Truth in Advertising, Part 1
Who's got Gov. Perry talking about courts and civic duty?
By Richard Whittaker, 11:29AM, Tue. Jan. 27, 2009
So over the weekend, TV viewers may have seen Gov. Rick Perry singing the praises of jury duty on their TV set.
Look's like something that may have come from the Attorney General's office, right? Wrong-o. So who are Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse of Central Texas, the outfit paying for this ad time?
While it sounds grassroots, CALATX is pure astroturf. It's one of the 50 state-based operations, originally backed by the American Tort Reform Association and funded by Altria Group (better known as Philip Morris), fighting to de-fang lawsuits from the victims of bad business practices.
And who's website are people pointed to at the end of the ad? Why, CALATX's, of course!
So when Perry says that juries "determine who's right, who pays damages," the emphasis may really be on the back-end of that statement.
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Courts, Tort Reform, Rick Perry, Advertising, Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse of Central Texas, American Tort Reform Association, Altria Group, Philip Morris
