Libel law gives a lot of leeway to the claims made in op-eds. CREW’s Melanie Sloan
probably didn’t libel
the lefty college activism group Campus Progress, an arm of the Center for American Progress, with this Politico op-ed. But Sloan should be embarrassed by the innuendo in here. She notes that short-seller Steve Eisman, who should be familiar to anyone who read
The Big Short
, appeared before Congress to testify about the problems with for-profit colleges. OK, fine. Then:
Campus Progress also appears to be funding an ad campaign on MSNBC and Fox to promote these regulations. The group has, in the past, suggested scurrilous profit motive on the part of those who deviate from its own position. But it’s worth noting that major ad campaigns require major donors .
Sloan’s full of it. Cable campaigns in the D.C. area are dirt cheap, which is why there are so many of them. Campus Progress’s communications director Katie Andriulli says the think tank spent $4000 in order to get the ad running on MSNBC and Fox News at times between 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. – ie, before prime time.
I’d say Sloan damages CREW’s credibility
with stuff like this
, but she left it pretty well dented in 2009 when CREW launched a campaign against Dell because her computer
did not get next-day service
the next day after she had a problem with it.
