by GlenMorgan
for Freedom Foundation
Posted 8/18/2013
The Freedom Foundation has been in the news lately for filing information requests with a handful of state agencies. You can read a few of these news articles here.
The Puget Sound Partnership was one of these agencies. One of the ways Puget Sound Partnership spent your tax dollars last year was to hire a consultant group to create a 14-page “messaging document.” This outside consultant reviewed all the press releases and stories related to shoreline master plans (SMPs) in Washington State and had some interesting things to say about the “opposition.” Apparently, according to their 2012 messaging guide, if you support freedom and prosperity, then you are the “opposition.”
This report was widely distributed among the Puget Sound Partnership staff. What stands out about this report to us is just how explicitly the authors admit that their “opposition” are those who support core values like freedom and prosperity. How terrible to support freedom and prosperity! The report is all about how to “reframe the discussion,” not to “rebut the claims,” to “use imagery” rather than facts, and other recommendations taken to heart by the Puget Sound Partnership and others who support the harmful, destructive policies that various state and local agencies have pushed on their communities.
Under the heading of Digital Media Coverage (page 5), the consultants indicated that the most active and influential blogs covering SMPs were the Bainbridge Shoreline Homeowners and the Kitsap Alliance of Property Owners (KAPO). They also discussed the Freedom Foundation’s videos about the abuses of the Friends of the San Juans, which is a San Juan County based, pro-big government organization funded by government grants and various far-left organizations like Futurewise.
If you ever wonder why the folks pushing big government, hostile regulations, and harmful rules all sound the same, it is because they follow reports like this one, and they are mostly preaching from the same book. To ensure bias in this report, look on the last page for the “List of Interviewees.” With only a couple of exceptions, most of these people are some of the strongest supporters of the total surveillance state, as well as government expansion – all in the name of the environment. For example, Stephanie Buffum is on this list. She trespasses on private property, takes her own photos of private property owners (unless they donate to her organization), and hounds code enforcement to ensure maximum, extreme penalties are inflicted on the targeted citizens.
The Freedom Foundation is still in the process of reviewing the large volume of records we received from this information request, but we have already uncovered a number of interesting documents that help illustrate the mindset and explain some of the actions our government has taken. This was just one minor example.
We will have much more to write about in the near future as we process these documents. If standing up for freedom and prosperity will put us on the enemies list of various government agencies, then the Freedom Foundation is proud to be on that list.