WashPost reporter Dalton Bennett provides this item for the “Nothing to see here, folks. Move along, move along” file:
A prominent Washington-area economist wrote an opinion piece welcoming the arrival of Amazon’s new headquarters in Northern Virginia at the suggestion of a company official who hoped to build public support for the project before a key Arlington County Board vote, emails show.
Stephen S. Fuller, a professor at George Mason University, also showed the article to Amazon public relations staff before publication and invited them to suggest changes — although he rejected their revisions.
But wait, there’s more:
Fuller has conducted economic research for pay for both government and private entities. In November, he was the principal author of a state-sponsored study on the impact of locating the new Amazon headquarters in Arlington.
GMU received $45,980 for the paper, which was commissioned by the Virginia Economic Development Partnership, the agency that led the effort to woo Amazon to the state. The contract specified that Fuller would conduct media interviews about his results at no extra cost.
Fuller didn’t bother to tell the Washington Business Journal, which published his piece, about any of this because, he told the Post, “I didn’t think it was material”, even though the Journal, after the fact, disagreed.
Folks at GMU, like GMU Provost S. David Wu, were happy to defend Fuller, since, after all, he didn’t get paid for it—at least not directly. As Fuller himself explained, “It’s very complicated, but I didn’t sell out.”
Actually, I don’t think it’s very complicated. He didn’t sell out, because he had already sold out. And so had GMU.
Afterwords
Actually, I myself approved of the Amazon deal to locate in Crystal City and particularly defended CC-town from its snobbish detractors up the road in Manhattanville, but I didn’t get paid for it. I guess I should learn to monetize my opinions, like the Fuller Center folks at GMU.
