…is the right to be let alone. The right to have privacy from the government unless there is a court order stating there is probable cause (there is evidence you did something against the law).
It should also be fiercely enforced for whistleblowers.…a democracy depends on it.
I was watching the nooz and the episode of Bode Miller was aired. Christin Cooper repeatedly asked him about his dead brother until he began to cry. She didn’t just ask him once and let it go…but kept bringing it up until she got what she wanted–him breaking down in tears in what should have been a private moment. For shame.
Bode was interviewed later and was defending this callous behavior, saying it was her job to push and get the reaction. Bullshit. Reporters need to push when a leader or public figure is hiding the truth—not athletes who lost a brother to seizures. That’s just cold and unnecessary. As a viewer, I don’t want to see someone in distress by being badgered by a reporter. That’s not journalism, but sensationalism.
Well, now, just when you think things can’t get any worse with the NSA…they continually amaze one with their lack of ethics.
Liaison officials asked the NSA general counsel’s office, on behalf of the Australians, for guidance about the spying. The bulletin notes only that the counsel’s office “provided clear guidance” and that the Australian eavesdropping agency “has been able to continue to cover the talks, providing highly useful intelligence for interested U.S. customers,” according to the Times story.
~~~~~~~~~
…and the question of the hour is…would any of this come to light if Edward Snowdon had not brought it to light?
And yet another example why we need diversity in media. The whistleblowers of the world will not get a chance to be heard if media continues to be consolidated into a few privileged hands….
Here are snippets of the documentary on the grip the Kochs have on policy. It’s truly heartening what happened in Wake County, a southern area, and how they were not willing to go backward.
Also, this documentary leaves out the Gates Foundation and Eli Broad and the Walton family’s influence on destroying public education…just wanted to note that important piece of this pie.
Well, you have to hand it to them–the Vietnamese gov’t deployed ballroom dancers to disrupt Vietnamese folks from laying wreaths and chanting anti-China slogans.
The protesters were marking the 35th anniversary of a bloody border war between China and Vietnam, where anger over Beijing’s increasingly assertive territorial claims on islands in the South China Sea that Hanoi insists belong to it is already running high.
~~~~~~~~
Instead of using guns and armed forces, they use…dancers.
Diane Ravitch has this up on a high school junior, Grace, that sent a break-up letter to Common Core.
Kudos to Grace for speaking out.
This week’s eye candy from Canada.
#2 is breathtaking. Can you imagine this being gone due to fracking or polluted with bitumen from a leak in tar sands pipeline, a la Kalamazoo?
Another beautiful rainbow on #3.
#9 talk about spoiling an otherwise gorgeous picture…same with #11.
Otherwise, great pics…
Anne Clair, an Elsipogtog mother, wrote this about her son being jailed while protesting SWN trespassing on the native owned land.
Again, I ask– If most of the taxpayers are against fracking and tar sands, then why are the oil companies allowed on that land? Why were the police there and who are they working for if the taxpayers do not want this?
Protestors in Venezuela were blocked on twitter from posting images of the protests.
PBS, which is supposed to be free from corporate influence, is now under fire for airing an anti-Pension series sponsored by John Arnold. David Sirota’s article on it here.
In recent years, Arnold has been using massive contributions to politicians, Super PACs, ballot initiative efforts, think tanks and local front groups to finance a nationwide political campaign aimed at slashing public employees’ retirement benefits. His foundation which backs his efforts employs top Republican political operatives, including the former chief of staff to GOP House Majority Leader Dick Armey (TX). According to its own promotional materials, the Arnold Foundation is pushing lawmakers in states across the country “to stop promising a (retirement) benefit” to public employees.
~~~~~~~~~
…both PBS’s “Pension Peril” correspondent and the AP reporter did not mention that according to budget data, pension shortfalls in Illinois are far smaller than the amount the state is spending on expensive taxpayer subsidies to corporations.
[…]
The state is just choosing to spend that money on huge subsidies to corporations like Sears and Google rather than paying its bills or making its required pension payments.
~~~~
See…the money is there…but it’s going into the pockets of the 1%, see? Note the $4 billion per year in subsidies in New York! OMG talk about greedy, greedy, greedy!
