The WEEKLY SHOW

The COMMITTEE provided its usual laugh or two this week in its email blast to locals. First up was, at the end of a reproduction of an AFM press release on the AFM lobbying for pension legislation, some trash talk about the RMA not praising the AFM for having done so:

How interesting, but predictable, that the RMA would not want to report
the AFM’s involvement in an event that was such a positive thing for
recording musicians and all who participate in the AFM EP Fund.

One would think that the AFM had done its members a favor by lobbying for this legislation, instead of simply doing its job by using members’ dues dollars to keep the AFM-EPF healthy (or at least healthier). I’m glad that the AFM was successful in this legislative endeavor. But I don’t usually go out of my way to praise my management for trying to sell tickets; that’s their job too, after all.

What really made this funny, though, was the language in the original press release:

In response to the financial crisis, The American Federation of Musicians, along with other labor organizations, successfully lobbied the US House of Representatives and Senate for passage of a crucial piece of legislation temporarily adjusting pension requirements for workers, retirees and employers. AFM International President Thomas F. Lee and Director of Government Relations Hal Ponder worked with a number of organizations, including the AFL-CIO, to realize passage of H.R. 7327, the Worker, Retiree and Employer Recovery Act of 2008, which was unanimously passed by both chambers. This bill gives temporary relief from the pension funding rules of the 2006 Pension Protection Act, to give retirement plans some time to recover from 2008 market losses.

Color me skeptical that the AFM took the lead role in this effort that the press release implied.

Continuing in the role of AFM stenographer, the COMMITTEE approvingly reprinted another press release about the AFM’s endorsement of Michael Dorf for NEA chairman (a move, by the way, that caused some raised eyebrows amongst those familiar with the folkways of Washington; apparently it’s quite unusual to go on record with an endorsement of a potential appointee to such a position, for fear of pissing off whoever actually gets the job).

Of course the AFM might stand a better chance of seeing Dorf appointed if they’d bothered to endorse the guy who’s going to do the appointing.