Consulting, Politics, and Media

by Confab Comm

The big news in DC Consulting circles regards the publicized conflict between on-air television news experts and their private consulting roles. As The Plum Line Blog on The Washington Post covered the following:

“…The case of two CNN contributors, Alex Castellanos and Hilary Rosen, and their work for BP.

This morning’s Washington Post reports that BP has retained the services of Rosen, a Democrat who heads the Washington office of the Brunswick Group, to help out with BP’s lobbying and public relations offensive inside the Beltway.

Rosen has contracted out some of this work for BP to Castellanos, a Republican consultant who’s perhaps best known for the racially charged Jesse Helms ad showing white hands ripping up a resume.”

Is there a conflict of interest if consultants consulting for a firm in an unrelated market then present opinion on television news for another? (in this case consulting for BP public relations while providing commentary on politics) In this example the highly publicized oil spill places BP immediately into the political spectrum meaning there probably is a conflict. Consultants, at the same-time, do need to earn a living and would have no reason to reject a client based upon their infrequent television commentary positions.

The biggest gaffe these individuals made is to step into the highly polarizing BP fiasco. The result of the controversy should be watched by consultants in all other fields to gauge the public tolerance for conflicts of interest and the net repercussions of such conflicts.

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