Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Hastings Group White Paper

From: NEXTEL-1
Date: Thu, 24 Jun 2004 20:50:16 -0400

-------- Original Message --------
From: Gary Allen <[email-masked]>
Subject:  Hastings Group White Paper

Regarding the White Paper posted on The Hastings Group Web site...

You may know that America's special interest groups need 
representation in Washington (DC) to protect their interests. This 
includes huge corporations such as Ford, McDonalds and Shell, but 
also hundreds of smaller associations and groups such as NENA, APCO, 
NASNA, CTIA, etc. But without the funds to hire and place their own 
lobbyist in DC, they hire a PR/lobbying firm. That's where The 
Hastings Group comes in.

They're located over in Arlington (Virg.), in a building with lots of 
other similar companies, all juggling tens or scores of associations 
and companies, and doing whatever they can to present a public image 
or political point of view that favors their client.

In the case of The Hastings Group, they represent the Self-Help 
Credit Union, the Center for Responsible Lending, the the Social 
Investment Forum, the Community Investing Group, Pax World Funds, the 
National Head Start Association, The Pax World Fund, the North 
American Securities Administration Association and many others.

The senior partner of the company is Scott Stapf, a long-time flack 
who once found himself on two sides of the same issue: he worked for 
the Tobacco Institute back in the stone-wall days, and then was hired 
by a state attorneys general association when that wall began to 
break apart, and the lawsuits started flying.

Now, it's a very common practice to lobby Congress, to perform PR, 
and to form coalitions to generate support one political issue or 
another. In fact, for the 800 MHz issue, Nextel formed something 
called "Project: Consensus," and a group of industry radio groups 
formed the "Private Wireless Coalition." In Nextel's case, their 
involvement was completely hidden--no mention of them on the Web site 
(ProjectConsensus.org), or even on the Web site registration page 
(it's registered to the crisis communications company Westhills 
Technologies in NYC). When "Project: Consensus" personnel were 
handing out materials at last year's APCO conference, they were 
reluctant to say for whom they worked. I was able to get an answer 
only after specifically asking, "Who signs your paycheck?" The 
answer, of course, was "Nextel."

So, the real issue is-- who wrote the White Paper, and then hired The 
Hastings Group to push it, and what is that client's motive? To me, 
any argument on the Nextel issue can be considered valid, as long as 
someone is willing to step up and take responsibility for it. Once 
people start whipping out unsigned, unattributed White Papers, it 
gets dicey. I'd also be interested in why the company hired Hastings, 
which focuses more on financially-related clients.

By the way, how did interoperability get linked to the Consensus Plan 
so quickly in The Hastings Group's White Paper? Yikes! The alleged 
cost of 800 MHz reorganization magically increased to $18.3 billion! 
That's some pretty slick math.

Will someone please step forward and take credit for the White Paper?

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