Hickenlooper Taps Lobbyist to Lead Senate Office Senate candidate John Hickenlooper (D., Colo.) / Getty Images Matthew Foldi • January 22, 2021 4:50 pm
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Colorado senator John Hickenlooper (D.), who fought off attacks regarding his close ties to lobbyists during his campaign for U.S. Senate, has hired a top financial lobbyist as his chief of staff.
Kirtan Mehta, Hickenlooper’s new chief of staff, comes to the job from his perch as a lobbyist for the stock trading app Robinhood. Prior to his work for Robinhood, Mehta worked as senior vice president for congressional relations for the American Bankers Association lobbying Senate Democrats. He entered the lobbying field after several years working for Sen. Joe Manchin (D., W.Va.), where he was an adviser on banking and financial issues.
Local collaboration is key to slowing misinformation
“Again and again, we found that the most damaging misinformation narratives started as local rumors, memes, and misleading photos repackaged and reshared across the country.”
There are no miraculous buttons you can press that will stop the spread of dangerous misinformation online. No sophisticated tech tools or algorithms transparent enough on their face to save humanity. No fact-checks that are so perfectly constructed they get around our cognitive machinery.
But that doesn’t mean we’re powerless. On the contrary, when local media has the opportunity and resources to collaborate and work toward a common goal that’s when strong journalism oriented around public service happens.