Sean Duffy’s Reality Show Pitch Deck Sought $1 Million From Companies He Regulates

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy created a reality show of his family going on a road trip and it was funded by several of the companies that he regulates, including United Airlines, Boeing and Toyota.

Duffy and his wife, Fox News host Rachel Campos-Duffy, were both contestants on different seasons of The Real World and met while filming Road Rules: All Stars. Initially, the effort was criticized for:

• Taking time off ‘work’ to do this
  
• Being tone deaf, releasing a ‘road trip’ show direct to YouTube while gas prices are high

However, it seems to me that taking a current and former Fox News star, both with reality TV experience, and having them promote U.S. travel and tourism around the country’s 250th birthday is fine and exactly the sort of anodyne thing you’d expect. They aren’t being paid extra for the effort, although it does get them additional exposure which could be to their benefit. (Duffy’s predecessor at Transportation, Pete Buttigieg, was often derided as the ‘Secretary for Being On TV’ so this is hardly unique to Republican leaders of DOT.)

The problem is the sponsorship, and it works in both directions.

• DOT should not be shaking down companies that it regulates.
  
• Nor should it be accepting funds from those companies, who might expect better treatment from their regulator in exchange.

Politico got the pitch deck that was used to raise money, looking for “$1 million, $500,000, $250,000 and $100,000” level sponsors. They initially planned partnering with a “major streaming” service. The show’s target audience is “Married moms (ages 28–54) with children,” maybe because it portrays the Duffy family and they have nine kids? (The husband of one of whom is running for Congress, and he’s been able to raise money from Delta Air Lines, Southwest Airlines, GM, and Brightline, heh.)

Sponsorship comes with “VIP invitations to…networking” in other words “if you paid enough to sponsor Sec. Duffy’s reality show, you could get coveted access to Duffy.”

There’s nothing wrong with the project as such, although judging from the trailer I expect it to be unwatchable. And while I love a globalized world, there’s something a bit strange about sending the government’s head transportation regulator off on the ‘great American road trip’ celebrating the nation’s founding, in a Toyota.

What’s concerning, though, is the reasons why a company might spend $100,000 – $1,000,000 to support this project. One way or another it’s an effort to curry favor – either protection money or seeking a benefit from the administration. United spent $1 million on the president’s inauguration, its CEO went on the Deputy Chief of Staff’s wife’s podcast. He pitched the President on being allowed to buy American Airlines (antitrust). United actually lost one of its past CEOs in a scandal doing favors for a politician (where there was personal benefit to that politician, in exchange for official action).

All airlines are regulated for safety, want constant approvals in operations, and have battles to flight over slots and air traffic capacity. Boeing needs approval for its MAX -7 and -10 aircraft, and to have production caps lifted as safety monitoring moves back in-house. To be sure, this administration is not the first to do unseemly things! That doesn’t make it any less improper.