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How Public Decisions are Made 2010/01/25 (08)
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Jun 5, 2025
Jon Roland explains how public decisions are made, based on connections. With Lela Pittenger. Austin Constitution Meetup Jan. 25, 2010.
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so you need no no wait till you've got
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all your supporters lined up you need to
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introduced up early and get start
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getting the public debate going on it
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okay so when you say the public debate
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both about this piece of legislation and
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the others you would like to propose I
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guess a lot of people feel like they're
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up against what they would call a
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liberal media that maybe doesn't want
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this conversation to be carried to care
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to occur that maybe wants to focus on
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the legislation that they prefer so how
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do you get the debate going if you work
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against a media system that isn't
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interested in the values that you hold
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well first of all we're no longer
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dependent on the mainstream media as we
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weren't once were we have the internet
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now we also have a foreign press I found
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that I used to be able to get coverage
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in the mainstream media in this country
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by first getting the Foreign Press to
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cover it and then it became news for our
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domestic media however I've also learned
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something else what the mainstream media
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mostly do is to recycle press releases
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every day they get a mountain of press
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releases that go through them pick out
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the ones the pâté think would make good
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news articles make a few minor changes
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and those become the news articles yes
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who writes most of the press releases
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week one we can complain all we bought
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one about the liberal media but the
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simple fact is that conservatives and
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libertarians are not putting out as many
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press releases as our opponents are I
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have been to newspaper our car offices
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and TV TV offices and other media I have
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looked at the press releases that some
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of the reports actually invited me to go
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they're stacked of press releases to see
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if I can find anything interesting and
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they are overwhelmingly loaded by our
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opponents we have to match our opponents
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in the production of press releases
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that's become easier to do that there
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are now web-based services you prepare a
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press release and it will send them out
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to everybody every congressman or
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senator and every state legislature or
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every magazine newspaper radio station
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TV station you know maple it'll make
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sure they all get them you know you've
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gotta pay a little bit of money for that
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it's worth it alright trying to produce
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your own press releases now and making
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sure they get to to you know their
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targets and get read you know it hardly
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pays any more to do that yourself and I
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have done it plenty of that I used to
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regularly produce press releases you
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know print them out on a copying machine
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and carry them from news bureau to music
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euro news Destiny's desk and that's
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still a good idea because when you hand
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deliver them you can also engage them in
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conversation and it there really is more
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likely to get their attention if you
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hand it to them in person and talk to
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them a little bit about it at the time
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but of course that's not very practical
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for you know to do very much up you have
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to choose your targets for that it also
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helps that you know the press release
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needs can't be a treatise it has to be
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written just like a news article so they
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can just drop it in to their medium with
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a minimum changes now they want to
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parley
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want to change something they don't feel
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there another job let's they've changed
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a little bit you want to give them
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something to change that's unimportant
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so that they don't change something
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important and screw it up they will tend
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to do that so give them a few little
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tidbits that they can just scratch out
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satisfy themselves that they've done
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their job and publish the rest and make
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sure they get a press release almost
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every day on every different subject one
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after another after another after
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another and it doesn't hurt to meet them
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socially take a reporter out to do you
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know to lunch some day you get to know
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them personally by now where they hang
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out the bars or restaurants that the
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clubs whatever whatever turns them on
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you be there because though after a
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while you become a crony you talking
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about their kids their pets their you
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know their you know their school reunion
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whatever interests them if they let them
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do a lot of the talking and then they'll
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listen to you and you want to do some
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talking it's just basic socializing
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basic connection building the world runs
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on connections the great talent in
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needed to get ahead in this country in
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this world is and long has been making
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connections I spent a couple of years in
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Washington hobnobbing with the movers
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and shakers who couldn't let control our
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lives sort of they are not our best and
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brightest I'm sorry but they're not
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they're not Darth Vader's they're not
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sinister guys with evil
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entrance they're mostly people like you
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grew up with probably see students they
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might be reasonably diligent students at
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least they were once if when the
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elevated to a certain degree you know
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certain stature they no longer have to
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do the diligent will stuff they just
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delegated to other people so this is
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kind of floating on top of a bunch of
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other people that do all the hard work
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they have to rely on people to make
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recommendations to them which but facing
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are just you know deciding which of
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several recommendations today they
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mostly don't know that much they do not
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have a grasp of complex systems they
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didn't have other clueless about
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unintended consequences and yet these
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are the people who essentially make the
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decisions that affect our lives they
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tend to even be sort of suspicious of
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really talented people when i was in
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washington DC i was often call upon as i
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said earlier to do staff work but i was
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also looked upon with suspicion because
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as an unpaid volunteer they didn't
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really control me and they were very
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suspicious of very intelligent very
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well-educated people that they couldn't
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control there is a fundamental problem
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having a political and a legal system
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run by people who are being home for
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mediocre and we've got that there one
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key talent is the billet II to make
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connections you wonder why ceos make the
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big bucks in these major corporations it
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is not
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because they're great managers most of
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them are lousy managers is mostly
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because they can make a call to Wall
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Street and somebody will take their call
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to take his call because they know it
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and he knows that so it's connections
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and that's unfortunate because it's the
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talent for making connections that stuff
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does not necessarily correlate with the
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ability to make high-quality decisions
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about complex problems or to even
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recognize good advice when it comes to
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them from people who do understand these
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complex systems the great financial
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debacle that we've seen was foreseen and
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weren't about by people who knew what
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they understood the problem and
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understood what was going to come down
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they weren't listen to now some of them
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are being listened to so after it's a
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little bit late but even the day they're
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getting less and less heed for their
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warnings they're still issuing warnings
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I mean the fact that the problem is not
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solved yet we could still have a total
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account click collapse of the economy we
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have at best bought us a little bit of
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time the underlying problems are still
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operating and we very very well see a
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total collapse of the economy within a
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year or two
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