Google’s Insidious Shadow Lobbying: How the Internet Giant Is Bankrolling Friendly Academics—and Skirting Federal Investigations
30th November 2015
David Dayen, contributing writer for Salon, is shocked, shocked that Google is spreading its money around to buy a little influence.
I’m thinking that David Dayen doesn’t get out much.
I’m willing to bet that David Dayen is too young to remember the days when Microsoft was too apolitical to have a lobbying operation in Washington, D.C., and as a result got bogged down for TEN YEARS in a bogus ‘anti-trust’ suit prompted by people who were less pristine and more government-savvy. (Microsoft has since learned better.) Say what you will about Google, they’re not stupid, and they can learn from the mistakes of others.
(I’m waiting for the day when David Dayen, or some other squeaky clean do-gooder at Salon, does a similar expose regarding, say, the Clinton Foundation. I am not, however, willing to hold my breath waiting for it.)