How Come CBS Journalists Can’t Recognize Paid Lobbyists When They See Them?

[babylonsister]

http://campaignsilo.firedoglake.com/2009/08/04/how-come-cbs-journalists-cant-recognize-paid-lobbyists-when-they-see-them/

How Come CBS Journalists Can’t Recognize Paid Lobbyists When They See Them?
By: Jane Hamsher Tuesday August 4, 2009 9:34 am


If you got your information from the CBS News last night, you would believe that "angry protesters" are cropping up "everywhere Democrats are trying to defend health care reform." "Conservative websites" like Freedomworks are recruiting them, based on "real fear over the increased taxes" and "government control" of the health care system.

Max Pappas from Freedomworks shows up to speak on their behalf.

Freedomworks isn't some "organic grassroots" outfit. It's run by former Republican House Majority Leader Dick Armey -- corporate lobbyist, global warming denier and ladie's man. The President and CEO of Freedomworks is Matt Kibbee, who was trained by Lee Atwater. Kibbe was behind the attempt to get Ralph Nader put on the ballot in Oregon in 2004, prompting a complaint to the FEC of illegal collusion with the GOP.

Steve Forbes is on the FreedomWorks board. As Paul Krugman noted, their money comes from the Koch, Scaife, Bradley, Olin nexus, as well as other reliable funders of right wing infrastructure including Exxon Mobil.

Freedomworks has a long history of skunk works. In 2004, a woman who identified herself as a "single mother" in Iowa, Sandra Jacques, appeared at a George Bush town hall and gushed about his plan to privatize Social Security. She left out the part about being an employee of Freedomworks, who were lobbying on the issue at the time.

David Koch is also Chairman of the other major outfit heavily involved in these "organic" uprisings, Americans for Prosperity, whose members lynched Democrat Frank Kratovil in effigy. Koch is the 19th richest man in the world. They recently renamed the New York State Theater in Lincoln Center the David H. Koch Theater.



These aren't just some organizations that these guys gave money to. They run them.

This extreme violent behavior is being organized and funded by those at the highest levels of the conservative infrastructure. It's not some sideline, some quirky hobby. It is the function and purpose of these organizations to threaten and intimidate elected officials in order to subvert the will of the electorate to a corporate agenda.

As DDay says, "This is not about policy. It's about incitement to violence."

The country overwhelmingly does not trust the private insurance industry. Even internal GOP polls show that 58% of Republicans support "creating a government run health insurance agency that will compete with private insurance companies," as do 76% of the American public.

According to the North Carolina Institute of Medicine, there are 52 million Americans currently without health insurance. We are a country in crisis. If the government cannot respond by delivering a public plan with a President who campaigned on creating one, a 60 vote Democratic majority in the Senate, a Speaker of the House who has committed to doing so and majority support in both parties among the public, then we do not live in a representative democracy any more. The country is ungovernable.

And that is in large part because organizations like CBS and the New York Times do not report the news when it is right in front of them. They pass off these transparent lobbyist funded thuggery as a grassroots effort. They do not say who is organizing these violent uprisings, or how they are being funded. These media outlets are playing a critical role by telling the country that its people believe something that they don't. It is blatant propaganda being passed off as news, and it is to "journalism" what David H. Koch is to "grassroots."

[gratuitous]

1. Oh, it's just too confusing for their little minds!

They don't have time to figure out who's being paid off by whom and where these "spontaneous" speakers' bureaus with carefully prepared identical talking points all come from. CBS is just a little boutique country store of a network, with hardly any resources at all. Okay, they do have experts on kerning who can distinguish a photocopy from an original document from 500 feet, but that's the extent of their power.

[Gabi Hayes]

2. would that David Koch be of the Koch oil empire, the LARGEST privately held company in the US?

who's Dora Bush married to?

him?

his brother/son/nephew/cousin

inquiring minds want to know....

Nancy Pfotenhauer worked for Koch before her stint as an oh-so effective propagandist during McCain's stumble for office last year

[babylonsister]

3. 19th richest man in the world? Could be. Here's more on him...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_H._Koch

David Koch currently serves on the board of directors of the libertarian Cato Institute and the Reason Foundation. His brother Charles Koch has also been active in organizing and funding foundations and think-tanks such as the Cato Institute.

Dora's hubby is Robert, not David.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dorothy_Bush_Koch

...her second husband, Robert P. Koch, whom she married in June 1992 at Camp David. Robert P. Koch was an aide to House Democratic leader Richard Gephardt, and is a lobbyist and president of the Wine Institute of California. <3> He has a substantial equity interest in Central European Distribution Corp., the company that manufactures and distributes vodka in Poland.<4>

[SoCalDem]

4. Doro (sister of W) is married to a "Koch"..any relation?

:shrug:

[babylonsister]

5. No...

Dora's hubby is Robert, not David.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dorothy_Bush_Koch

...her second husband, Robert P. Koch, whom she married in June 1992 at Camp David. Robert P. Koch was an aide to House Democratic leader Richard Gephardt, and is a lobbyist and president of the Wine Institute of California. <3> He has a substantial equity interest in Central European Distribution Corp., the company that manufactures and distributes vodka in Poland.<4>

[Gabi Hayes]

7. I just checked, and he doesn't appear to be related. Fred Koch, the father and founder

of Koch Industries, had four sons, none of whom is named Robert

charles, who took over from daddy, is said to be worth around 17 billion

Robert/Bobby Koch, is a democrat who worked for Tony Coehlo

I've been laboring under the misconception that Dora's husband was a scion of the Koch family but he's not mentioned anywhere I looked as family


couldn't find anything in his background...his wiki page lists Dorothy's geneaology, but nothing about his...not even a birthdate

[malaise]

6. Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm I just watched McCaffrey

spinning re Clinton's rescue of the journalists - spewing John Bolton's rubbish.
Is GEM$NBC any different than CBS? McCaffrey was exposed as a paid Pentagon hack but he's still on GEM$NBC with no introduction telling us he's a paid hack.

[Supersedeas]

8. b/c CBS advertisers receive the same $$$ that the lobbyists receive

[BrklynLiberal]

9. One can only hope and pray that the public is not really as stupid as the repukes think.

My stomach is aching because I myself, am not too sure about it... :(

I am beginning to believe the election was merely a momentary lapse of stupidity.. That bright light of knowledge and information was just too much for those little brains to deal with...

[spanone]

10. it's a sham and a fraud, but our media will portray them as concerned, everyday people.

[onestepforward]

11. To keep their profits high.

Investigative journalism has almost vanished.