An expose of bad businesses and their unethical practices

I will admit that I had never heard of this practice before reading this article. The members of Congress have been getting to see previews of major films for free, ever since Jack Valenti caused a posh 70-seat theatre to be built just two block from the White House thirty-five years ago. Apparently, invitations to these screenings are some of the most prized perks in Washington since the stars of the movies often attend the screenings.

Apparently, after thirty-five years of this,  House and Senate ethics panels have finally noticed that this practice is highly questionable, from an ethics standpoint, since it confers very special lobbying opportunities to the entertainment industry. Perhaps it took so long because those invited include not only Congressment and administration officials, but staffers as well.

Public Citizen, a nonprofit watchdog group that helped implement sweeping new congressional ethics reforms last year, says the screenings violate the ban on gifts from lobbyists. As usual, nor that the practice is out in the open, previous invitees are scurrying out of the light. Those that are not running away as fast as they can are using the lamest line in government corruption: “Something like that would never influence my vote!” Try again. If it would not influence your votes, they would not be spending money on it. This appears to be just Bad Business as usual in our nation’s capital.