he will ask you what you do and your price and he just might give you a PO number right there, it has happened to Lloyd many times.
The government is looking for sharp and hard working people. The Federal Acquisition Budget is $500 Billion per year or a half a Trillion dollars (the budget for buying goods and services). The government will place orders from $25 to $25,000,000 every day, all day long. It is hard to grasp. Now if you have some business from the Federal government you can go to your bank and get a SBA small business loan against the revenues.
Lloyd is known as the SBA’s biggest critic of the people running the SBA and not of the SBA’s mission. When Ronald Reagan was president in 1984 the SBA budget was $1 billion per year. In 2007 the SBA budget has been cut in half by the Bush Administration to about $500 Million. You would have thought that it would have grown since the Reagan years. Lloyd is an independent and has photographs with several different presidents in his office, Republicans and Democrats.
“The Bush Administration intends to starve the SBA to death” claims Lloyd Chapman. There is a dramatic difference in what Bush is doing, versus what he is saying. The Pentagon Budget is $400 Billion. You can’t buy an airplane for what the entire SBA budget is today. When you look at the budget cuts they have laid off half of the SBA employees, the SBA knowledge base and people to help the minority owned companies. When Bill Clinton left office, he passed legislation in congress that was only a 5% contracting goal for women owned firms instead of 50% representative of the female population. The Bush Administration has refused to implement that policy. A Federal Law being passed and the next president did not like it and basically said I am not going to “do it.”
Why would the Bush Administration not want top help minority owned firms? Lloyd’s “belief (opinion) is that the Republican Party is against any kind of affirmative action or out reach program to help women, minorities, veteran owned firms and small businesses.” The women owned program (US Women’s Chamber of Commerce) filed a lawsuit against the Bush Administration and hired the prestigious law firm Covington & Burling, LLP to sue the Bush Administration to implement it. The Bush Administration got a ruling from a Federal judge to implement it and it still has not been done yet.
The office at the SBA to help veteran owned businesses was ordered closed by the Bush Administration. The presidential non partisan commission for the Civil Rights Commission had issued a report that the Federal government was doing too much business with minority owned firms and the Federal Government and should scale back but they never hit the 5% minority business contracting goal in the first place.
Let’s look at small businesses now, since Bush was elected they have implemented policies up to 50% of all Federal small business contracts going to Fortune 500 companies. On or about summer of 2004 or 2005 they tried to pass a policy that would allow venture capital companies like Chase Manhattan to own controlling interest in small businesses as another way around to get small business contracts. ASBL is trying to get legislation to eliminate Fortune 500 companies like Boeing, Halliburton, IBM, Microsoft, Wal-Mart, Lockheed and others from getting billions of small business contracts. L3 Communications was the leader in $650 million in small business contracts. Lloyd says emphatically, and objectively, Bush is not a friend of women owned firms, minority owned firms or a friend of small business, he says that George Bush is anti-small business based on his actions.
According to the US Census Bureau 98% of all U.S. firms have less than 100 employees. 89% of US firms have less than 20 employees and the average American company has 9 employees. 98% of new jobs come from small businesses. 90% of the exports and innovations and patents come from small businesses and they are the heart and soul of the U.S. economy. So, if the Bush Administration is cutting funding to the SBA on a regular basis it is very disheartening to all small businesses.
Lloyd has been in the living room of the president of Chevron Oil and in the same small room with Bill Clinton having lunch, and in the Senate dining room and have some up close and personal experiences with politics. He is disappointed with the way things are based on these experiences. He has been to Democratic fund raisers where they sort make fun of rich or successful people and Republican fund raisers that make fun of people who make less than $100,000 per year. He does not see anyone who represents all Americans, they seem to represent segments of the country.
According to Barack Obama on television just to stay IN the Senate you have to raise $50,000 per day and it scales much bigger when are in the office of the President. When you have to raise that kind of money, who has it? Fortune 500 companies have that kind of money, ATT, Exxon, Lockheed etc. Are the politicians going to hear the opinions of the American people or small business owners? No, they will hear the Fortune 500 companies.
Lloyd said he gave a politician a ride one day and he said “when you get elected to Congress you represent the special interests in your district that financed your campaign.” In the last 2004 election we agreed that Bush won by about 1% and the same in the 2006 elections. So with small businesses employing 98% of the workforce there is power in numbers especially in the upcoming election. Lloyd believes that the small businesses could be the most powerful group in the country just because of the numbers.
