Whitmire's Slander-For-Hire Media Debut
Houston Mayor agrees to appear in sponsored Wayne Dolcefino video attacking low-income housing for Harvey Victims
Update: This story has been updated with a response from City Hall below.
Mayor Whitmire, who has pledged to bring increased transparency to city hall, appears to be willingly playing his part in a shadowy, right-wing effort to kill a local low-income housing project. The 800 Middle Street project is designed to help relocate Hurricane Harvey victims and those displaced by TxDOTs massive I-45 project.
Whitmire agreed to an “interview” for this paid conspiratorial video produced by slander-for-hire private investigator Wayne Dolcefino. In the video, the mayor all but urges residents who would benefit from the project to sue the city.
Dolcefino does not disclose who funded his latest video project or its ad budget, but the funds are enough to boost the video as “sponsored” content across at least one social media platform.
Why it matters: The effort to prevent Harvey victims from being relocated to the project is being coordinated by Rachel Palmer Hooper, the top lawyer for the Texas Republican party.
Yes, that Rachel Hooper.
Using a familiar playbook, Hooper partnered with right-wing journalist Holly Hansen and conservative Fox 26 news commentator Greg Groogan to invent a public scandal - this time a radio tower “fall zone” scare (see here, and here) - to alarm the public and give the Whitmire Administration cover to oppose the project.
Groogan: “We’ve learned potential residents of 800 Middle Street will also have to worry about tons of steel crashing from the sky into their apartments,”
Reality check: Thousands of Houstonians live within the “fall zone” of large buildings and towers, including residents living downtown and near dozens of other similar transmission towers. There’s no evidence to suggest that this particular tower is at risk of falling any more than other tall structures in our city may be.
You can’t make this up: Fox 26’s own transmission tower near Missouri City appears to be within the “fall zone” of a local firefighting station, the Hardy Toll road, and a residential development. A fact ignored, of course, by Groogan.
Zoom Out: Whitmire is already off to a rocky start to his mayoral term, most recently catching heat for refusing to meet with Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo ahead of hurricane season. Reports that Whitmire has made time for the likes of Dolcefino and anti-public transit activist Bill King run counter to his public defense that he’s too busy to meet with the county’s top elected official.
Whitmire responds: Mary Benton, Mayor Whitmire’s Communications Director had this to say in response to our questions about his participation in Dolcefino’s commercial:
We did not schedule an interview or meeting with Mr. Dolcefino.
Like other journalists do at times, he showed up at one of the mayor’s publicized events and asked him questions.
Mayor Whitmire does not run from the media and stopped to speak to Mr. Dolcefino.
The mayor has no knowledge of the issues you mentioned in your article.