Coca-Cola acts like a responsible corporate citizen, or caves to left-wing pressure, depending on your level of crazy
Coca-Cola disassociates itself from ALEC
If you read our 2012 Golden Sleaze awards, you know how we feel about the group known as ALEC, which we described thusly:
”...the free-market fappers at the American Legislative Exchange Council ...”
Now, either because of pressure applied by a coalition of progressive groups or a response to reading our take on said group, Coca-Cola has disassociated itself from ALEC. Okay, it was probably primarily because the progressive advocacy group Color of Change yesterday asked Coca-Cola to please pull its support of ALEC, based on the type legislation the group was trying to get passed across the country. As AJC columnist Jay Bookman explained:
One of its ALEC’s prime functions is to draft business-friendly “model legislation” that is then disseminated to state legislators around the country to be introduced and enacted. When you see a spate of similar bills suddenly pop up almost simultaneously in legislatures around the country, ALEC is almost always behind it.
[Read Bookman’s entire column if you want more details on ALEC and its Jedi mind tricks it uses with weak-willed Georgia lawmakers. It’s excellent.]
Even though it clearly was reacting to progressive pressure, Coca-Cola’s reasoning for disassociating itself from ALEC was simple and sound:
The Coca-Cola Company has elected to discontinue its membership with the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). Our involvement with ALEC was focused on efforts to oppose discriminatory food and beverage taxes, not on issues that have no direct bearing on our business. We have a long-standing policy of only taking positions on issues that impact our Company and industry.
Well, simple and sound unless you’re Fox News. The channel that bends over backward to justify any and all corporate decisions in this case sees Coca-Cola’s move as cowardice. This attitude is evident in this story on Fox’s website, headlined: “Coca-Cola Caves to Left Wing Bullying, Drops from Conservative Group.” Which just makes me giggle, honestly.