Looks as though Reed knows which side its bread is buttered and is joining the exodus from the American Legislative Exchange
Council (ALEC) as the organisation’s agenda seems to currently veer to the right of madness.
Here’s a report on the Policymic.com site
Reed Elsevier joins a mass corporate exodus from the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), bringing the total number
of corporations that have cut ties with the controversial organization to ten. Reed Elsevier is the parent company of Elsevier, which
is one of the largest academic publishing companies in the world. It publishes about 2,000 academic journals and other information
-related services, including Lexis Nexis and several scientific journals.
Reuters reported that Reed Elsevier announced on Thursday that it resigned its board seat and dropped its membership with ALEC.
“We made the decision after considering the broad range of criticism being leveled at ALEC,” a Reed Elsevier spokesman
announced.
ALEC has come under increased scrutiny over the past year in response to the Center for Media and Democracy?s ALEC Exposed
Project, which revealed and analyzed more than 800 ?model? bills voted on by corporate lobbyists and politicians. ALEC?s extreme
agenda includes numerous NRA gun bills, bills to privatize public schools, prisons, and public assets, legislation to make it harder
for American citizens to vote, bills to repeal rights of workers, and legislation to make it harder for juries to punish corporations for
dangerous products that kill Americans, among other changes to U.S. laws.
CMD publicized ALEC’s corporate leaders and funders last July, and numerous public interest organizations have helped shine a
light on ALEC’s operations — which allow corporate lobbyists an equal vote with elected officials on legislative templates at closed
-door ALEC task force meetings — including Common Cause, People for the American Way, Progress Now, and other groups and
bloggers. This latest announcement follows increased scrutiny of ALEC in the aftermath of the NRA law used to try to excuse the
shooting of Florida teen Trayvon Martin, a bill the NRA’s lobbyist successfully urged ALEC’s crime task force to promote as a
national model for other states. Over a week ago, the civil rights group Color of Change — joined by several public interest groups
— urged the public to start calling ALEC corporate funders, starting with Coca Cola. (CMD had begun featuring Coca Cola’s role in
funding ALEC’s agenda when ALECexposed.org launched.) Color of Change has also been highlighting how corporate donations
to ALEC were funding voter suppression.
Full Article at the link above
