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

If you got your information from Wyatt Andrews on CBS News last night, you would believe that "angry protesters" are cropping up "everywhere Democrats are trying to defend health care reform."  You would think that "conservative websites" like Freedomworks are organizing these ordinary Americans, 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 ladies' man.   The President and CEO of Freedomworks is Matt Kibbe, 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 what the objective is of those who are funding them -- which has nothing to with the public's "fear" of "government control" over the health care system.  These media outlets are playing a critical role by telling the country that its people believe something that they don't.  When David M. Herszenhorn and Sheryl Gay Stolberg of the New York Times refer to them simply as "loose-knit coalition of conservative voters and advocacy groups," they are helping to pass off blatant propaganda as news.

It is to "journalism" what David H. Koch is to "grassroots."

Jane Hamsher blogs at firedoglake.com

Follow Jane Hamsher on Twitter: www.twitter.com/janehamsher

Comments

[maureenwa]

Oh, sure, I'm a paid lobbyist - I don't like the service I get from the US Post Office, Amtrack or the IRS - and I don't want my health care to similarly suck. That makes me a "brown shirt". This is getting a bit tiresome...

[Kiri sute gomen]

I believe the answer to your original question is that the media is owned by the corporations, who in turn own the lobbyists.

[ldmason45]

It's high time that cbs and other main-stream media reconize acorn, seiu, uwa and moveon.org as the big time lobbyist groups that they are. Their protest are manufactored and staged. Let's call it as it is not as you'd like for it to be in your fantasy world.

[AlysonStern]

Which democratic politicians are connected to any of the organizations you listed?

[SonnyBono]

"How Come CBS Journalists Can't Recognize Paid Lobbyists When They See Them?" - Professional courtesy.

[ldmason45]

They do. seiu, acorn, uaw and moveon.org to name a few.

[AlysonStern]

Let's hear some names of those organizations that CBS has interviewed?

[Mason]

IMO, our President failed us when he took single payer off the table because that plunged all of us into a morass of possible solutions that are difficult to understand, too complicated to explain, and have uncertain economic consequences based on projections that can vary widely depending on how one chooses to manipulate the data. The let's-play­-with-numb­ers game is a waste of time. No one can convince anyone of anything in a climate of uncertainty where the focus is on the trees and not the forest.

At times like these, I like to disengage from the fray and invoke the KISS doctrine, which is KEEP IT SIMPLE, STUPID.

THE PROBLEM: We're now up to 52 million people uninsured and it's increasing every day as people continue to lose their jobs, employers stop covering their employees, and insurance companies terminate coverage for sick people that cut into their profit margins. The only brake on that escalating number is the 22,000 people per year who die before their time because they are uninsured.

THE SOLUTION: Single payer because all of the available data from countries that use it show us that it works and it's cheaper. Simple to understand, easy to explain, and the numbers back it up.

Everything else is irrelevant.

[lisakaz2]

They don't care. They don't wanna care. They stopped doing news long ago. Why should then when they do the say thing with their Pentagon military shills?

[cplKlyde]

They are paid not to recognize them

[blindhog]

Jane, I can't seem to get into the story about Blackwater and its leader, so I'm posting here, because I think it is relevant to your subject on lobbying.

In a picture at the top of a Huff-posted column, the head of Blackwater is standing in his headquarters. It's a beautifully appointed new building and while he is there our troops languish in mold infested hospitals! How is it that congress was lobbied to outsource to these criminals while at the same time stealing from our service people (crappy equipment and crappy health care)?

Our military service seems to be the only part of government that does its' job effectively and we are stripping it of its strength.

Heck, with the results I'm getting on getting through to sections of HuffPost, I wonder if servalence of sites like this, have been outsourced by our congress to blackwater or criminal elements like them????!!!!!!

[Mason]

You gotta love Prince and his gang of cutthroats. A bunch of folks were complaining yesterday that no one has ever shown that the government can provide a better service cheaper and more efficiently than private enterprise.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you our brothers and sisters who serve our nation in the United States Armed Forces!

(Maestro, cue the Stars and Stripes Forever).

Seriously, folks. Does anyone believe Prince and his band of merry mercenary murderers can do a better job for less money than our sisters and brothers who serve in the United States Armed Forces?

Now, can we finally agree to put that canard to rest?

The sky isn't going to fall and we aren't going to be eating soylent green, if we switch to single payer.

[Percolater]

For those opposed to a public option in healthcare:

You can either choose not to select the public option

or sign a list of those, who after the bill passes, will never under any circumstances ever be allowed to select the public option. You can even extend that to friends and family.

