How do journalists get to the REAL truth?

there's an interesting journalistic ethics kerfuffle percolating... a number of news outlets, including alternet, picked up on ken silverstein's exposé of washington lobbyists in this month's harper's magazine... silverstein went undercover to gather information for the lengthy article, assuming the alias, "kenneth case," and, according to bill moyers' blog, posed...

...as the representative of a fictitious investment group with business interests in Turkmenistan, and approached several prominent Washington lobbying firms to see how they might bolster the image of Turkmenistan as a viable international economic and diplomatic partner.

from the harper's article...

The U.S. General Accounting Office estimated in 1990 that less than half of foreign lobbyists who should register under FARA [Foreign Agents Registration Act of 1938] actually do so, and there is no evidence that matters have improved. In theory, violators can be heavily fined and even sent to prison, but almost no one has been prosecuted for ignoring the act, so there are few risks for non-compliance. Those firms that do register generally reveal little information beyond the names of their clients, the fees they pay, and limited information about whom they contact. Because disclosure requirements are so lax, it is nearly impossible to monitor the activities of foreign lobbyists. What little knowledge we do have of lobbyist-orchestrated diplomacy—including most of the projects discussed above—has been gleaned not from FARA filings but from serendipitous revelations or investigative reporting.

Which leaves Americans to wonder: Exactly what sorts of promises do these firms make to foreign governments? What kind of scrutiny, if any, do they apply to potential clients? How do they orchestrate support for their clients? And how much of their work is visible to Congress and the public, and hence subject to oversight? To shed light on these questions, I decided to approach some top Washington lobbying firms myself, as a potential client, to see whether they would be willing to burnish the public image of a particularly reprehensible regime.

why turkmenistan...?

Given that my first pick, North Korea, seemed too reviled to be credible, I settled on the only slightly less Stalinist regime of Turkmenistan. Until his sudden death last December, President-for-Life Saparmurat Niyazov built a personality cult that outdid that of any modern leader except possibly Kim Jong Il. High school students were required to study The Ruhnama, Niyazov’s book of personal and spiritual wisdom, described on its official website as being “on par with the Bible and the Koran.” The self-declared “Turkmenbashi,” or “Leader of all Ethnic Turkmens,” Niyazov had his image plastered on billboards and buildings across the country, as well as on the national currency, salt packets, and vodka bottles. He named after himself not only a town but an entire month of the year (the one we unenlightened non-Turkmen still call January). Any opposition to the Turkmen government is considered to be treason, and thousands of political dissidents have been imprisoned. In 2004 a man seeking permission to hold a peaceful demonstration was sent to a psychiatric hospital for two years.

Following Niyazov’s demise, Minister of Health Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, the Turkmenbashi’s personal dentist, became acting president. Berdymukhamedov was relatively unknown when he was declared acting president. Some have speculated that he is the Turkmenbashi’s illegitimate son, which would explain his unexpected ascendancy. He had been responsible, according to the BBC, for implementing Niyazov’s 2004 reform of the health service, “which many observers have blamed for its near collapse.” Berdymukhamedov was confirmed as president in an election held in February—he ran against five other candidates, all from the ruling party, and won 89 percent of the vote—in a balloting that he described as being held “on a democratic basis that has been laid by the great [late] leader,” but which just about everyone else deemed to be a sham.

one of the firms approached by silverstein, posing as kenneth case, was apco, the 2006 pr agency of the year according to pr week magazine... from apco's website...

APCO Worldwide is a global communication consultancy specializing in building relationships with an organization's key stakeholders. These relationships are critical to the full range of challenges our clients face.

We believe an organization's reputation is the culmination of how such challenges are managed. In the end, this work builds and protects an organization's value and the value of its products and services.

It is our goal to be your trusted partner of choice and help you create this value – by pushing the boundaries of communication and providing global service, culture by culture.

"case" met with several "key professionals" of apco this past february who presented him and a colleague with what i would characterize as a high-powered dog-and-pony show touting apco's capabilities, its connections in congress, and its proposed strategy for turkmenistan... according to Barry Schumacher, a senior vice president at APCO Associates...

"This really is an opportunity to define the new government of Turkmenistan."

the subsequent article in harper's, a powerful inside look at how lobbying firms operate in d.c., even generated an interview with bill moyers... the issue that has subsequently emerged centers on the ethics of undercover journalism, and, in fact, there is even a poll up on moyers blog asking readers to register their opinion of undercover journalism... needless to say, silverstein's article provoked a response from apco... here is a portion of apco's response, taken from their website...

In violation of recognized journalistic principles, Silverstein neither asked us for comment nor gave us an opportunity to respond to his “facts”. In addition, Silverstein appeared on Bill Moyers Journal on PBS and neither he, nor representatives of the program, contacted APCO for comment. Had they asked, we would have told them these facts:

* In advance of the meeting, and to help us determine if a meeting should take place, we began our standard due diligence by contacting people in the policy community who are expert in the region to determine their view of the new government. Our due diligence gave us reason to hold a preliminary meeting to determine the legitimacy of the client.
* We then held a preliminary meeting where we told Silverstein, “Case”, we would need more information before we would be comfortable moving forward, and that if we decided to proceed, we would need to register the representation with the U.S. Department of Justice in a manner fully consistent with U.S. law and regulation. This regulation requires full disclosure, whether working directly for the government or on behalf of business interests which benefit the government indirectly, contrary to Silverstein’s representations.
* We ended the meeting politely and without any commitment or contractual relationship. There was never a further meeting, therefore no way for Silverstein to determine whether we would have taken the assignment.

as a refugee from many years in the corporate world, i can tell you flat out that there is no way in hell silverstein would have been able to see what he saw and hear what he heard had he approached apco as a journalist... no way would they have allowed him to see their presentation on turkmenistan... rather than being shown what apco presented to someone they believed was a good faith representative of the interests of turkmenistan, they would have given silverstein the journalist version of their dog-and-pony show, a presentation that would have been qualitatively and substantially different from the one he was shown... yes, i have qualms about undercover journalism, particularly the "under false pretenses" part... however, in these days of undiluted spin and outright lies that are passed off as truth, i don't know of another way to get a clear picture of what's REALLY going on...

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