Politics

The Ethics Truce Lives On

Republican congressman Randy "Duke" Cunningham recently resigned after pleading guilty to graft and tearfully admitting that he took $2.4 million in bribes from defense contractors, prompting an interesting question from Joshua Micah Marshall: "How did Duke Cunningham manage to get so far entangled in an ethics mess that he had to plead guilty to federal charges of accepting bribes without anyone re

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Academic Freedom Ain't What It Used to Be

This summer the Wisconsin-based staff of the Center for Media and Democracy had the pleasure of working with Molly Riordan, an Ithaca College student, who came out to Madison to be our intern. A smart and politically engaged student, Riordan quickly took to our work, adding and editing numerous articles on SourceWatch, our collaborative online encyclopedia of the people, issues and groups shaping public opinion and public policy.

I suggested that she write an article on something of interest to her. What resulted was the cover story for the third quarter issue (now available online) of our award-winning quarterly publication PR Watch. In her article "Academic Freedom Takes a Step to the Right," Riordan takes a look at Students for Academic Freedom, a conservative organization with over a hundred campus chapters that claims to promote "academic diversity." Closer examination of SAF reveals its close affiliation with "Marxist-turned-conservative activist" David Horowitz and a pattern of only identifying cases involving conservative students resisting alleged "leftist indoctrination."

One Step Forward (But Two Back) in the Fight Against Fake News

"Myself and others felt violated by the first bill," said Doug Simon, the founder, president and CEO of D S Simon Productions, a major producer of the faux television news reports known as video news releases (VNRs).

Doug (Pee Wee) SimonSimon was referring to the Truth in Broadcasting Act (S 967). In its original incarnation, this bill would have required a "conspicuous" disclosure to accompany any government-produced or -funded prepackaged VNR or the radio equivalent, an audio news release (ANR).

How a Lobbyist Stacked the Deck

The Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal continues to unravel. In a page one story, the Washington Post shows how Abramoff helped eLottery, a company that sells lottery tickets online, defeat the Internet Gambling Prohibition Act of 2000 by paying a coalition of Christian and other conservative groups to oppose the bill on the grounds that it would promote gambling.

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