Corporate-funded group honors Tillis, sicks security on critics

There’s been some interesting news at  the big ALEC shindig in New Orleans. Yesterday, the much-criticized corporate-funded “research” group gave an award (apparently for ”Outstanding  Performance in the Use of a Copier”) to North Carolina House Speaker, Thom Tillis. 

Now, today, comes word (and video) of an incident in which ALEC-employed bouncers physically assaulted a couple of reporters from Think Progress – the news outlet of the nonprofit, Center for American Progress. Apparently, the ALEC people didn’t like the idea of any bad publicity from the Think Progress folks (even though they have been given press credentials to the event in the past).

This is from the Think Progress story:

“ALEC calls itself an open organization that exists simply to advance ‘principles of Jeffersonian democracy.’ Facing recent scrutiny by the media, one prominent ALEC member told the Daily Iowan that there’s ‘nothing sinister, there’s nothing secretive about [ALEC].’ However, the incident today underscores the suspicion that the organization is a secret conduit for corporate lobbyists to literally write legislation for state lawmakers without having having their fingerprints on the bill. To maintain this secrecy, ALEC appears more than willing to kick out media and close their doors to the public.”