Ethics

Baptist Minister Rents Trouble

by Anne Landman — May 5, 2010 - 1:21pm

George Rekers, a Baptist minister who along with James Dobson co-founded the powerful Christian lobbying group Family Research Council, was spotted arriving at Miami I

Main Source: 
Times Online, May 5, 2010

Washington Post Teams with Coal Industry Front Group

by Anne Landman — April 30, 2010 - 12:02pm

The Washington Post introduced a new web page about politics called PostPolitics.com, and the site's exclusive sponsor is the coal industry's shady front group, the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity (ACCCE).

Main Source: 
MarketWatch.com, April 28, 2010

GOP Voter Registration Fraud Reported in California

by Anne Landman — April 28, 2010 - 9:35pm

The Orange County Register reports that since mid-March, California election officials have received at least 99 written complaints from people who say they were registered to vote as Republicans without their consent.

Main Source: 
Orange County Register, April 16, 2010

Despite New Law, RNC's Latest "Census" Mailer Still Misleads

by Anne Landman — April 27, 2010 - 12:47pm

Just as the official U.S. Census was starting up in March, the Republican National Committee (RNC) sent out deceptive fundraising mailers bearing the words "Census Document." Congress quickly passed a law banning such misleading mailers, but the RNC is persisting in the practice.

Main Source: 
Talking Points Memo, April 26, 2010

Bondage-gate and Donor Money

by PRW Staff — April 12, 2010 - 8:40pm
  • Topics: Right Wing, Ethics, Politics

    • For a political party that presents itself as the party of morality and family-values, should spending $1,946 at a topless, West Hollywood bondage club be interpreted as family bonding? While both parties occasionally fail to spend political donations most efficiently, the Republican National Committee (RNC) faces questions as major newspapers reported last week on the RNC's expenditure at Voyeur, a topless bondage club in West Hollywood.The expenditure was listed on RNC's monthly financial disclosure report to the Federal Elections Commission (FEC). The entire situation is filled with irony as the Republican Party purports to be the party of morals. How moral is it to spend political donors' money at a club with topless dancers? 

    Supreme Discomfort: Doubting the Thomases

    by Brendan Fischer — April 7, 2010 - 9:20pm
  • Topics: Right Wing, Democracy, Ethics, Politics

    • Virginia Thomas, wife of United States Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, recently created the conservative lobbying group Liberty Central, Inc. (http://libertycentral.org), raising concerns about political impartiality for the nation's highest court. Although Americans generally expect justices to be politically neutral and judicial rules prohibit judges from participating in political activity, those rules don't extend to spouses, and a justice's decision to recuse him or herself from a case is theirs alone. Ms. Thomas' group, which has connections to the Tea Party movement, plans to be involved in November's elections and issue "score cards" rating Congress members on their conservatism. According to the group's mission statement, "LibertyCentral.org will serve the big tent of the conservative movement" and aims to "make a difference in the fight for liberty and against the liberal Washington agenda."

    Media Feeds Americans Fake News About Afghanistan

    by Anne Landman — April 5, 2010 - 2:43pm
  • Topics: Afghanistan, Journalism, Ethics, International, Propaganda, U.S. Government

    • Glen Greenwald of Salon.com reports that Americans are being fed false and misleading "news" about the U.S. war in Afghanistan because major American media outlets, like the New York Times and CNN, publish propagandized Pentagon accounts of the violence and killing occurring there, without questioning the information they are fed.

    An egregious example of this occurred on February 12, 2010, when NATO's joint international force issued a press release that bore the headline Joint Force Operating In Gardez Makes Gruesome Discovery. The release said that after "intelligence confirmed militant activity" in a compound near a village in Paktiya province, an international security force entered the compound and engaged "several insurgents" in a fire fight. Two "insurgents" were killed, the report said, and after the joint forces entered the compound, they "found the bodies of three women who had been tied up, gagged and killed."

    But an Afghan news report about the same incident differed wildly.

    Pfizer Pays Out Millions to Doctors

    by Anne Landman — April 3, 2010 - 9:29pm

    Pfizer, the world's biggest drug company, says it paid 4,500 doctors and other medical professionals about $20 million total in professional fees for services like consulting and speaking on behalf of the company, in just the last six months of 2009. During the same period, Pfizer also paid $15.3 million to 250 academic medical centers and other research groups for clinical trials.

    Main Source: 
    New York Times, March 31, 2010

    Study Debunks Insurers' Explanation for Exorbitant Rate Hikes

    by Anne Landman — March 3, 2010 - 3:56pm

    The pro-health care reform group Health Care for America Now has released a study (pdf) that contradicts insurance companies' claims that their recent, exorbitant rate hikes were driven by increases in the cost of medical care.

    Main Source: 
    Health Care for America Now

    WellPoint's Heart-Stopping Rate Increase

    by Wendell Potter — February 17, 2010 - 11:44am
  • Topics: Corporations, Ethics, Health

    • A congressional hearing next week into the proposed 39 percent rate increase in California by health insurance giant WellPoint could breathe new life into health care reform efforts on Capitol Hill, especially if lawmakers broaden their investigation into the outrageous rate increases other insurers are also demanding from coast to coast.

    WellPoint found itself in Congressional investigators' crosshairs after the California Department of Insurance challenged the company's planned increase in the rates it charges its customers who cannot get coverage through the workplace, but have to go it alone in what is called the individual market.

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