Paying journalists to shill for Republican policies — it’s not just for Bushies anymore!
The admin of Mitt Romney, Massachusetts’ GOP governor, will fork over $10,000 to a Boston Herald op-ed columnist to promote its environmental policies, The Boston Globe (gleefully) reports.Charles D. Chieppo, who’s been writing a weekly column for the Herald since January, will spend two days a week through June working for the state Executive Office of Environmental Affairs, writing op-ed pieces and internal documents ”to support the efforts of senior management to promote education, awareness, and acceptance of major policy initiatives” on the environment.
And he’ll keep on writing his Herald column.
“Chieppo was awarded the contract over another bidder when his Herald columns were highly supportive of Romney’s policies,” writes Globe reporter Raphael Lewis. “His March 21 column, which appeared three days after Chieppo submitted his bid for the state contract, praised the Romney mass-transit plan that was largely authored by Douglas Foy, the secretary of Commonwealth development and the person who oversees the Environmental Affairs office that now employs Chieppo.”
Remarkably, the Boston Herald sees no problem with Chieppo’s moonlighting (and, at least by appearances, using his column to get the new gig in the first place!).
