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Forbes.com Reviews Wendell Potter's New Book, "Deadly Spin"

CMD's Wendell PotterDavid Whelan blogs about the health care business for Forbes.com, and he's published a review of Wendell Potter's forthcoming new tell-all book about the health insurance industry, Deadly Spin: An Insurance Company Insider Speaks Out on How Corporate PR Is Killing Health Care and Deceiving Americans. After twenty years as head of corporate public relations for two of the country's biggest for-profit health insurers, Wendell gave up his six-figure salary and cushy life as an insurance executive and decided he had to start telling people how the for-profit insurance industry manipulates the government and sticks it to Americans.

Xenophobic Email about Muslim Stamp Resurfaces

EID StampA year-old, anti-Muslim email has resurfaced and is curculating once again, riding the latest wave of U.S. anti-Muslim bigotry. The email urges people to boycott a U.S. postage stamp that recognizes the Islamic holiday of Eid. The stamp, which rumor-mongers mistakenly refer to as a "Muslim Christmas Stamp," was first issued about ten years ago, and is one of six seasonal postage stamps the United States Postal Service sells that commemorate Hanukkah, Christmas, Kwanzaa, Eid, snowmen and music makers. The email was first sent around a year ago by John Piper, the mayor of Clarksville, Tennessee. In it, Piper urged "all patriotic Americans" to protest a U.S. postage stamp commemorating the Islamic holiday of Eid. Piper accused "Muslim Communist" President Obama of ordering the stamp's creation. The stamp was, in fact, created during the George W. Bush administration. A similar stamp, sort of an Arabic Valentine's Day stamp with hearts and a butterfly on it, is also mentioned in the email. That stamp was created on a Web site called Zazzle, that lets people create their own custom stamps, and is not issued by the USPS. Snopes.com recently updated its page debunking this rumor. The USPS's holiday stamps are available here.

Democracy Now! Features CMD's Work Spotlighting BP

Investigative journalists Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzalez recently featured our investigations and analysis of BP's greenwashing and spin. The interview highlights our work responding to BP's involvement in California's environmental curriculum for primary and secondary students, a story broken by Rick Daysog and the Sacramento Bee.

The extensive interview, a transcript of which is available here, also highlights our continuing coverage of BP's use of toxic dispersants. It also helped spread the word about our objections to the judges siding with the oil industry against the proposed deep-sea drilling ban. The interview also discusses CMD's work exposing the millionaire fat cats behind the misleading attack ads against Senator Russ Feingold.

Bailed-Out Banks Finance Predatory Payday Lenders

Al CaponeAmerican taxpayers bailed out the big banks. Now many of those banks are returning the favor by extending credit to payday lenders who sucker consumers into a spiraling debt trap.

That is the claim in a new report published this week by National People's Action (NPA), the Chicago-based community organization. The report, called Predators' Creditors, names Wells Fargo, Bank of America and JP Morgan Chase as some of the biggest lenders to the booming payday loan industry.

"The very same banks that helped tank the economy are now helping the bottom feeders of the industry," says George Goehl, Executive Director of NPA. "The report shows that a $300 payday loan could end up costing you $750. If Al Capone was alive today, I bet you could get a better deal from him."

CMD Introduces Jim Hightower at Fighting Bobfest 2010

The Center for Media and Democracy was asked to introduce national populist leader Jim Hightower at Wisconsin's "Fighting Bob Fest," an annual gathering featuring progressive speakers and "carrying on the tradition of Robert "Fighting Bob" La Follette by providing a forum for progressive ideas" on national issues. Hightower is a New York Times bestselling author whose latest book is "Swim Against The Current: Even A Dead Fish Can Go With The Flow."

ACE, Climate Education, and the Issue of Energy Executives

Note: A prior version of this story previously appeared in PRWatch earlier this summer, and it is being re-posted with some adjustments. For more information, please see the note at the end of the article.)

Alliance for Climate Education logoIn May, PRWatch reported on a new group, "Balanced Education for Everyone" (BEE), that is trying to stop public schools from teaching kids about climate change science. BEE argues that teaching climate change is too scary for kids and "unnecessary." BEE's efforts have also raised other questions: what are kids learning about climate change in school, anyway, and who is influencing it?

It turns out that the issue of who is influencing climate change education has been flying under the radar screen. Especially now, as school budgets are being slashed and schools are increasingly desperate for resources, it is also an area ripe for corporate exploitation or corporate-minded influence.

Petition Against Intolerance Garners Thousands of Signers, including Leaders in National Security and Civil Liberties Fields

Last week, CMD promoted a petition for religious freedom and against intolerance, that was written by Kate Martin, Suzanne Spaulding, and Lisa Graves. Many of you signed this petition, joining thousands of fellow Americans in standing up for religious freedom and against religious bigotry. Deepak Chopra also urged people to stand up with us against intolerance. Almost 3,000 people signed our petition and over 3,000 signed onto a copy our petition circulated separately, in a very short period.

Taking a Stand for Religious Freedom and Against Intolerance

Religious Freedom"All that is necessary for evil to prevail is for good men [and women] to do nothing," wrote Sergei Bondarchuk. In order to stand up to the escalating animosity directed against Muslim Americans, and in light of the upcoming anniversary of 9/11, I helped create this pledge to support religious freedom and stand in solidarity against bigotry and intolerance. I hope people of all faiths, and people of conscience who do not practice a religion, will speak out against the planned burning of the Koran this Saturday, as with the burning of any sacred books or other books. Surely, good men and women in this country vastly outnumber hate mongerer Terry Jones and his little band of religious bigots in Gainesville and elsewhere.

The Supreme Court's "Citizens United" Decision Threatens the 1964 Civil Rights Act

DiscriminationIn Glenn Beck's "Restoring Honor" rally last week, held on the anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.'s 1963 "I Have a Dream" speech, Beck claimed that he and his Tea Party followers would "take back the civil rights movement." While King's speech led Congress to pass the landmark 1964 Civil Rights Act, Beck's movement could lead to that Act's abolishment. Although Beck has not publicly called for overturning the 20th century's greatest piece of equality-advancing legislation, the libertarian philosophy he espouses is at odds with the way the 1964 Civil Rights Act prohibits discrimination by private businesses. While Beck did not clearly state how he would reclaim the civil rights movement (he asserted that his rally was nonpolitical and aimed at "restoring America's traditional values") other leading libertarian right-wingers have called for abolishing some of the Act's most important elements, saying they constitute unnecessary government interference with the market. While undoing the Civil Rights Act through political channels would be almost impossible, the U.S. Supreme Court may have granted the right-wing a means to do so through the judiciary. The Court's reasoning in its January 2009 Citizens United decision could put some of the most important parts of the Civil Rights Act at risk.

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