Midday Open Thread
Posted by admin | Posted in Politics | Posted on 12-02-2010-05-2008
0
- Nick Beres provides a media example of how lynch mobs get started in his fear-mongering piece on WTVF-TV speculating with zero evidence that a Muslim community in Tennessee The local sheriff told him nothing is going on. And Beres got a tour of the place in which he turned up nothing. But that didn’t stop his hysterical piece from airing.
- Sebastian Jones gives us the lowdown on . A four-month investigation by The Nation has found:
Since 2007 at least seventy-five registered lobbyists, public relations representatives and corporate officials–people paid by companies and trade groups to manage their public image and promote their financial and political interests–have appeared on MSNBC, Fox News, CNN, CNBC and Fox Business Network with no disclosure of the corporate interests that had paid them. Many have been regulars on more than one of the cable networks, turning in dozens–and in some cases hundreds–of appearances.
For lobbyists, PR firms and corporate officials, going on cable television is a chance to promote clients and their interests on the most widely cited source of news in the United States. These appearances also generate good will and access to major players inside the Democratic and Republican parties. For their part, the cable networks, eager to fill time and afraid of upsetting the political elite, have often looked the other way. At times, the networks have even disregarded their own written ethics guidelines.
- Architect Jason McClennan, CEO of the Cascadia Green Building Council, ponders .
- This is not an Onion item: , the madam who supplied prostitutes for former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer, is planning her own run for governor of New York as a Libertarian. And rap superstar 50 Cent is apparently supporting her. — Steve Singiser
- Newt Gingrich has been touting the idea of what amounts to an act of war, sabotaging Iran’s oil infrastructure, for at least eight months. So you would think, by now, he would know something about it. He doesn’t seem to. In an interview, he says Iran has , including one new one that came on line 11 months ago. These produce about 62% of the country’s daily gasoline needs.
- One thing the media can expect from a Palin Presidency:
- IOKIYAJL. During the Cheney-Bush years, Sen. Joe Lieberman said on at least four occasions that critics of the administration’s policies on terrorism were helping al-Qaeda and harming America. Now, in response to by senior counterterrorism adviser John Brennan, Joe is saying that administration critics should not be viewed as One thing Joe is consistent about: sticking up for Republicans.
- Gina Welch points out that at :
down in little Lynchburg, VA, the Liberty Counsel is getting ready to fete true romance with a conference on the “consequences of same-sex attraction.” That’s amore!
Now, now. Order in the court, order in the court. Let’s give the agenda a chance. Maybe there’ll be a multiplicity of viewpoints on the issue. Laypeople are welcome, so let’s head on down. First up, an address by Alan Chambers, president of Exodus International, the group involved in the Uganda conference that led to a bill threatening to imprison and kill gays there. Hm. Maybe I’ll clean out my purse in the lobby and wait for the next panel.
- The Sunlight Foundation has a new report out on . Marcy Wheeler has an analysis .
- The proposed by Rep. Kerry Gibson in the Utah state legislature had called global warming a “well organized and ongoing effort to manipulate and incorporate ‘tricks’ related to global temperature data in order to produce a global warming outcome.” Those pushing for action to ameliorate climate change would “ultimately lock billions of human beings into long-term poverty.” But by the time the passed, the term “climate data conspiracy” and some other inflammatory language had been removed. The call for an end to any action regulating carbon dioxide remained, pending an “independent investigation.”
- Matt Yglesias explores .
Defense industry advertising is critical to the finances of a lot of Beltway-focused publications about politics. Defense contractors are the biggest advertising on Metro. Defense contractors are leading sponsors of DC-area sports franchises and leading contributors to DC-area charities. Defense contractors donate to DC think tanks. Every social group of college-educated Washingtonians includes people who work directly or indirectly for the military or for defense contractors. Of course nobody says “I’m going to vote in favor of invading Iraq because I saw a Northrup Grumman ad at the Verizon Center.” But all this spending does, I think, have an impact. To be a fan of large and growing defense budgets is, in the context of Washington DC, to be a respected pillar of the community. To be an advocate of reduced military spending is to be a hippie freak.