April 13, 2012

Corporate front group ALEC — which lets big corporations write legislation and then pass it off to state legislatures to be enacted — is hurting. In recent days, six major corporations and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation have decided to stop funding the group, which has been engaged in pushing voter suppression and “Stand Your Ground” laws.

This has prompted ALEC to whine that it is being silenced by an “intimidation” campaign. (It used the word four times in a single short press release.) ALEC claims that by publicly urging companies to voluntarily leave the organization, critics are trying to “eliminate discourse.”

In an ironic move, ALEC is apparently deleting comments on its Facebook page that are critical of the corporate front group. Pinterest user Wagatwe isn’t putting up with this hypocrisy. Wagatwe has compiled a Pinterest page of comments that ALEC deleted from its page, such as, “How much are the Koch Brothers paying you for this tripe?”

Wagatwe notes that ALEC is also so desperate for positive comments that it is even posting positive comments on its own Facebook posts. It seems like the only people who are actually silencing anyone are the administrators of the ALEC Facebook page.