Public goods and the "free" market

Hi folks: I’m a guest over at SWOPblogger today, with the following commentary.

Tim McGivern has an excellent commentary in the Alibi this week about Press Release Journalism -- you know, how journalists take press releases almost verbatim and turn them into news. In this example he slams the Albuquerque Journal’s Business Outlook for running a story about a commercial chile thinner that was produced at New Mexico State and is now being put into production by a farmer in Columbus. Apparently the reporter for the story is none other than an assistant editor with NMSU Agricultural Communications. That’s right folks -- the Journal is running as news the promotional materials written by publicists.

Good catch, Tim.

Another thing caught my eye in this commentary that I’d like to share. One of the quotes from the Journal story is by Rich Phillips, senior project manager for NMSU’s College of Agriculture and Home Economics:

“This is a major step forward in an effort to mechanize chile production. We saw the need for this machine, developed the technology, tested it and then handed it to a commercial manufacturer.”

You know, it doesn’t get much plainer than that. So, in the future, when this manufacturer, CEMCO Inc., makes a fortune and people chalk it up to their “hard” work and sacrifices, just remember that it was the public that developed their product for them.

keep reading over at swopblogger...