Newspapers in California published pro-TPP columns that appear to have been at least partially authored by lobbyists working for the Japanese government.

Take this column by former San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders, who now serves as the president and CEO of the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce, in the San Diego Union-Tribune, titled: “Trans-Pacific trade pact benefits San Diego.”

Much of the language in Sanders’s op-ed also appears in a “San Diego Draft op-ed” distributed by Southwest Strategies, a consulting firm paid by the Japanese government to promote the TPP:

Jerry Sanders: “Notably, the TPP includes Japan, which is significant …”
Southwest Strategies: “Notably, the TPP includes Japan, which is critical …”

Jerry Sanders: “Trade is essential for sustaining America’s role as the most innovative economy in the world.”
Southwest Strategies: “Trade is essential for sustaining America’s role as the most innovative economy in the world …”

Jerry Sanders: “With more than 95 percent of the world’s consumers outside of our borders, and with more than one in five U.S. jobs dependent on trade, it is essential that the U.S. continue to open new markets for American goods and services, while creating and sustaining jobs for American workers.”
Southwest Strategies: “With more than 95 percent of the world’s consumers outside of our borders, and with more than one in five U.S. jobs dependent on trade, it is critical that the U.S. continue to open new markets for American goods, intellectual property rights and services, and create and sustain high-skilled, high-wage jobs for American workers.”

Or take this column, “TPP Will Strengthen California’s Economy,” by Pat Fong Kushida, the president and CEO of the CalAsian Chamber of Commerce, which was published in a Los Angeles daily newspaper called The Rafu Shimpo, with a truncated version appearing in the Sacramento Business Journal.

Kushida’s pro-TPP column is word-for-word identical to a draft column distributed by Southwest Strategies. The only difference between the draft and the published op-ed are the verb tenses, such as changing “will be” to “was” and “addresses” to “addressed.”

This is why shoddy journalism is bad, they simply repeat the talking points of the government, and in this instance they are caught red handed.

Source: Pro-TPP Op-Eds Remarkably Similar to Drafts by Foreign Government Lobbyists