Rebecca Leber, Andy Kroll and Russ Choma at Mother Jones report that the Environmental Protection Agency has hired a leading Republican opposition research firm to “track and shape press coverage of the agency.” The $120,000 no-bid contract is with Definers Group, founded by Matt Rhoades. He managed Mitt Romney’s failed 2012 bid for the presidency. After that defeat Rhoades set up America Rising, which the MJ team describes as ...
an ostensibly independent political action committee that works closely with the Republican National Committee and Republican candidates to mine damning information on opponents. Other higher-ups at Definers include former RNC research director Joe Pounder, who’s been described as “a master of opposition research,” and senior vice president Colin Reed, an oppo-research guru billed as “among the leaders of the war on [Sen. Elizabeth] Warren.”
This for-profit consulting firm offers a variety of public relations services such as digital strategy, political consulting, and media relations. [...]
The company also specializes in using the press and social media to “validate your narrative.” According to the company’s website, one of the tools to help do this is its “Definers Console” media-tracking technology. Reed said his firm contracted with Pruitt’s office at the EPA, which is the first governmental client to pay for the Definers Console. The technology promises “war room”-style media monitoring, analysis, and advice, according to marketing materials.
An EPA spokeswoman said the Definers contract is for “media monitoring/newsclip compilation.” The agency signed a contract for such services with a different firm in early 2016. But this was with Bulletin Intelligence, which isn’t political, according to the MJ team. Given Definers’ principals, you can bet that newsclip compilation will be the least of the activities engaged in.
Given the awful record that EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt has been chalking up since he took over the job, and the media attention he’s been getting for it, going on the attack against the media with the help of taxpayer-funded professionals is no surprise.
And that’s what can be expected from Definers, perhaps deploying a more sophisticated version of the “fake news! fake news!” mantra offered daily by Pr*sid*nt Trump. Along with some smears of critics of the Trump regime’s EPA. Definers will no doubt do what it can to keep its fingerprints off those attacks.