See how democratic it can be?

[Mason]

All of the data favors a single payer system and there is no valid argument against it. We are dealing with a health insurance industry and Big Pharma that have good reason to be panic stricken because they are about to reap what they have sown. They have profited at our expense through greed and inefficiency and like the fabled Emperor, they wear no clothes. The time has come for them to pay the piper.

Figuratively speaking, they are throwing duffel bags stuffed with hundred dollar bills at our elected representatives and senators and paying lobbyists to push the usual pathetic and nonsensical fear buttons like socialism, communism, and nefarious conspiracies to kill the free market, the old and the sick, and destroy our precious freedom. Shakespeare well understood this kind of reaction when he created these famous words for Hamlet to speak, "Methinks the lady doth protest too much."

Realize that their tactics reflect their well founded fear and desperation. We need universal and affordable health care now and we don't care what anyone calls it. Watering down single payer will only make health care more expensive and no longer universal. Co-ops don't work and are not acceptable. Our message to our elected officials should be: We demand what you have. Vote for single payer or start looking for another job!

[Greg2000]

I was watching by accident Carol Costello on CNN's American morning with her smirk smile commenting on the loud protests and she asked:"Can we just get along?" ignoring what really was going on. I almost thew up. When you consider the phenomenal task Rachel Maddow undertook to debunk those phony protests, one should ask why do we have to watch CNN.

[sufi66]

Look who their anchor is for God's sake. This should tell you all you need to know about the corporate news.

Luckily, not too many people watch CBS anymore.

[mjtaylor22]

SO TRUE I REALLY DON'T WATCH CBS AT ALL
EXCEPT FOR ABT 3 SEC BEFORE i TURN ON MY PLAYSTATION AND SWITCH TO AUX 1.
LMAO

[Shortyfuse]

We had a community meeting with our U.S.rep. It was a 102 degrees and 5:00 on a Saturday. But we were there 85 strong. A large group for our community. We welcomed the right wing as well. He is their rep. also. They obviously did not come to get their questions answered. They came to disrupt and embarass the Democratic Rep. Our rep. was great. Calmly answering our questions and those shouted out by the thugs. He pointed out that we have tort laws in our state and healthcare is higher than states without tort reform.
On their argument about government not being able to run health care let me make this point.
WE CAN NEVER LET THE REPUBLICANS OR BLUE DOGS IN GOVERNMENT AGAIN. THEY CONSTANTLY CONFESS THAT THEY ARE INEPT TO RUN HEALTH CARE. WE KNOW THIS IS TRUE BECAUSE OF THE WAY THEY RAN GOVERNMENT WHEN THEY WERE IN CONTROL. THE GOVERNMENT THAT FAILS IN THEIRS. OURS WORKS PRETTY GOOD.
ALSO, REMIND THEM THAT THEM SMALLER GOVERNMENT THEY ARE TALKING ABOUT IS A DICTATORSHIP.
DAMN THE CORPORATE MOUTHPIECES CALLED REPUBLICANS AND KATIE CORIC.

[BitJam]

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

Professional courtesy.

[elbzee]

Oooh! BitJam, Hit the nail right on the head! Well done!

[Mason]

Jane Hamsher said,

"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."

I followed the link to the GOP internal poll that she provided. The poll was conducted by a group called On Message Inc. Here's a gem to consider.

"According to the OMI survey, Republicans are at a significant disadvantage when it comes to the health care debate. For starters, 48 percent of the public said they trusted Democrats to "fix the health care problem in America." Only 29 percent said the same for Republicans. Meanwhile, 58 percent of respondents said that they favored "creating a government run health insurance agency that will compete with private insurance companies," while only 35 percent were opposed."

Take heart from this poll. We don't have to convince the American public. We have to convince our elected representatives and I think the best way to do that is to publicize the money trail that leads from health insurance companies and Big Pharma into the pockets of Republicans and Blue Dog Democrats. If you haven't done so, check out Keith Olberman's editorial wrap-up last night. He laid it all out for us and showed us the way.

[Shortyfuse]

Thank you so much for this post. I do not know what makes the thugs think that they are "one of them" They are not. They are the one whos 401ks dissappear, the one who go down in flames when Bush defunds airlines, lose all their money when the saving and loan crashes or enron crashes Those who lose their jobs to China and then shop at WalMart., They must be getting paid.
MY GOAL IS TO GET THE ROBBER BARRONS OUT OF HEALTH CARE.
These are are protection racket thugs.
I noticed that Corporate Media did not show the protest in Washington FOR SINGLE PAY.