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The People's Commerce Chamber Is A Bunch of Splitters

Oct 20, 2009
By .
Politics & Current Events

If we have a theme here, or a meme, or a leitmotif, it's the notion that it has become increasingly difficult to distinguish political reality from satire. Whether it's Tom DeLay appearing on "Dancing With the Stars" or Hugo Chavez declaring war on golf, real-world political developments increasingly resemble indifferently written sketch comedy, and vice-versa.

Clever people realize that one can take advantage of this phenomenon.

Case in point: environmental activists posed as officials with the United States Chamber of Commerce yesterday and held a full-blown press conference at the National Press Club in which they purported to abandon the Chamber's previous lobbying stances on the environment and adopt "green" stances.

This did not get worse when representatives of the real Chamber arrived. It got better.

What followed was a spectacle not usually seen in the John Peter Zenger Room at the National Press Club: two men in business suits shouting at one another, each calling the other an impostor and demanding to see business cards.

"This guy is a fake! He's lying! This is a stunt that I've never seen before," said Eric Wohlschlegel, an official at the actual Chamber of Commerce, who said he'd heard about the hoax event from a reporter who'd mistakenly shown up at the chamber's headquarters.

The video is here. Love the green agenda or hate it, it's hilarious, and looks like something out of a movie. And through this piece of performance art, the Chamber was forced to address questions about its lobbying stances on environmental matters.

It wouldn't work in a less crazy world.

Last 5 posts by Ken

8 Comments
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8 Comments

  1. BP  •  Oct 20, 2009 @8:26 am

    Here's a new one too.

    http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-talk-blago-apprentice-folooct20,0,5542212.story

    Rod Blagojevich on Celebrity Apprentice. Criminal charges pending and all.

  2. Paul L.  •  Oct 20, 2009 @9:03 am

    It just shows that the Environmental movement will tell any lie to advance their goals.
    Of course it shows all progressives lie about their views for the "great unwashed".
    How would progressive react if someone posed as a spokesman for Al Gore and claimed that Climate change is a hoax to enrich Al Gore's "green" companies and give more power to Government.

  3. Jdog  •  Oct 20, 2009 @9:28 am

    I think the actual Chamber of Commerce guy made a good call in showing up, and a bad one in hanging out that long. A quick interruption, announcing that the presser was a hoax, and an offer of business cards was all that he needed to do, and if he wanted to go further, an invitation to the reporters to show up at the next actual Chamber of Commerce presser would have been more than enough.

  4. Ezra  •  Oct 20, 2009 @9:45 am

    Paul,

    Probably about the same as we felt when a President lied about evidence and sent us to war.

    If you watch the video, this was political theatre (and comedy at that..) from the beginning. Being in SF (one of the few remaining fonts of political theatre) I found the whole thing amusing. It reminds me of the homeless group that pretended to be Republicans, dressed in 18th Century French attire, and fed the homeless cake. Or it sounded like something the old Cacophony Society would do.

    Besides, the US Chamber would never lie. Oh, wait.

  5. Jdog  •  Oct 20, 2009 @9:54 am

    I think it was perfectly fine street theater, just like if some anti-Obama folks were to, say, put together a CE class for the financial services industry (i.e.: insurance salesmen) on Exploiting the New Market: Talk About a Captive Audience!, in which they explained the advantages to insurance salesmen of the pending criminalization of lack of health insurance.

  6. Ezra  •  Oct 20, 2009 @10:17 am

    Or, those guys who go around to left wing marches and rallies and only interview the outright crazies. Totally agree. In fact, I wish the Right would do more street theatre. I want to see a sense of humor there (and Ben Stein does not count..)

  7. Shane  •  Oct 20, 2009 @6:28 pm

    I should point out that there *is* a movie:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Yes_Men_Fix_the_World

  8. Chris  •  Oct 21, 2009 @7:14 am

    There are people who try to do this on the right – see the acorn pimp videos. They're just, in general, not that good at it. Of course, the people on the left generally aren't very good either. The Yes Men are really good at it.