Thursday, February 09, 2023

Texas Press Association slips again

 TPA last week sent out by email another guest column. I assume Mike Hodges et al are paid for these redistributions. That said, Mike et al, you don't have to take the money, just like you didn't have to take the pig in a poke money from Column.US, but did.

Anyway, the particular guest column? It's dreck by a James Quintero of "Government for the People." Teh Google says, even without learning more about the org, that he used to be at Texas Public Policy Foundation. (GFTP is a sub-agency within TPPF.) Nuff ced. 

And, with the cover story of an attack on the Texas Association of School Boards, it moves into one of the big, continuing wet dreams of wingnuts in the Texas Lege: abolishing "lobbying" by local governments. People who know Austin's hypocritical nutcutting, from plastic bag bans through fracking bans and beyond in city government, all while wingnuts who squeal "states rights" don't let that trickle down, know that "lobbying" is needed. So does TASB on protecting public schools. 

Re TASB, it's full of lies. TASB money is spent on better protections for public schools against book-banners and their fellow travelers like Quintero, if we want to put it bluntly.

As for the argument that taxpayers, via individual school boards, shouldn't have their money "wasted" by TASB?

Mike, same arguments apply to the Texas Press Association if it pays one red cent for redistributing stuff like this. Heck, it should be said even if the redistribution is done for free.

It's also another sign, contra wingnuts like Quintero, that most local media isn't the "librulz."

And, it's also not the first time I've blogged about TPA and press releases, though that was straight news and just more head-scratching than off-putting like this.

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