Lloyd would like to see a small business revolution because both parties have not done well for small businesses according to Lloyd Chapman. Lloyd challenged me. “What group represents small businesses in the USA?” The National Federation of Independent Businesses and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce claim to be the voice of small businesses. But who are they exactly? Try to find one of the diversion of small business contracts or any of the 500 fraud stories mentioned in these two “pro small businesses” web sites, you won’t see it. There is a reason why.
END PART I 38 Minutes of a 71 Minute My Success Gateway, LLC Interview with Lloyd Chapman CEO American Small Business League.
Here is Lloyd’s conspiracy theory. The SBA budget was cut in half and $60 Billion in small business contracts are being diverted to Fortune 1,000 companies Lloyd asks what would happen if that same scenario has in place for the Lawyers or Doctors in the USA? They would get organized very quickly. How can this have happened if the National Federation of Independent Businesses and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce were looking out for small businesses interests? These guys are all about tax reform and tort reform. Hear this: Lloyd was told by a half a dozen members of Congress and about 15 congressional staffers and a guy who used to work at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is a conservative Republican organization whose mission is to lobby for tax reform for Fortune 500 corporations acting under the guise of representing small business.
If you look at a conservative Republican think tank like the American Enterprise Institute and look at their agenda; it is tax reform, less government and tort reform and if you look at the US Chamber and NFIB it is the exact same thing. Everyone wants to pay less taxes. If you cut taxes for Fortune 500 companies you push the burden on the small businesses and the general public.
In tort reform you can find big lawsuits with companies in asbestos and tobacco claims so that the big businesses are limited in their liability. Tort reform benefits large corporations so they don’t have to pay out big damages. Small businesses are not worried about tort reform. Less government is desired by Exxon and Mobil. But small business owners are not plagued by government regulations.
The Federal law says that small businesses shall receive 23% of the total value of all prime contracts. Small businesses can sell the smaller services and products to the prime contractors instead of the larger projects. Prime contractors can use “indirect dollars” and move them to small businesses. There is an anti small business mentality and attitude in government. Lloyd knows first hand from his own father. For the government to do business with small businesses it is the best business decision they can make. You won’t see small businesses charging the government $400 for hammers.
Lloyd does not see any pro small business candidates in the 2008 presidential candidate field. The issue of diversion of small business contracts has been out there for years. He says that the only way to get elected is to take $100’s of millions of dollars if you are going to be president. The Fortune 500 corporations will get the legislation in their favor because they fund the political process in America. It is why it is so hard to get campaign finance reform. Small businesses are not well organized. The closest group to represent the small businesses is American Small Business League. The small businesses need to ask the candidates what they will do for small businesses. John Edwards was on the Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee when he was in the Senate and he is familiar with the issues so he may be the best small business candidate, or at least the most experienced.
If the candidate takes the $50 billion away from the Fortune 500 by supporting small businesses they will be viewed as anti-big business, and his political career is toast. So it is a dilemma for the candidate, part of the political process here in America. To be pro small business you have to be anti-big business. Big companies fund the US Chamber and NFIB. The American Enterprise Institute suggested that the SBA be closed and all Federal programs should be eliminated for women and small businesses. How pro-small business is that? The agenda with all three of these groups is the same.
We can demand the candidates provide their stand on small business for the 2008 Election. Small businesses can contact their congressman and let them know that we want Fortune 500 companies out of the SBA contracts. Also if you are a small business owner Lloyd has media opportunities for small businesses to meet the media and discuss small business issues. Lloyd says to call your local media and talking about the small business issues. Lloyd tells us how we can make change.
Lloyd talks about his beginnings how he slept on the floor in a sleeping bag when he was putting in a lot of hours at the office to save time from commuting. You have to be passionate about your goals. You have to have a business plan and be properly financed. Be persistent and work hard, be driven, be goal oriented and motivated. He refuses to accept failure, you have to prevail. Expect to win, you deserve it. If someone will not let you participate in the small business contracts you have to go after it anyway.
A few months ago the Hispanics were protesting the immigration law. So how crazy of an idea would it be if the illegal aliens in the USA were protesting for immigration change. The African American million man march did something similar several years ago. If illegal aliens who are marching in the streets and protesting change it may be that they illegal aliens might have more clout in this country and more impact than small business owners on our government than our own small businesses who are the foundation who built this country. It is time for the million man small business march. We are Americans, George Bush and the candidates work for us and not the other way around.
We have to be proactive and aggressive about going after the contracts. Join the American Small Business League it is free and it is Lloyd’s goal to drive $50 billion to the small businesses.
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