The Lie Machine
In a video posted on YouTube on February 3, House Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) explains how the right-wing media machine creates and then spreads disinformation in an effort to smear the left: Step 1: Create the lie, Step 2: Add it to the conservative media echo chamber, and Step 3: Do the hanky panky and spin it all around.
Boehner Heaps Blame
House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) suggested on Fox News that the drawn-out process of passing health reform legislation is hurting the economy. He blamed liberals, but forgot to mention that Republicans adopted a strategy to kill the bill by delaying it as much as possible.
Megabankers Tutor Hill Aides
The heads of the major U.S. banks ditched Obama's big September, 2009 speech about the need for financial reform legislation, but managed to find time in early February, 2010 to tutor Hill staff aides about how to draft favorable legislation.
San Francisco's Toxic Sludge - It's Good for You!
Fifteen years ago CMD's book Toxic Sludge Is Good for You! first exposed the hidden government and industry PR campaign greenwashing toxic sewage sludge as "biosolids," an invented PR euphemism used to cynically re-brand toxic waste as "fertilizer" given free to farmers. Today, unfortunately, the biosolids scam is bigger than ever. The Organic Consumers Association (OCA) reports that "San Francisco has come up with an ingenious plot to trick city residents into taking their toxic sewage sludge back and disposing of it in their own gardens. San Francisco is having Synagro, the corporate giant of the toxic sludge industry, 'compost' some of the toxic sewage sludge. Then they give it away to San Francisco's gardeners telling us it's 'high-quality, nutrient-rich, organic Biosolids Compost.' " OCA has launched a grassroots campaign calling on San Francisco's mayor to stop the practice, noting "municipal sewage sludge routinely contains thousands of dangerous pathogens, toxic heavy metals, flame retardants, endocrine disruptors, carcinogens, pharmaceutical drugs and other hazardous chemicals coming from residential drains, storm water runoff, hospitals, and industrial plants."
U.S. Campaign Advisors Influence Ukraine's Election
Citizens in the Ukraine are starting to see American-style campaign sloganeering and other tactics in the race between their Prime Minister, Yulia Tymoshenko, and her main rival, Viktor Yanukovich, for the office of President. Tymoshenko's banners, billboards and posters bear slogans like "They talk, she works," "They promise, she works," and "They betray, she works." The ad campaign is significant because it is the product of the American political consulting firm AKP&D Message & Media, the company founded by President Obama's chief advisor, David Axelrod. Axelrod's son, Michael, still works for the firm. Mr. Yanukovich, is being advised by Paul Manafort, a Republican strategist from the firm Davis, Manafort & Freedman, Inc., which has advised several U.S. presidents. Ukraine's outgoing president, Victor Yushenko, received American-style help and campaign advice and help from Hillary Clinton's campaign strategist, Mark Penn, who was president of the big American PR firm, Burson-Marsteller. The Ukraine is a gold mine for big American political firms, since it is one of the largest countries in Europe, has obscure and weakly-enforced campaign laws, and the major Ukrainian political parties are backed by big businesses, with money to finance professional campaigns.
Sarah Palin Gets a Hand Up
Ex-Alaska Governor Sarah Palin is becoming more vocal and visible in recent days, and indications are that the upswing will continue. Fox News is building a television studio in Palin's living room in her home in Wasilla, Alaska, so she will be able to reach her political base without leaving home. Palin also sends messages out to her 1.3 million Facebook friends, writes columns for newspapers, sends out Tweets and signs copies of her books for donors to her political action committee. Last weekend, she delivered a paid speech to the Salina, Kansas Chamber of Commerce, headlined the national Tea Party convention in Nashville and make an appearance in Texas to support Governor Rick Perry's re-election bid. She also emailed an endorsement for Dr. Rand Paul in Kentucky's Republican Senate primary and, through Facebook, and called for the resignation of White House chief of staff, Rahm Emmanuel, for using the term "retarded" in a private meeting. Palin also received some criticism for referring to President Obama in her Nashville speech as a "charismatic guy with the teleprompter," while referring to crib notes she had scrawled on her hand during the same speech.
The Right Wing Media's Lie Machine
In a video posted on YouTube on February 3, House Representative Barney Frank (D-Massachusetts) explains how the right wing media machine creates and spreads disinformation in an effort to smear the left. "Disinformation" should not be confused with "misinformation," the unintentional form of wrong information. Disinformation is produced by people who intend to mislead their audience.
Step 1: Fabricate the Lie
Frank tells how John Fund, an editorial writer for the Wall Street Journal, told a lie about him in November of last year: In a speech at a conservative function in Florida called "Restoration Weekend," Fund claimed that, after losing the special election in Massachusetts, Democrats Chuck Schumer and Barney Frank were going to propose a bill to create universal voter registration. Fund further stated that Democrats were going to add all welfare recipients and unemployed people to the voter rolls, and he called it "felon re-enfranchisement."
In reality, Frank explains, there was no such bill.
Megabankers "Educate" Hill Staffers on Writing Financial Rules
Last September, when President Barack Obama gave a major speech on Wall Street urging bankers to support financial reform, the CEOs of the nation's megabanks didn't bother to show up -- a move widely interpreted as a sign of disrespect. But those same CEOs found time to get to Capitol Hill to attend a two-day "Financial Services University" for the 20-something congressional aides who will be helping write the rules designed to rein in and reform Wall Street. The instructional seminar was organized by the Financial Services Roundtable, a powerful lobbying group for the finance industry. Many of the staffers in attendance were barely out of college, but they will soon be a position to help draft new rules that will govern how the megabanks can make their money. Richard Davis, CEO of U.S. Bancorp attended, as did Robert Kelly, CEO of the Bank of New York, who told the staffers that bankers support reducing the number of regulators watching the industry. (Kelly told the group the U.S. has "zillions.") The CEOs did not mention the factors that led to the liquidity crunch, like the sky-high leveraged bets made possible by the lack of regulation, or how their actions blew up the economy and nearly destroyed the financial system. Instead, they talked about how the recently-passed credit card reform measures will hurt their companies. Nor did Kelly or Davis mention that the $800 million in revenue they'll miss after the rules go into effect is money they were taking from average Americans through unfair overdraft charges and predatory fees.




