DCI Group

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

DCI Group is an American lobbying and public relations firm. Its client list includes some of the largest US corporations, including several Dow Jones Industrial companies. Services include communication campaigns to solicit public action on legislative issues, web sites to present a client's position, and management of campaign databases.

The "DCI Leadership" page lists six people as the leadership of DCI, each of whom is an officer or coordinator for the Republican party. DCI's Chairman, Tom Synhorst worked for Republican senators for "sixteen years" and "held key roles in the political floor operations of the 1996 and 2000 Republican conventions", as well as being "an advisor to Bush/Cheney 2000".

DCI's CEO, Doug Goodyear managed a Republican Senate campaign and was "Political Director of the Colorado Republican Party from 1985 to 1987". DCI's President, Jim Murphy "worked on Capitol Hill for four years for former U.S. Senator Gordon Humphrey (R-NH), held senior positions in Bob Dole’s 1988 and 1996 presidential campaigns, managed floor operations at the last three National Republican Conventions, [and] served two years on the staff of the National Republican Senatorial Committee".

Of the other three partners, one is current "chairman of the Republican Unity Coalition", another was "Coalitions Director for the Dole/Kemp Presidential Campaign in 1996" and "Deputy Director and Field Representative of the National Republican Senatorial Committee", and spent nine years doing PR for a major tobacco company, and the last one was "staff of the 2000 Republican National Convention and serving as Deputy Political Director of the 1996 Republican National Convention. He has served on the political staff of Republican Presidential candidate and US Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole, and in the re-election campaign of George H. W. Bush." No one in DCI's leadership has any ties to Democrats, Libertarians, or Independents.

In 2002 and 2003 DCI was paid $348,000 to represent Myanmar's junta. The firm drafted news releases praising Myanmar's efforts to curb the drug trade and denouncing claims by the Bush administration that the regime engaged in rape and other abuses.^[1]

1 Clients
2 YouTube astroturfing scandal
3 External links
4 References

[edit] Clients

[edit] YouTube astroturfing scandal

Main article: Al Gore's Penguin Army video

In August of 2006, the Wall Street Journal alleged that DCI Group was the creator of an astroturfed YouTube video disparaging Al Gore and the global warming documentary An Inconvenient Truth featuring Gore.^[2]. The video was claimed by its creator to have been an amateur production by a 29-year old in Beverly Hills, California. The source of the video replied to inquiries made by the Wall Street Journal, which determined that "computer routing information" showed that those replies came from "a computer registered to DCI Group".^[3]

The Wall Street Journal consulted a professor of communications who described the spoof as "Propaganda 101. It contains no factual information, but presents a highly negative image of the former vice president."^[4] When asked if they created the video, DCI Group responded "We do not disclose the names of our clients, nor do we discuss the work we do on behalf of our clients."^[5] Another source also found that sponsored links to the Al Gore video had been placed on Google, and were taken down after it was reported, noting that the identity of the party who paid for the sponsored links remained unknown.^[6]