And here we have the smoking gun of executives knowing who was funding it and refusing to disclose it:
“We were sitting in a meeting talking about another issue and (PBS officials) were drawing examples of how they were working with other campaigns, and one of their executives said they’ve got a series called pension peril coming up talking about the threat of pensions at the state and local level,” said the source. “I asked who was funding that project, and the executive said that at this point they are not disclosing who their funders are, and everybody sitting around the room kind of paused.”
~~~~~~
Link to Jane Meyer’s article in the New Yorker here.
In 1997, he [David Koch] began serving as a trustee of Boston’s public-broadcasting operation, WGBH, and in 2006 he joined the board of New York’s public-television outlet, WNET. Recent news reports have suggested that the Koch brothers are considering buying eight daily newspapers owned by the Tribune Company, one of the country’s largest media empires, raising concerns that its publications—which include the Chicago Tribune and the Los Angeles Times—might slant news coverage to serve the interests of their new owners, either through executive mandates or through self-censorship. Clarence Page, a liberal Tribune columnist, recently said that the Kochs appeared intent on using a media company “as a vehicle for their political voice.”
~~~~~~~~
$50 for Christmas bonus? Are you kidding me? So much for trickle down economics, eh?
Meyer’s piece brings up the ABC News story on Disney hiring pedophiles being cancelled…because Disney owns ABC. If I recall correctly, the reporter of the story was asked if he was crazy for investigating it….
Even more depressing is the upcoming PBS pieces by Chitester on the “evils of the welfare system” I can hardly wait. What a bully this guy is…pick on the ones who are least likely to fight back. Creep.
…meanwhile *crickets* from the corporate owned media…
…which is why we should be alarmed at even more consolidation by the media with this deal which most certainly violates the Sherman Act of antitrust law.
I read a couple of reviews which were light and not really addressing the seriousness of the deal. Our democracy depends on a robust press that is diversified.
Let’s start with the beginning of the country–when a publisher printed unflattering things about the King of England, he had the publisher thrown in jail and the printing presses destroyed. No matter that the publisher was printing the truth. If I recall correctly, the newspaper had printed a story that the King had syphilis. He in fact did have syphilis (which there was no cure and led to madness), but the presses were still destroyed anyway.
So…if you didn’t want your printing presses destroyed (therefore, your means of income), you printed only nice things about the King. The King could accuse you of Sedition (treason, basically), and that was that.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t just the King of England that resorted to this:
Related — Book Burnings History
So, with Reagan and Clinton, our media has been more and more consolidated, meaning you, the American public, does not get the coverage and opposing views necessary to make an informed decision about what is happening in your country and the world, such as TPP. If it weren’t for Ed Shultz on MSNBC, you would not hear about it at all.
1987The Fairness Doctrine — the rule held since the founding of the FCC that mandated time for opposing viewpoints on significant issues of the day — is eliminated. This paves the way for the existence of entire networks (Fox and Sinclair) that proudly proclaim a one-side point of view. Thus “fair and balanced” becomes a trademarked phrase, instead of a principled and regulated way of presenting opinion. While the congress voted to extend the Fairness Doctrine, it was vetoed by President Reagan.
“““““““““
The Fairness Doctrine explained here.
Only alternate sources such as commondreams, democracynow.org, and alternet.org have you heard about TPP….and even then, you’re not really informed because the White House has not been forthcoming with what is in it or allowing the press to examine it.
Additionally, more concentrated media means you don’t get fair coverage of whistleblowers like Edward Snowdon, Brad Birkenfeld, Thomas Drake, et al.
President Jefferson or perhaps it was President Madison said,”Information is Power.” when referring to the Freedom of the Press. This is why the NSA is doing all it can to gather information that it does not deserve….gathering more power.
And we all know too much power concentrated in a few hands leads to corruption.
Power corrupts. Absolute Power corrupts absolutely.
We’re dangerously close to absolute power.
Incidentally, in case you didn’t know, the American public owns the airwaves. Here’s a group explaining ways to hold the media accountable.
Eagle 
You must be logged in to post a comment.