Colorado Child Protection Ombudsman ‘Will Look Into’ Relationship With USA Swimming’s PR Firm, Ground Floor Media — Expects Full Response Later This Week
My Struggle Continues to Help the Office of the Colorado Child Protection Ombudsman — Cheerful Client of Sex-Abuse Haven USA Swimming’s Ground Floor Media
August 9, 2013Links to Concussion Inc.’s Coverage of Ground Floor Media and Its Conflicting PR Clients — USA Swimming and the Colorado Child Protection Ombudsman
August 14, 2013by Irvin Muchnick
Dennis Goodwin, chief of the Colorado Child Protection Ombudsman office, has told Concussion Inc. that he is investigating the background of our reports establishing that the ombudsman has an ethically dubious contract for public relations services with Ground Floor Media of Denver — which is also the PR firm for Colorado Springs-based USA Swimming.
“I … will look into the matter,” Goodwin emailed us this morning.
Asked when we could expect fuller information, Goodwin replied, “I should have a response by Friday.”
Ground Floor Media’s role has two controversial aspects. One concerns any use of a private PR vendor by a government agency. The other concerns the fact that Ground Floor is also described — in an internal USA Swimming memorandum published recently on this site — as the “partner” of the U.S. Olympic Committee’s national sport governing body in a $200,000 strategic plan to combat criticism of the generation-long scandal of sexually abusive coaches, and their cover-up.
Later this month, the staff of Congressman George Miller of California, ranking Democrat on the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, will be meeting in Washington with USOC and USA Swimming officials. This follows Miller’s June request to the Government Accountability Office to expand to athletic programs, including swimming, an ongoing investigation of mandatory sexual abuse reporting requirements in federal laws.
Follow https://concussioninc.net and @irvmuch on Twitter for further developments.