This Washington Post Writer Has a Million Dollar Ethics Problem
Shame on the Washington Post for not disclosing or printing disclaimers on his articles, the general public and most of the Post’s readership doesn’t know the “BGR Group” from Adam.
The Washington Post has allowed opinion writer Ed Rogers to advocate for the positions and interests of his lobbying firm’s clients in numerous anti-environmental pieces. The Post and Rogers have not disclosed his major conflicts of interest even though his firm received over $1.6 million in fees in 2014 alone from energy and transportation clients like Chevron, Caterpillar, and the National Mining Association.
Rogers is a Republican strategist who chairs and co-founded the BGR Group with former Gov. Haley Barbour (R-MS) in 1991. As the Post itself has reported, the firm is one of the top Washington D.C. lobbying firms, having banked more than $15 million in 2014. The newspaper’s reporters have described Rogers as a “Republican mega-lobbyist,” “lobbyist extraordinaire,” and “a go-to guy for Republicans.”
One of BGR’s practice areas is energy and transportation, where it professes to having “the industry expertise, Capitol Hill experience and knowledge of government to successfully advocate our clients’ public policy goals.” Rogers is listed as a group leader for the issue area.
On his Post “Insiders” blog, Rogers frequently advocates for positions favored by his energy and transportation clients. While the Post notes that Rogers is “a political consultant” and “chairman of the lobbying and communications firm BGR Group,” the publication fails to disclose Rogers’ firm’s clients and conflicts of interest in his anti-environmental posts. For instance:
More: This Washington Post Writer Has a Million Dollar Ethics Problem