John Stauber's News Articles

Progressive Media - A PR War Room for Obama

by John Stauber — March 28, 2009 - 7:46am
  • Topics: Politics, Propaganda, Think Tanks

    • Liberal think tanks and advocacy organizations formed during the Bush/Cheney regime are working in close and well-funded coordination as a PR messaging machine for the Obama Administration's foreign and domestic policies. A Washington Post blog noted that the Center for American Progress is now running Progressive Media which was begun by Tom Matzzie and David Brock in 2008 and now "represents a serious ratcheting up of efforts to present a united liberal front in the coming policy wars." Progressive Media is a joint project with CAP and Brock's Media Matters Action Network and "headed by well-known liberal operative Tara McGuinness." Matzzie recently reminisced about his work with MoveOn's "Tara McGuinness, Eli Pariser and others" organizing Americans Against Escalation in Iraq. Today MoveOn, USAction and others in that coalition are working hard to push Obama's policies, including rationalizlng or defending his escalation of the wars in Afghanistan and Pakistan as "sustainable security."

    How Obama Took Over the Peace Movement

    by John Stauber — March 27, 2009 - 1:00pm
  • Topics: Afghanistan, Politics, War / Peace

    • John Podesta's liberal think tank the Center for American Progress (CAP) strongly supports Barack Obama's escalation of the US wars in Afghanistan and Pakistan. This is best evidenced by Sustainable Security in Afghanistan, a CAP report by Lawrence J. Korb. Podesta served as the head of Obama's transition team, and CAP's support for Obama's wars is the latest step in a successful co-option of the US peace movement by Obama's political aides and the Democratic Party.

    CAP and the five million member liberal lobby group MoveOn were behind Americans Against Escalation in Iraq (AAEI), a coalition that spent tens of millions of dollars using Iraq as a political bludgeon against Republican politicians, while refusing to pressure the Democratic Congress to actually cut off funding for the war. AAEI was operated by two of Barack Obama's top political aids, Steve Hildebrand and Paul Tewes, and by Brad Woodhouse of Americans United for Change and USAction. Today Woodhouse is Obama's Director of Communications and Research for the Democratic National Committee. He controls the massive email list called Obama for America composed of the many millions of people who gave money and love to the Democratic peace candidate and might be wondering what the heck he is up to in Afghanistan and Pakistan. MoveOn built its list by organizing vigils and ads for peace and by then supporting Obama for president; today it operates as a full-time cheerleader supporting Obama's policy agenda. Some of us saw this unfolding years ago. Others are probably shocked watching their peace candidate escalating a war and sounding so much like the previous administration in his rationale for doing so.

    White House, HCAN, Ignore the Single Payer Option

    by John Stauber — March 25, 2009 - 5:28pm
  • Topics: Activism, Health, Lobbying

    • Most western democracies guarantee their citizens a right to medical services through their own version of government managed single payer health care. But such a system has been attacked in the US as "socialized medicine" since before the 1950s especially by lobbyists for the insurance and drug industries who would see their profits decline. Although Barack Obama was elected on a health care reform platform, his version ignores single payer. Nor is single payer advocated by his allies in the well-funded coalition called Health Care for America Now, composed of MoveOn, USAction, ACORN, Americans United for Change, the unions SEIU and UFCW and other liberal heavy hitters. Journalist Russell Mokhiber, founder of the new group Single Payer Action, notes that no advocate of a single payer system was invited to the recent White House summit on health care reform. Only protests by Progressive Democrats of America and others won an invitation for Congressman John Conyers, sponsor of the United States National Health Care Act: H.R.676. Mokhiber quotes Dr. David Himmelstein of Physicians for a National Health Program: “The President once acknowledged that single payer reform was the best option, but now he’s caving in to corporate health care interests and completely shutting out advocates of single payer reform," even though "the majority of Americans favor single payer, and it’s the most popular reform option among doctors and health economists."

    Hard Times Hit CMD, Too

    by John Stauber — March 23, 2009 - 8:37pm

    Ruinous economic times are rocking the world of non-profit organizations, and our own is not exempt. Recently we've had to slash the Center for Media and Democracy's budget for 2009, cutting back our staffing. So far we've avoided any outright layoffs. A recent article by Eyal Press examines the recession's harsh effect on the world of non-profit organizations; some speculate that 100,000 groups could go belly up.

    Most non-profit organizations depend on some combination of corporate grants, government contracts and labor union funding. We've always eschewed such support to stay independent. We rely on you, our readership, and on grants from other non-profit organizations. Ours is not an easy path but we've always before managed to meet our budget.

    Right now we need your support. Whether you've never contributed, or if you are one of our most generous supporters, please try to help now. We've slashed our spending for 2009, but we still need to raise $150,000 by year's end just to meet our austerity budget and avoid layoffs.

    We intend to survive this great economic unraveling and bounce back stronger. CMD's mission of exposing and debunking government propaganda and corporate spin is more important than ever. Please help by donating now.

    SourceWatch: A Strategic, Collaborative Encyclopedia of the People Behind the News

    by John Stauber — March 18, 2009 - 7:14am

    CMD launched SourceWatch in 2003 as an online encyclopedia of the people, organizations and issues shaping the public agenda. CMD's professional editors and IT staff have crafted a customized version of open source "wiki" software to host more than 40,000 articles and a growing number of branded portals and partnerships.

    Congresspedia Has a New Home at OpenCongress

    by John Stauber — March 9, 2009 - 6:06pm
  • Topics: Citizen Journalism, Internet, U.S. Congress

    • Congresspedia, the CMD citizen journalism project that has thrived inside SourceWatch since 2006, is no longer. Its funder the Sunlight Foundation decided to merge Congresspedia into their OpenCongress project. Much of Congresspedia's content will remain in some form inside SourceWatch but CMD's staff of editors will no longer be regularly updating the articles. CMD is proud to have created what quickly became the best and most extensive 'wiki' website on the US Congress. Our development of Congresspedia led directly to the creation of our growing number of other SourceWatch portals on issues including the tobacco industry, the coal industry, climate change, front groups, global corporations, and the nuclear power industry. We wish the website formerly known as Congresspedia well in its new incarnation at OpenCongress.

    Take This Job and Love It

    by John Stauber — February 23, 2009 - 4:49pm
  • Topics: Activism, Democracy, Media

    • Sixteen years after founding the Center for Media and Democracy and our publication PR Watch, I'm moving on this June to new challenges. The search for my replacement began last week, and we hope that by summer CMD will have a new executive director. I believe that CMD needs a high-energy executive director especially skilled at taking us to our next level of success. At age 56 I want a less demanding life with more personal time.

    Election Protection Wiki: The One-Stop Website for Guarding the Vote

    by John Stauber — November 3, 2008 - 6:21pm
  • Topics: Election 2008, Democracy, Politics

    • What went wrong with voting in last night's U.S. elections, and what went right? The election itself is over except for a few recounts, but the election process is still being scrutinized.

    The Election Protection Wiki, online at http://www.EPWiki.org, is the Center for Media and Democracy's non-partisan collaboration of citizens, journalists and researchers, a one-stop-shop for exposing voter suppression and other threats to election integrity. We collect just the straight facts that are fully referenced to external, verifiable sources. You can get directly involved; we need your help!

    On Election Protection Wiki you'll find links to sites such as Voter Suppression Wiki and TwitterVoteReport, a non-partisan coalition using real-time text-messaging to reveal what's working, what's not, and what needs to be done at polling places to ensure that everyone's vote is counted. See the full list of Election protection and reform organizations and go to our Election Protection map and click on the state of your choice to find its election protection and reform groups.

    The Election Protection Wiki: A Dynamic Website Helps Safeguard America’s Right to Vote

    by John Stauber — October 5, 2008 - 10:00pm
  • Topics: Citizen Journalism, Election 2008, Politics

    • Contact:
    Conor Kenny, Managing Editor, Election Protection Wiki
    Phone: (202) 277-6427; Email: conor@sourcewatch.org

    The non-profit, non-partisan Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) has launched a unique website to help safeguard the fairness and integrity of US elections, using the power of citizen journalism. The Election Protection Wiki is now online at http://www.EPWiki.org . It enables citizens, journalists and government officials to actively monitor the electoral process in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. CMD and its community of volunteer editors will continue to improve, expand and update the EP Wiki beyond the upcoming November 4th election.

    The EP Wiki is part of CMD’s award-winning SourceWatch website and operates on wiki software which allows anyone who registers on the website to participate in creating and updating articles. SourceWatch contains in-depth articles on every member of (and most candidates for) the US Congress at http://www.Congresspedia.org . CMD employs both professional and volunteer editors who work together online to ensure articles are fair, accurate and fully documented.

    Winter Soldier: Eyewitness Accounts of the Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan

    by John Stauber — September 23, 2008 - 7:28pm
  • Topics: Activism, Iraq, War / Peace

    • Two years ago, public revulsion against the Bush Administration's unnecessary and disastrous attack and occupation of Iraq resulted in the Democratic Party taking control of the U.S. Congress. But Nancy Pelosi and the new political leadership backed down before President Bush and refused to withhold funding for the war, while rhetorically denouncing it and thus playing to anti-war voters. The liberal lobby group MoveOn spent tens of millions of dollars on anti-war advertisements and door-to-door canvassing events as part of its partisan campaign to blame the war on the Republicans, while letting Democrats off the hook for giving Bush all the money he wanted to continue the occupation into next year.

    Today, as the 2008 election approaches, worry over Iraq has slipped down the public's list of concerns while more immediate economic issues and the spectacular collapse of the Wall Street investment banks take center stage. However, one anti-war organization has proven especially tenacious, independent and committed to immediately bringing home troops from Iraq and making good to the Iraqi people, while taking care of the soldiers who fought the war. That organization is the Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW) composed of more than thirteen hundred soldiers who have recently served or are still serving in the U.S. military.

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