Corporations

Op-Ed

Insurers Deliberately Confuse Policyholders and Dump the Sick

by Wendell Potter — August 22, 2011 - 12:48pm
  • Topics: Corporations, Ethics, Health

    • A couple of years ago, when Sen. Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia asked me to testify about little-known health insurance industry practices at a hearing of his Senate Commerce Committee, I initially was reluctant. I knew that if I was completely honest, my life would change forever.

    What he was asking me to do was to disclose practices that have contributed to the growing number of Americans without insurance, the even faster growing number of us who are underinsured, and the phenomenal increase in insurance industry profits over the years, even as the ranks of those without coverage swelled.

    Guest Contributor

    Publicopoly: ALEC and the Bid to Make Private All That is Public

    by Beau Hodai — August 22, 2011 - 12:16pm
  • Topics: ALEC Exposed, Corporations, Democracy, Politics

    • The Center for Media and Democracy is reposting Beau Hodai's examination of the privatization schemes advanced by the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), as part of CMD's effort to report on, and gather reporting about this organization through our ALECexposed.org work. This story was originally published by DBA Press (pdf) and is also available for download through this link. (pdf) You can also jump to the article's source materials directory here.

    Guest Contributor

    “Legislative Laundry” -- Investigative Report on the Mechanics of the ALEC Scholarship Fund

    by Beau Hodai — August 22, 2011 - 11:30am
  • Topics: ALEC Exposed, Corporations, Democracy, Politics

    • The Center for Media and Democracy is reposting Beau Hodai's investigation of so-called "scholarships" funded by corporations to bring state politicians to gatherings of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), as part of CMD's effort to report on and gather reporting about this organization through our ALECexposed.org work. This story was originally published by DBA Press. You can also download this report in PDF format and you can view documents relating to ALEC scholarship fund activity here.

    News

    Brownskins and Greenbacks: ALEC, the For-Profit Prison Industry and Arizona’s SB 1070

    by Beau Hodai — August 22, 2011 - 11:29am
  • Topics: ALEC Exposed, Corporations

    • (The Center for Media and Democracy is pleased to reprint this illuminating article about the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) and reactionary immigration policies pushed into law in Arizona, as part of our ongoing reporting on ALEC and gathering of reporting about this organization in our work on ALECexposed.org. This story was originally published by DBA Press in June 2010)

    "Beside my brothers and my sisters, I'll proudly take a stand. When liberty's in jeopardy, I'll always do what's right. I'm out here on the frontline, sleep in peace tonight. American soldier, I'm an American soldier..."

    So goes the ringtone on Arizona State Senator Russell Pearce's phone -- as performed by Toby "'cause we put a boot up your ass, it's the American way" Keith. Seconds into any conversation with Pearce on the issue of illegal immigration, you'll find the song fits. Pearce is -- in his mind -- the "American soldier." What's more, just as he sees himself a soldier, Pearce envisions his home to be none less than the front in a war which threatens the very fiber of the nation.

    News

    Tar Sands Action to Commence Saturday at White House

    by Steve Horn — August 18, 2011 - 6:01pm
  • Topics: Activism, Corporations, Energy, Environment

    • Saturday marks the commencement of the Tar Sands Action, which will take place in front of the White House.

    It is a two-week long civil disobedience campaign, planned to last through September 3, demanding that the Obama Administration turn down the proposal to build the Keystone XL Pipeline.

    The 1,980-mile pipeline is slated to transport the dirtiest oil in the world from Alberta's tar sands down to southeast Texas. The pipeline's route overlaps with the Ogallala Aquifer, which supplies 82 percent of the people that live within the aquifer's boundary their drinking water. It would also snake through the Nebraska Sand Hills, which is a vital wetland ecosystem, containing a diverse array of plant and animal life.

    News

    New Documentary Explores Subconscious Manipulation by Corporations and Others

    by Rebekah Wilce — August 18, 2011 - 5:54pm
  • Topics: Advertising, Video News Releases, Corporations, Media, Propaganda, Public Relations, U.S. Government

    • It's our responsibility as journalists to let the public know who is paid by what corporation, or if they're representing the government. Otherwise, it's unforgivable. The media is our lens on the world. And it is absolutely critical we trust the media. Because, ultimately, when people are terrorized, when people are targeted, when people are marginalized, that does not make any of us safer.

    - Amy Goodman, interview in "Programming the Nation?" documentary

    News

    Walker Lets Tax Cheats and Campaign Contributors Off The Hook

    by Sara Jerving — August 17, 2011 - 7:36am
  • Topics: Corporations

    • As Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker pushes austerity as the only solution to reducing the state's deficit spending, it seems as though there are a few exceptions to his idea of "shared sacrifice." S.C. Johnson & Son, one of the state's wealthiest firms, is one of many companies that pays nothing in state income tax -- increasing the burden on citizen taxpayers, according to a new project by the Institute for Wisconsin's Future.

    Op-Ed

    Corporations are People, My Friend, and So are States, Say GOPers

    by Wendell Potter — August 15, 2011 - 1:28pm
  • Topics: Corporations, Ethics, Health

    • While on the campaign trail in Iowa, former corporate executive and Republican governor of Massachusetts Mitt Romney shot back at hecklers who were challenging his stance that it would be unfair and unwise to raise taxes on wealthy individuals and corporations to reduce the deficit.

    "Corporations are people, my friend," Romney said. "Everything corporations earn ultimately goes to the people. Where do you think it goes? Whose pockets? People's pockets! Human beings, my friend."

    Democrats were quick to pounce.

    Op-Ed

    ALEC: Facilitating Corporate Influence Behind Closed Doors

    by Brendan Fischer — August 15, 2011 - 9:53am
  • Topics: ALEC Exposed, Corporations, Democracy, Ethics

    • Through the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), corporations pay to bring state legislators to one place, sit them down for a sales pitch on policies that benefit the corporate bottom line, then push "model bills" for legislators to make law in their states. Corporations also vote behind closed doors alongside politicians on this wish-list legislation through ALEC task forces. Notably absent were the real people who would actually be affected by many of those bills and policies.

    With legislators concentrated in one city, lobbyists descend on the conference to wine-and-dine elected officials after-hours, a process simplified by legislators' schedules being freed from home and family responsibilities. Multiple Wisconsin lobbyists for Koch Industries, the American Bail Coalition, Competitive Wisconsin, State Farm, Pfizer, and Wal Mart were in New Orleans, as were lobbyists for Milwaukee Charter School Advocates, Alliant Energy, and Johnson & Johnson. Corporations also sponsor invitation-only events like the Reynolds American tobacco company's cigar reception, attended by several Wisconsin legislators including Health & Human Services chair Leah Vukmir.

    News

    Florida Governor Scott Reduces Choice and Competition in Health Care

    by Wendell Potter — August 11, 2011 - 12:26pm
  • Topics: Right Wing, Corporations, Health

    • As he was gearing up to run for governor of Florida, Republican Rick Scott emerged as one of the most vocal opponents of what he and others began referring to as "Obamacare."

    Scott created, chaired and bankrolled a group called Conservatives for Patients Rights that spent millions of dollars on TV commercials attacking health care reform, especially a proposal calling for the federal government to create a public health insurance option to compete with private insurers.

    In one ad, the narrator said the votes of a few key senators could determine whether or not Americans would be able to keep their own doctors and their own health insurance plans. The implication was clear -- people would lose the ability to choose their own doctors if health reform passed.

    Trouble was, it wasn't true.

    Syndicate content