Readers' Comments

  • Secret Marriage Contracts   14 years 4 weeks ago
    Two contracts for Maggie Gallagher
    Today's Washington Post story describes two federal contracts Gallagher received related to the Bush marriage intiative; a $21,500 contract with Health and Human Services and a $20,000 one with the Justice Department (detailed in [dis:Maggie Gallagher|the SourceWatch article on Gallagher]). So the total is $41,500.
  • Secret Marriage Contracts   14 years 4 weeks ago
    Fair and Balanced
    In the interests of being fair and balanced like some news shows claim to be, It was only $21,500 NOT $41,500. Honest mistake I'm sure. We need to maintain fact at all times or we become like those that we ar trying to stop. Thanks for the story!! :)
  • Who Do You Trust?   14 years 4 weeks ago
    corporate despond
    Its complete nonsense to think that there is any such thing as "corporate social responsibility." There may be the occasional co. that is honest about this, but as long as the capitalism as constitued remains defined by the "bottom line," it will all just be hyperbole of the worst kind, benefiting those who have most to gain, in most cases, as usual. "If we accept what they are giving us, we deserve what we get."
  • PR Bloggers Missing in Action on Payola Scandal?   14 years 4 weeks ago
    Wetting my beak?
    Never mind that -- how do I sign up to get some of that money for advocacy? I've offered my services, but so far have no takers. I can be a shill too! -- esp
  • An Insurgency by Any Other Name   14 years 4 weeks ago
    Words...
    Wording is everything nowadays ain't it?
  • Intensifying the Information War   14 years 4 weeks ago
    Someones gots some smarts
    I guess they decided that paying other PR firms was good but we have a big PR force already on the payroll. Cuz ya know when you have someone on your payroll they have to think like you too.
  • Chain Reaction Letters   14 years 4 weeks ago
    If you think about it...
    In todays world so many things are run by fear and this sounds to me like another advertisment based in fear. Sort of like:"If your afraid of us you should be afraid of everything". They aren't really educating anyone at all. Most of us learned this type of stuff in gradeschool. just my thoughts.
  • Some of the Facts About Wal-Mart   14 years 4 weeks ago
    Misleading Statistics at walmartfacts.com
    In my blog, I analyze the misleading "half-of-the-story" statistics from Wal-Mart's propaganda web site. See http://www.djwriter.com/blog/2005/01/wal-marts-propaganda-site.html (I would paste it here, but it looks awful without the formatting).
  • PR Bloggers Missing in Action on Payola Scandal?   14 years 4 weeks ago
    PR Bloggers and Armstrong Williams Payola
    I don't frequent blogs so much as politically left/progressive news-type websites like democrats.com, bradblog.com, and BuzzFlash.com, and these sites feature this scandal VERY prominently. I have written to my congressional representatives about it and to news website columnists like the New York Times and made a very big deal about it myself. I suspect the scandal may be the just the tip of an enormous viceberg. How many other journalists are secretly on the public payroll -- Robert Novak? The Swift Boat Liars on Kerry? This is perhaps but an expansion and a continuation of the Operation Mockingbird scandal documented on this website.
  • Spies for Hire   14 years 4 weeks ago
    BMO
    The BMO webpage was created by myself for a client who had an idea for a business and wanted a sample webpage created of some possible content to review. Indeed, the photos on the page were lifted entirely from MS Pub 98 as it was intended as just a rough first draft only and was never developed beyond that. The web page was hosted by MIS, but BMO never got off the ground as a business as far as I know and certainly was never a unit of MIS, which is strictly a news and information service. All of this could have easily have been determined by contacting the company via e-mail. Of course, it must be easier to just sit back and assume rather do any real research. The vailidty of the journalism and research regarding other entries on this web site must also similarly be questionable.
  • PR Bloggers Missing in Action on Payola Scandal?   14 years 4 weeks ago
    Better research maybe?
    If you read through Professor Rosen's comments, you'd see that there are many more than just "a few mentions here and there."
  • The American Dream   14 years 5 weeks ago
    Oops
    Thanks...fixed it.
  • The American Dream   14 years 5 weeks ago
    Spelling error on Washington Post author.
    s/b Peter Finn not Peter Finch (ref. the article itself)
  • Inaugural Product Placement   14 years 5 weeks ago
    George W. Capone
    So it's sort of like the concept behind the PT Cruiser; it's cool when a criminal drives it, and it'll appeal to our reptilian brain. -- esp
  • Intensifying the Information War   14 years 5 weeks ago
    The problem is with these dam
    The problem is with these damn reporters hanging around the military personnel. Look at what happened to poor Mr. Rumsfeld! Whose brilliant idea was it to put reporters in with the troops? -- esp
  • Perception Is King   14 years 5 weeks ago
    King vs the dark side
    ah, well we're not very surprised. Mutterings about King by the ExxonMobil-funded right wing anti-climate groups have been going on for some months now, as well as on Tony Blair. http://www.exxonsecrets.org for the real deal on how many of those groups are funded by Exxon.
  • White House Astroturf For Social Security Phase Out   14 years 5 weeks ago
    Some research might help
    I was wondering if someone could create a fictional private Social Security investment account dating back 20 years from today and determine if an average person would have prospered or would have lost everyting. The account would go a long way in proving or disproving if the presidents plan to privatize social security would work. I think the account would need to be invested in index funds and all fees applied as applicable. I don't have the knowledge or resources to accomplish this, so I thought some of your readers might. What do you think?
  • Never Mind the Social Security Numbers   14 years 5 weeks ago
    Social Security
    Social Security should be left out of privatization. The majority of Americans do not know how to invest and many will do so unwisely. A few will do better by this, but the majority will not. This is NOT the way to fix SS. A little Common Sense should tell them that. Franklin Roosevelt would never agree to such a proposal.
  • Calling John Rendon   14 years 6 weeks ago
    Another Speech by Rendon, the "Information Warrior?"
    A reliable source has suggested to me that Rendon might be coming to speak at the Air War College. This would be in line with his past speaking egagements. On February 29, 1996, Rendon spoke before an audience of cadets at the US Air Force Academy. Sheldon Rampton and I reported this in our book "Weapons of Mass Deception: The Uses of Propaganda in Bush's War on Iraq." Rendon bragged about his firm's work, saying: "I am not a national security strategist or a military tactician. I am a politician, and a person who uses communications to meet public policy or corporate policy objectives. In fact, I am an information warrior and a perception manager." Rendon reminded the Air Force cadets that when victorious troops rolled into Kuwait City at the end of the first war in the Persian Gulf, they were greeted by hundreds of Kuwaitis waving small American flags. The scene, flashed around the world on television screens, sent the message that US Marines were being welcomed in Kuwait as liberating heroes. "Did you ever stop to wonder," Rendon asked, "how the people of Kuwait City, after being held hostage for seven long and painful months, were able to get hand-held American, and for that matter, the flags of other coalition countries? Well, you now know the answer. That was one of my jobs then."
  • Flacks Attack "Determined Detractors"   14 years 6 weeks ago
    Ketchum
    Isn't Ketchum the agency that served as the condiut of funds to Armstrong Williams and did video news relesaes for the government on the prescription drug program without identifying the source? And aren't they refusing to answer any questions about their role in these PR fiascos? Just asking.
  • Pushing Pills for Profit   14 years 6 weeks ago
    Pushing Pills For Profit
    I have a sneaking suspicion that most, if not all, of the pharmaceutical companies are headed by CEO's who are staunchly Republican. Has anyone researched this? What makes me suspicious is their way-too-cozy relationship with the FDA, their end-run marketing campaigns past the doctors straight to consumers, their ability to create false levels of alarm with the public by labeling common maladies as "diseases" so they can then market their "solutions", their willingness to push products that they know aren't safe at the time of final FDA approval, and their universal unwillingness to pull products off the market once safety questions are raised (in other words, before enough profits have been earned). Hmmm... Turner N. Gunter III, Pres./CEO Opportunity Knocks, Inc. info@opportunityknocksinc.com
  • Petition from Fired Fox Journalists   14 years 6 weeks ago
    The appellate court overturne
    The appellate court overturned the case because it determined the FCC policy against news distortion was never formally adopted as a rule, and therefore doesn't qualify under the Florida whistleblower statute. There was no finding as to the truthfulness of the story.

    I'm sorry, but I still think this is a slippery slope. Can you imagine what would happen if Michael Powell had jurisdiction over "Rathergate?" It's bad enough that we have to deal with all the conservative horsehockey over "indecency." And since corporations are the ones with the big legal budgets, I think the cast majority of "news distortion" cases brought against broadcasters would involve stories critical of corporations (that is, of course, assuming broadcasters would ever resume running actual stories).
  • Petition from Fired Fox Journalists   14 years 7 weeks ago
    Distortion is already determined, now it's up to the FCC
    "Do we really want to open the Pandora's Box of the FCC determining whether a story is "distorted?" The FCC doesn't need to. Fox itself admitted as much when they had the reporters' whistleblower rewards overturned: "That verdict was overturned in 2003 when an appellate court accepted Fox's defense that since it is not technically against any law, rule or regulation for a broadcaster to distort the news, the journalists were never entitled to employee protections as whistleblowers in the first place."

    "Remember Food Lion and ABC?" Funny, that's exactly what Monsanto wrote to Fox News.

  • Petition from Fired Fox Journalists   14 years 7 weeks ago
    Correct, it never aired
    You're right. Akre and Wilson were fired without their report ever being broadcast. The station then hired a new reporter who produced his own report about BGH, which was significantly different than the one that Akre and Wilson produced. According to Akre and Wilson, the report that aired included the falsifications that they refused to put in their report.
  • Petition from Fired Fox Journalists   14 years 7 weeks ago
    Playing with fire?
    Now Akre and Wilson are petitioning the Federal Communications Commision to reject the station's request for license renewal on grounds that it is not operating in the public interest.

    I wonder if that's really a good idea. While it's true that the FCC has a policy (but not a "rule," which is the distinction the appeals case turned on) against "news distortion," it's never really been enforced because of First Amendment considerations.

    Do we really want to open the Pandora's Box of the FCC determining whether a story is "distorted?" If a real hard-hitting story were broadcast, I can imagine Monsanto (or more likely an astroturf front group acting on it's behalf) turning the tables to quash such reporting. Remember Food Lion and ABC?

    (BTW, for the sake of clarity, while they were indeed ordered to insert falsehoods, I don't believe Akre and Wilson's story ever actually aired.)