I was pleasantly surprised to see our local NBC affiliate expose activities of the American Legislative Exchange Council in Georgia. The report by Brendan Keefe of 11Alive News consisted of a former Georgia legislator, a former member of ALEC who disapproved of corporations writing and voting on legislation drafted in private meetings with legislators.
This was followed by reporting from the hotel where one of those conferences was held. Even though Keefe was credentialed to attend meetings at the conference, he was soon ejected from one of those meetings. The communications director for ALEC then demanded that Keefe leave the premises event though Keefe stated that he was a registered, paying guest at the hotel. That was when the communications director called in the paid off-duty sheriff's deputies. When Keefe calmly asserted that he was a hotel guest the deputies assured him that he wouldn't be for long.
I can't link to the report as it isn't available on the 11Alive website. Here is the teaser posted on Brendan Keefe's Facebook page.
http://11alive.wistia.com/...
Keefe's page at 11Alive:
http://www.11alive.com/...
Update:
Rec List! I'm glad people saw this. It's some really astoundingly good journalism by Keefe. It demonstrates to Georgians that their business is going on behind closed doors out of the public. Rather than the softball questions we've come to expect from the media, Keefe has asked the right ones.
Update #2 5/21/15 3:20 pm EDT
Thanks to those who posted links to the entire report. I've been away from the computer today and couldn't mind the diary. Here's the report: