I do not doubt Mr. Potter’s claims at all. Our press is corrupted in ways both large and small. Dinners can certainly buy beneficial coverage. However, the main issues in the complicity of our press with corporations are even more basic human flaws – greed, vanity, laziness and fear.

I do not doubt Mr. Potter’s claims at all. Our press is corrupted in ways both large and small. Dinners can certainly buy beneficial coverage. However, the main issues in the complicity of our press with corporations are even more basic human flaws – greed, vanity, laziness and fear.

[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by 93.7 WBLK: T-Boogie, WorldNewsRecord, LoveU, owen, United States Agenda and others. United States Agenda said: Exclusive: I “wined and dined” NYT and WSJ for favorable coverage, health insurance whistleblower says: “It was … http://bit.ly/ieGg98 [...]

You can narrow it down by making a list of all health care related articles that were published during his tenure as a Health Care Insurance PR.

Sooner or later he going to have to divulge a specific detail if he ultimately intends to change the status quo.

I am leaning towards belief in him since he has proven that while working for Cigna he was part of a disinformation campaign against Michael Moore’s “Sicko”.

You can narrow it down by making a list of all health care related articles that were published during his tenure as a Health Care Insurance PR.

Sooner or later he going to have to divulge a specific detail if he ultimately intends to change the status quo.

I am leaning towards belief in him since he has proven that while working for Cigna he was part of a disinformation campaign against Michael Moore’s “Sicko”.

Of course the scumbags in media are easily bribed. They tell lies for a living and incessantly cover up for the elite who run the planet and that is why they ignore Bilderberg and they ignore 911 Truth. Especially since the military-industrial-banking complex owns the media in the U.S. Just look up who owns who and you will see who is lying to you and why. Very simple.

Of course the scumbags in media are easily bribed. They tell lies for a living and incessantly cover up for the elite who run the planet and that is why they ignore Bilderberg and they ignore 911 Truth. Especially since the military-industrial-banking complex owns the media in the U.S. Just look up who owns who and you will see who is lying to you and why. Very simple.

Mainstream media caves at the threat of reduced access to “decision makers”. Threaten to pull the plug on their coveted sources, and they’ll go so far as to say Santa Claus is real. I’m generalizing, because there are a few reputable journalists left in the world, but it’s by far easier to get paid by playing Corporate America’s game, not the investigative journalist game.

Mainstream media caves at the threat of reduced access to “decision makers”. Threaten to pull the plug on their coveted sources, and they’ll go so far as to say Santa Claus is real. I’m generalizing, because there are a few reputable journalists left in the world, but it’s by far easier to get paid by playing Corporate America’s game, not the investigative journalist game.

This is an interesting article to me because it directly contradicts the fantasy of the Machiavellian power/media structure by offering up the alternative view: those in the media may not be the deceptive manipulators we all thought, but quite possibly they are as dim-witted and incapable of ideological critique as anyone else. When news organizations begin to hire people who specialize in cultural theory and analysis, I think we will see a dramatic shift in intelligence, integrity, and critical depth. As it stands, the corporate media only perpetuate the status quo by representing the world’s problems in such limited terms and scope; the subtler realities at hand go ignored for so long that we need a whistleblower to point out the obvious: HMO’s are, like all the structures of capital, manipulative organizations whose sole function is to profit from sickness and death.

This is an interesting article to me because it directly contradicts the fantasy of the Machiavellian power/media structure by offering up the alternative view: those in the media may not be the deceptive manipulators we all thought, but quite possibly they are as dim-witted and incapable of ideological critique as anyone else. When news organizations begin to hire people who specialize in cultural theory and analysis, I think we will see a dramatic shift in intelligence, integrity, and critical depth. As it stands, the corporate media only perpetuate the status quo by representing the world’s problems in such limited terms and scope; the subtler realities at hand go ignored for so long that we need a whistleblower to point out the obvious: HMO’s are, like all the structures of capital, manipulative organizations whose sole function is to profit from sickness and death.

This is an interesting article to me because it directly contradicts the fantasy of the Machiavellian power/media structure by offering up the alternative view: those in the media may not be the deceptive manipulators we all thought, but quite possibly they are as dim-witted and incapable of ideological critique as anyone else. When news organizations begin to hire people who specialize in cultural theory and analysis, I think we will see a dramatic shift in intelligence, integrity, and critical depth. As it stands, the corporate media only perpetuate the status quo by representing the world’s problems in such limited terms and scope; the subtler realities at hand go ignored for so long that we need a whistleblower to point out the obvious: HMO’s are, like all the structures of capital, manipulative organizations whose sole function is to profit from sickness and death.

This is an interesting article to me because it directly contradicts the fantasy of the Machiavellian power/media structure by offering up the alternative view: those in the media may not be the deceptive manipulators we all thought, but quite possibly they are as dim-witted and incapable of ideological critique as anyone else. When news organizations begin to hire people who specialize in cultural theory and analysis, I think we will see a dramatic shift in intelligence, integrity, and critical depth. As it stands, the corporate media only perpetuate the status quo by representing the world’s problems in such limited terms and scope; the subtler realities at hand go ignored for so long that we need a whistleblower to point out the obvious: HMO’s are, like all the structures of capital, manipulative organizations whose sole function is to profit from sickness and death.

Your “liberal” media, just another annex of the corporate state. This is beyond, beyond, beyond disgusting, but sadly unsurprising. And you wondered why the NY Times, WSJ, WaPo, etc. would never do what Bob Somerby was able to do over and over, which was to make the simple point that per person health care costs in the US are 2-4 times higher than in peer nations, and why? BECAUSE OF THESE INSURANCE COMPANY PROFITEERS!

Your “liberal” media, just another annex of the corporate state. This is beyond, beyond, beyond disgusting, but sadly unsurprising. And you wondered why the NY Times, WSJ, WaPo, etc. would never do what Bob Somerby was able to do over and over, which was to make the simple point that per person health care costs in the US are 2-4 times higher than in peer nations, and why? BECAUSE OF THESE INSURANCE COMPANY PROFITEERS!

Your “liberal” media, just another annex of the corporate state. This is beyond, beyond, beyond disgusting, but sadly unsurprising. And you wondered why the NY Times, WSJ, WaPo, etc. would never do what Bob Somerby was able to do over and over, which was to make the simple point that per person health care costs in the US are 2-4 times higher than in peer nations, and why? BECAUSE OF THESE INSURANCE COMPANY PROFITEERS!

Your “liberal” media, just another annex of the corporate state. This is beyond, beyond, beyond disgusting, but sadly unsurprising. And you wondered why the NY Times, WSJ, WaPo, etc. would never do what Bob Somerby was able to do over and over, which was to make the simple point that per person health care costs in the US are 2-4 times higher than in peer nations, and why? BECAUSE OF THESE INSURANCE COMPANY PROFITEERS!

Comrade Seidl, I agree with you in principle, but let me say this: many of these “reporters” have studied cultural theory and analysis, critical theories that undermine the master narratives of many of the major fields in the social sciences, humanities, even the sciences. Yet they identify with and often are part of the very classes, the very ideological, social, political and economic structures against which they’re supposed to be adversarial, and so they are easily misled. Once we had a press whose reporters came primarily from the working and middle classes; many reporters and certainly the pundits now are the children, spouses, etc. of elites. They are more likely to side with Potter’s manipulations (if they don’t already do so) than describe, let alone grasp, what the rabble have to deal with. You see it on TV all the time with the punditry who despise regular people, and fellate anyone corporations and the reich-wing elite put forward. So long as they get to keep collecting their millions, free lunches, golf trips, etc., and send their children to Ivy League or other pricey schools, they’re very, very content. That’s your US press. But some of them, like David Broder, William Safire, Robert Novak, Tom Friedman, etc., are stupid AND manipulatively evil.

Perhaps people will start to comprehend that those who write negatively about modern medicine are the ones who have taken a serious look at the realities and have noted that the reporting in mainstream media and most of the rest has been naive (at best), lazy, and dishonest. Most of the reports of wonderful developments are, at base, fraudulent – designed by pharmaceutical (and similar) firms to pique hope and hide the truth.

But the stories keep coming, in spite of people like Potter blowing the whistle. There’s too much money involved, and Hey! What the hell! There’s just too much money in the pot to worry about whether this crap actually does any good or maybe even does harm.

But maybe, just maybe, somewhere along the line people will wake up and realize that modern medicine is doing far more harm than good.

I really don’t think so. All the companies do it.

New York Times “venerable”? More like venereal.

Somebody said,,”It’s the money stupid”,,
I say,,”It’s the Media stupid”..

It’s not called Bribery,,it’s called being in Bed with them..
A corrupt company didn’t have to work to bribe the corrupt media..
Wining and Dining the Media got you a higher protection,,and a preference over other companies..
But if you study the Media you will conclude they protected corruption in several methods,,false facts,distortion,out right lies,,and with silence,,
The only thing that has made the media’s do some level of exposing corruption,,is an army of law breathing down there necks,,and awakening Americans..

WE THE PEOPLE didn’t grant them an FCC or any other form of license.. to protect the corruption…Hence why there was a movement by the Media to do away with any form of media licenses..So they would have no legal obligations to WE THE PEOPLE,,

As a victim of extreme corruption,,my study says the most corrupt agency in our country is the Media’s..
In being victimized via the Media’s,,with all my evidence being given to Mark Sullivan Director of the United State Secret Service,,
The Jews from the US to Europe who own just about all the Media from News to Hollywood,,have a communication system set up via Media’s,,
From sending messages,,plans and orders…to individuals,,Mossad,AIPAC,,etc,etc,from the US to Europe to Israel..
The size of this is mind boggling,,Acts of treason and espionage beyond any thing ever exposed,,
I was thrown in the middle of this,,used by the Rothschild/CIA Mk Ultra program and all evidence has been turned over to Working Law..

Even though they know the law is onto them now,,I still can come across news and read the messages there sending to each other in the US or to Europe…
It’s a Jewish Tokoyo Rose Program multiplied a Million times bigger..maybe 10 million times bigger..

This is like the defendant side or plaintiff side of a court case wining and dining the judge deciding the case. Would anybody even think it wouldn’t bias the judge?

Control of our media has fallen to the CIA long ago with Operation Mockingbird. One need only know who controls the CIA to understand whats going on here.

This is common practice in sales as well as public relations. I worked as an engineer for a US manufacturing company and the salesmen who worked for our vendors often invited me and my coworkers out to lunch in some of the nicer establishments in our town. Of course they were trying to get me to specify their parts in our designs. Eventually our company modified its ethics policy to ban that practice. You could lose your job for not following that policy – and it was enforced. I missed the free lunches but understood the reason.

Too bad our most important news media don’t seem to have – or at least enforce – a similar ethics policy. If a modest manufacturing company can understand the need for such a policy, why not the New York Times?

Getting any plumbing fixture, particularly a “media outlet” to print stories about health is just nonsense. These plumbing systems are owned lock, stock and barrel by insurance companies and banks who capitalize on the inevitable matters of humanity namely death. Prolonging life is counterproductive to their bottom lines and a nuisance to business generally. Unless of course you are a terrorist organization, then they will play hide and seek with you at the government’s expense forever….

Getting any plumbing fixture, particularly a “media outlet” to print stories about health is just nonsense. These plumbing systems are owned lock, stock and barrel by insurance companies and banks who capitalize on the inevitable matters of humanity namely death. Prolonging life is counterproductive to their bottom lines and a nuisance to business generally. Unless of course you are a terrorist organization, then they will play hide and seek with you at the government’s expense forever….

Potter has made a public apology to Moore on MSNBC Oberman show.

He outlined and detailed, the PR war against Moore at the time of Sicko and said as time went on he could not live with him self anymore.

Anyone who hasn’t seen this film MUST rent it.

I am sickened the way Freedom Works ie. Dick Army and the Koch Bros and Ins CO’s hood winked the public mostly the T-Baggers to disrupt town hall meetings all over the country, so the real truth could not come out.

They (Republicans) picked the lowest information people to do their bidding, and slid into office on their backs.

More of this is going to happen in two years if some one doesn’t expose them (Republicans) and STOP them. Trust me they are working on their plans for 2012 right now.

I wonder how many reporters would assume that their lives might not be worth too much in the face of so much money. I am fairly certain that a billion dollars is worth a lot of scenarios we want to pretend could never happen.

In third world countries businesspeople hand over bags full of cash to the corrupt whereas in the developed world they take them to expensive dinners, arrange trips, and provide other perks. The double edged sword of the free market is that there is also a lucrative market for whistle blowers who’d reveal the newsworthy details of such activities. Bring the same factors onto the web and the thresh-hold for blowing the whistle drops dramatically, thereby making the world that much of a better place. I’m all for institutionalizing leaking and whistle blowing and providing all the infrastructure, resources and incentives for people to do so.

No big surprise here. Government, big corporations, lobbyists, media. They’re all one big happy family.

Old man Potter’s purpose was to “perpetuate myths that had no other purpose but to sustain those companies’ extraordinary high profitability.”

That’s also the reason d’etre of today’s Republican party and the MSM. And they’re both wine’d and dine’d by lobbyists.

Isn’t it about time we return to being a democracy? How about a law banning corporate money to politicians from lobbyists and capping campaign spending to, say, $1 million/candidate total for House Representatives, $2 million for Senate campaigns and $20 million for presidential campaigns? That’s plenty of money and within reach of most legitimate candidates. Take the money out of politics, now!

I bet some of this is due to report laziness. It’s easier to quote a big whig at a corporation than to actually get the real facts.

I bet some of this is due to report laziness. It’s easier to quote a big whig at a corporation than to actually get the real facts.

I bet some of this is due to report laziness. It’s easier to quote a big whig at a corporation than to actually get the real facts.

I bet some of this is due to report laziness. It’s easier to quote a big whig at a corporation than to actually get the real facts.

I bet some of this is due to report laziness. It’s easier to quote a big whig at a corporation than to actually get the real facts.

Unfortunately people are bought for much less, like in this case, the cost of lunch.

Unfortunately people are bought for much less, like in this case, the cost of lunch.

Unfortunately people are bought for much less, like in this case, the cost of lunch.

Unfortunately people are bought for much less, like in this case, the cost of lunch.

The New York Times was finally forced to fire Judith Miller for her complicity in the Valerie Plame and Iraq War coverage. She was, during the run-up to the Iraq War, carrying the administration’s water every day. She did this to the point that it embarrassed the paper. It took a couple of years for it all to come out. But she had basically been spoon fed information by the administration which she put in her stories and then the administration would point to the stories as if they demonstrated that what the administration was saying was true. It was a closed loop.

The situation that Potter is describing is more of the same. There has to be a reason why the typical United States citizen will say that the United States has the best health care in the world and continually cites false information about every other industrialized nations health care system, and it is because there has been a long term “relationship” between the Unites States health care representatives and the press in this country and the result has been the “common sense” assertion that socialized medicine (meaning anything other than what we currently have) is the worst possible medicine and that for profit health insurance is the best possible way to handle health insurance coverage. Since all of this is plain bullshit, the story had to come from somewhere, it can’t all be attributed to some kind of fake nationalism.

And that somewhere was the stories that have been planted in the press by these relationships with health care spokespeople over the years. And when something is said long enough and repeated often enough it becomes “common sense.” Or what Antonio Gramsci referred to as ideology. So the next time you hear someone say, it’s just “common sense” or it’s just “human nature” etc., what you are really hearing is someone spouting ideology, pure and simple. It’s the reason we believe more than half of all the crap we believe.

It’s evident in the reason so many people currently are purposing, here and in the media, that the price of gold didn’t change during the nineteenth century, It’s the reason that so many people, here and in the media (see today’s celebratory article in the New York Times) think that Ron Paul is going to fix the Fed, or that lower taxes on millionaires and billionaires create jobs, or that the reason we went to war after 9-11 was because it was only “common sense” that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction because he had used poison gas on his own people, or every word of the speech by Colin Powell before the U.N.–the list could go on forever back to the beginning of the Republic and James Madison’s statement shortly before he died that after all the “Federalist Papers” were designed to sell the idea of the Constitution and ensure that it would be ratified. Most people don’t read the “Federalist Papers” as propaganda, but Madison, the author of many of them, knew what he and the others were doing in writing them. That’s why it is more that stupendous when an idiot like John Yoo comes along and claims that because something is in the “Federalist Papers” that it should have the force of law or is somehow an explanation of the Constitution. Yes, it is an explanation of the Constitution in the same way that any propaganda is a one-sided and partial explanation of its subject.

We are all manipulated by these people on some level, no matter what we do, whether we like to admit it or not! Every time we read anything we are being manipulated, whether it is a book by Ron Paul or Matt Taibbi. When we finally understand that PR is propaganda and that every ad, every news story, and every source is only giving their own impression, their own propaganda then we can begin to understand just how deep it goes.

As for the Wall Street Journal, there was a time when that paper employed some great investigative journalists, but now their editorial policies have been so corrupted it isn’t worth reading except for its propaganda value, that is, as a source for business propaganda. And it is the most widely read newspaper in America, and one of the reasons that so many people in this country think the way they do and believe the things they believe about business and unions and jobs and tax cuts and socialism and health care and how great America is!

“The Central Intelligence Agency owns everyone of any significance in the major media.”
— William Colby, former Director of the CIA.

“The Central Intelligence Agency owns everyone of any significance in the major media.”
— William Colby, former Director of the CIA.

Bob Somerby Rocks! Check out the Daily Howler!

Bob Somerby Rocks! Check out the Daily Howler!

Bob Somerby Rocks! Check out the Daily Howler!

The stenographers for corporate owned media (COM) are only looking for something to write into a story, and not about finding facts.

The stenographers for corporate owned media (COM) are only looking for something to write into a story, and not about finding facts.

The stenographers for corporate owned media (COM) are only looking for something to write into a story, and not about finding facts.

Telling ya’, man…… a steak and lobster dinner, a couple of hookers and a few lines of blow and the WSJ reporters are yours.

But to be fair, that works on me as well.

Telling ya’, man…… a steak and lobster dinner, a couple of hookers and a few lines of blow and the WSJ reporters are yours.

But to be fair, that works on me as well.

Telling ya’, man…… a steak and lobster dinner, a couple of hookers and a few lines of blow and the WSJ reporters are yours.

But to be fair, that works on me as well.

Google ‘Operation: Mockingbird’

Google ‘Operation: Mockingbird’

Google ‘Operation: Mockingbird’

Google ‘Operation: Mockingbird’

And speaking of healthcare insurance, this just in: a federal judge in VA just stroke down that portion of the abomination referred to as Obamacare that makes it mandatory for all citizens to purchase health insurance. He gave no other instructions except to say that Congress took too many liberties with the Commerce Clause. Woo hoo! At least for now, that piece of shit is up in the air. But don’t go breaking out the champagne just yet, folks, our corporate Supreme Court will no doubt put Humpty Dumpty back together again so that their insurance masters can profit off our collective misery.

~edit for typos~

And speaking of healthcare insurance, this just in: a federal judge in VA just stroke down that portion of the abomination referred to as Obamacare that makes it mandatory for all citizens to purchase health insurance. He gave no other instructions except to say that Congress took too many liberties with the Commerce Clause. Woo hoo! At least for now, that piece of shit is up in the air. But don’t go breaking out the champagne just yet, folks, our corporate Supreme Court will no doubt put Humpty Dumpty back together again so that their insurance masters can profit off our collective misery.

~edit for typos~

I’ve read everything I can find on this which really isn’t a lot because I didn’t look…

So I am forming my own opinion from the safest place I know, oblivion. I will fill in all gaps with what I want to be true.

This must be bullshit because no where do I see hookers, cocaine or anal sex with minors, so clearly it’s a lie!

Can’t bribe government officials with out hookers and cocaine!

I’ve read everything I can find on this which really isn’t a lot because I didn’t look…

So I am forming my own opinion from the safest place I know, oblivion. I will fill in all gaps with what I want to be true.

This must be bullshit because no where do I see hookers, cocaine or anal sex with minors, so clearly it’s a lie!

Can’t bribe government officials with out hookers and cocaine!

Go tell it on the mountain brother!

Healthcare reform? Haha nah we were just kidding. No hard *healings right?

You gotta admit we had you going there for a second huh!?

PS was the Sashen to much? It’s to much right? Overly dramatic?
work in progress.

Go tell it on the mountain brother!

Healthcare reform? Haha nah we were just kidding. No hard *healings right?

You gotta admit we had you going there for a second huh!?

PS was the Sashen to much? It’s to much right? Overly dramatic?
work in progress.

Don’t forget Metatron!

Don’t forget Metatron!

Going rate for a high value target, under security is between 10k-20k depending on location, scale of security and available pre-time. It can run much higher of course. Lets call it 40k a hit, hell lets be generous. 100k. One report is worth 100k.

Shit I ran out of zeros. But yeah that’s piles and piles of dead reporters for sure.

Going rate for a high value target, under security is between 10k-20k depending on location, scale of security and available pre-time. It can run much higher of course. Lets call it 40k a hit, hell lets be generous. 100k. One report is worth 100k.

Shit I ran out of zeros. But yeah that’s piles and piles of dead reporters for sure.

You can buy me for $237.52/hour.

But because you lack the security clearance I can neither tell you my skills or what it is exactly I will be doing on your behalf. If you are an American Tax payer I am sure you are used to that so it’s probably a non-issue.

You can buy me for $237.52/hour.

But because you lack the security clearance I can neither tell you my skills or what it is exactly I will be doing on your behalf. If you are an American Tax payer I am sure you are used to that so it’s probably a non-issue.

Same corporation different board room. Somerby kills!

Comrade :)

Same corporation different board room. Somerby kills!

Comrade :)

Same corporation different board room. Somerby kills!

Comrade :)

For real. With one caveat. I lived and much of my family still lives in Canada. The healthcare is a bit slow, but good. And people lock their doors.

Beyond that full on. Everyone spins even if just a touch.

Your point on him getting specific is key. To me until names are named and dates and times come out, it’s just more noise.

(QUOTE)A former health insurance insider turned whistleblower says that he was not only surprised at how “easy” it was to manipulate members of the news media over the years, but also reveals that he routinely “wined and dined” reporters from major news outlets(QUOTE)

Calling it one corporation doing another corporation solid. Of course media outlets are easy to manipulate. Like prostitutes, they’ll put out as long as they know what’s in it for them.

(QUOTE)A former health insurance insider turned whistleblower says that he was not only surprised at how “easy” it was to manipulate members of the news media over the years, but also reveals that he routinely “wined and dined” reporters from major news outlets(QUOTE)

Calling it one corporation doing another corporation solid. Of course media outlets are easy to manipulate. Like prostitutes, they’ll put out as long as they know what’s in it for them.

“You can never hope to bribe or twist,
thank God, the American* Journalist.
And seeing what a man unbribed will do
there’s scarcely an occasion too.”

*was British in the original, but it still fits. David Broder, I’m thinking of you..

“You can never hope to bribe or twist,
thank God, the American* Journalist.
And seeing what a man unbribed will do
there’s scarcely an occasion too.”

*was British in the original, but it still fits. David Broder, I’m thinking of you..

Pagasae, your post was awesome!

Pagasae, your post was awesome!

Did I use the politically incorrect term again? I really meant to say “insurance sell out” – hope that takes care of that duh moment.

Did I use the politically incorrect term again? I really meant to say “insurance sell out” – hope that takes care of that duh moment.

Me too! Which is why I suddenly wish I was a “journalist” (*cough*) at the NYT or WSJ…

Me too! Which is why I suddenly wish I was a “journalist” (*cough*) at the NYT or WSJ…

My man you and I both know you are at your best when you are politically in correct and factually on the money.

Don’t change a penny of it.

My man you and I both know you are at your best when you are politically in correct and factually on the money.

Don’t change a penny of it.

You got it.

You got it.

Potter is seen as a hero but for years he was paid enormous sums to deceive Americans. Now he won’t name names? He doesn’t want to embarrass them. What a nice guy he is. For centuries the Catholic Church hid those who screwed little boys in the ass because they did not want to shame the priests or Church…so I guess that’s ok too. Mr Potter, give back the money you made based upon the lies you told…or pay for operations people need when the insurance lobby denies claims…and god dammit…NAME NAMES!!!

Potter is seen as a hero but for years he was paid enormous sums to deceive Americans. Now he won’t name names? He doesn’t want to embarrass them. What a nice guy he is. For centuries the Catholic Church hid those who screwed little boys in the ass because they did not want to shame the priests or Church…so I guess that’s ok too. Mr Potter, give back the money you made based upon the lies you told…or pay for operations people need when the insurance lobby denies claims…and god dammit…NAME NAMES!!!

Perspective, nice.

Perspective, nice.

A penny is about all I’ve got left these days.

A penny is about all I’ve got left these days.

Time to name names and get these corporate stenographers fired.

Time to name names and get these corporate stenographers fired.

Time to name names and get these corporate stenographers fired.

NAME NAMES!

NAME NAMES!

NAME NAMES!

NAME NAMES!

As if we needed more proof that news media in this country has abrogated its duties…

As if we needed more proof that news media in this country has abrogated its duties…

As if we needed more proof that news media in this country has abrogated its duties…

As if we needed more proof that news media in this country has abrogated its duties…

You forgot the 69′d them…

You forgot the 69′d them…

So now we know why there isn’t any investigative reporting going in any aspect of the economy in the country. When reporters are just as corrupt as their editor bosses and the bankers that —oh hell– what’s the use.Capitalism is the extraordinary belief that the nastiest of men, for the nastiest of reasons, will somehow work for the benefit of us all.- John Maynard Keynes

From Thorstein Veblen

The Theory of the Business Enterprise (1915)

“The first duty of an editor is to gauge the sentiments of his readers and then tell them what they like to believe. By this means he maintains or increases the circulation. His second duty is to see that nothing is said in the news items or editorials which may discountenance any claims or announcements made by his advertisers, discredit their standing or good faith, or expose any weakness or deception in any business venture that is or may become a valuable advertiser. By this means he increases the advertising value of his circulation. The net result is that both the news columns and the editorial columns are commonly meretricious in a high degree.”

http://boingboing.net/2009/03/14/thorstein-veblen-pre.html

Its sad the US doesnt listen to this guy. Great insight into the corruption of the major health care providers

Health Insurance companies are the modern leeches in health care. They actually contribute nothing to anyone’s health and are often detrimental to the health of individuals. Like the leeches of past ages, insurance companies need to be phased out.

Health Insurance companies are the modern leeches in health care. They actually contribute nothing to anyone’s health and are often detrimental to the health of individuals. Like the leeches of past ages, insurance companies need to be phased out.

I met Wendell Potter in Harrisburg, PA, at a single-payer healthcare rally. He is a man who changed his life;, and it took courage. This country needs to listen to him. Many people have died, and families have gone bankrupt because of the insurance companies’ greed and purely-profit motive. There is NO ONE in this country who can survive without adequate health care. To be forced to do so is a death sentence. The tobacco companies’ greedy motives and careless tactics have been outed; we need to do this with the insurance companies. Their ONLY purpose is to skim off and keep every third dollar spent on health care in America. They DENY health care, or unfairly limit it, to those who will not be profitable clients for them. This is criminal, and since the practice has resulted in deaths, should be prosecuted. INSURANCE COMPANIES ARE THE ACTUAL “DEATH PANELS”! Yet, the American people have been brainwashed into believing the government’s effort to regulate their greedy, criminal practices is “GOVERNMENT-RUN TAKEOVER of HEALTH CARE” or “OBAMA-CARE” (said with a sneer.) Any effort to regulate the criminal, greedy companies is painted as “SOCIALISM”. These fat, greedy companies obviously have a most active propaganda arm, and Mr. Potter was once a big part of it until his conscience corrected him. We need to listen to him! For what we pay NOW–or possibly, LESS than we pay now, since people would get preventive care– we could treat everyone in the United States, including dental, eye, and many other kinds of care not currently covered. When will we wise up????? If Mr. Potter’s testimony is not taken seriously, what WILL it take?

I met Wendell Potter in Harrisburg, PA, at a single-payer healthcare rally. He is a man who changed his life;, and it took courage. This country needs to listen to him. Many people have died, and families have gone bankrupt because of the insurance companies’ greed and purely-profit motive. There is NO ONE in this country who can survive without adequate health care. To be forced to do so is a death sentence. The tobacco companies’ greedy motives and careless tactics have been outed; we need to do this with the insurance companies. Their ONLY purpose is to skim off and keep every third dollar spent on health care in America. They DENY health care, or unfairly limit it, to those who will not be profitable clients for them. This is criminal, and since the practice has resulted in deaths, should be prosecuted. INSURANCE COMPANIES ARE THE ACTUAL “DEATH PANELS”! Yet, the American people have been brainwashed into believing the government’s effort to regulate their greedy, criminal practices is “GOVERNMENT-RUN TAKEOVER of HEALTH CARE” or “OBAMA-CARE” (said with a sneer.) Any effort to regulate the criminal, greedy companies is painted as “SOCIALISM”. These fat, greedy companies obviously have a most active propaganda arm, and Mr. Potter was once a big part of it until his conscience corrected him. We need to listen to him! For what we pay NOW–or possibly, LESS than we pay now, since people would get preventive care– we could treat everyone in the United States, including dental, eye, and many other kinds of care not currently covered. When will we wise up????? If Mr. Potter’s testimony is not taken seriously, what WILL it take?

[...] Brad Jacobson Raw Story [...]

Doesn’t ring true. Sounds all made up. But would a lobbyist really lie? Oh, shocking!

Not so fast. One lying lobbyist claims contact with corrupt reporters. He doesn’t name any names. I am a newspaper editor of a small daily and nothing he describes goes on here. I doubt it happens at big papers either. I don’t believe a word of what he says.

What proof would that be? I have worked in newsrooms all my life and have never seen anything like what he claims. Why believe him? Journalists work very hard for generally very low pay and most of us will not accept anything more than a cup of coffee.

You know what? Screw you. I have been a journalist all my life. We work hard for low pay. We are ethical people. One corrupt lobbyist claims — with no names — to have worked with corrupt journalists, and everybody is quick to believe him. And quick to blame reporters and editors. If we were in it for the money, we would not be working our asses off for so little money that many get food stamps. We do it to uphold f-ing democracy. It’s a calling. So stop calling us prostitutes. I don’t know what you’re doing to help the world, but I sure as heck know what I am doing … I’m working at a newspaper.

Leave the media out of it. We’re generally poor and overworked and trying to better the world through our efforts. There might be a few bad apples out there but I’ve NEVER in 20-plus years in newspaper seen the corruption he claims. He’s lying.

Newspapers have codes of ethics that don’t allow this. I don’t know of a single journalist who can be bought like this. We are paid shit wages and we are all afraid of being laid off and we do what we do because it is a calling. If we were out to get money, we’d sure as hell go into other professions. This lobbyist is for sure lying.

Gosh, then why, as a journalist for over 20 years, has nobody at the CIA ever tried to buy me? Why are people such crazy conspiracy theorists? The lobbyist guy is full of crap.

are you joking every mainstream “journalist” is a pure sycophant.
thats how they got the job in the first place and thats how they keep it.
a few examples
the wars
torture
the future war with iran
the bank bailout
wikileaks

For profit health insurance companies should be outlawed. Every dime they make in profit, and return to stockholders, and huge executive salaries, is a dime they have stolen from the sick and needy.

I have heard him interviewed a number of times. He is credible and knowledgable. Your reply is a total shock.

And your plan for a broken system is….? Just another right wing Republican nutjob….

Every editor should have this on his or her wall.

Corporate money has destroyed our political system. Sadly.

By your own prior posts you are small town. What is your circulation? You and your mom?

[...] In his new book Deadly Spin, Wendell Potter describes how his chief function as a senior public relations officer at two of the largest for-profit health insurance companies in the United States – Humana and Cigna – was to “perpetuate myths that had no other purpose but to sustain those companies’ extraordinary high profitability.” Read More Here [...]

[...] CONTINUED HERE [...]

My plan for a broken system is…universal healthcare. So very right wing Republican nutjob of me, I know.

And, I’m curious, what gave me away as a such a right wing Republican nutjob? Was it something I said or something you imagined I said?

My plan for a broken system is…universal healthcare. So very right wing Republican nutjob of me, I know.

And, I’m curious, what gave me away as a such a right wing Republican nutjob? Was it something I said or something you imagined I said?

My plan for a broken system is…universal healthcare. So very right wing Republican nutjob of me, I know.

And, I’m curious, what gave me away as a such a right wing Republican nutjob? Was it something I said or something you imagined I said?

Of course, of course. My apologies to you poor, overworked and trying to better the world thru your efforts. Just because the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, US Today, the Washington Post, NPR, NBC, CBS, FOX, and the rest of the newspaper, radio and TV stations in the country engage in corruption doesn’t mean that you personally do it.

And, I’d rather venture saying that when you are the janitor are a local newspaper in Poughkeepsie, NY, Abbeville, AL or Pawnee, KS, Big Insurance, et al are not quite necessarily breaking down your door offering you bribes.

Of course, of course. My apologies to you poor, overworked and trying to better the world thru your efforts. Just because the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, US Today, the Washington Post, NPR, NBC, CBS, FOX, and the rest of the newspaper, radio and TV stations in the country engage in corruption doesn’t mean that you personally do it.

And, I’d rather venture saying that when you are the janitor are a local newspaper in Poughkeepsie, NY, Abbeville, AL or Pawnee, KS, Big Insurance, et al are not quite necessarily breaking down your door offering you bribes.

Of course, of course. My apologies to you poor, overworked and trying to better the world thru your efforts. Just because the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, US Today, the Washington Post, NPR, NBC, CBS, FOX, and the rest of the newspaper, radio and TV stations in the country engage in corruption doesn’t mean that you personally do it.

And, I’d rather venture saying that when you are the janitor are a local newspaper in Poughkeepsie, NY, Abbeville, AL or Pawnee, KS, Big Insurance, et al are not quite necessarily breaking down your door offering you bribes.

“I doubt it happens at big papers either.”

Wow some newspaper reporter you are, shooting off your mouth with statements like “I doubt it” Why don’t you save your reporting for the stories that you are sure of. You work at a local paper so I am sure you can find plenty of stories about lost cats.

“I doubt it happens at big papers either.”

Wow some newspaper reporter you are, shooting off your mouth with statements like “I doubt it” Why don’t you save your reporting for the stories that you are sure of. You work at a local paper so I am sure you can find plenty of stories about lost cats.

“I doubt it happens at big papers either.”

Wow some newspaper reporter you are, shooting off your mouth with statements like “I doubt it” Why don’t you save your reporting for the stories that you are sure of. You work at a local paper so I am sure you can find plenty of stories about lost cats.

As a registered owner of an etymological dictionary, I can say, with a high degree of confidence, that Mr. Veblen’s use of the term “meretricious” is nicely put.

As a registered owner of an etymological dictionary, I can say, with a high degree of confidence, that Mr. Veblen’s use of the term “meretricious” is nicely put.

As a registered owner of an etymological dictionary, I can say, with a high degree of confidence, that Mr. Veblen’s use of the term “meretricious” is nicely put.

[...] Exclusive: I ‘wined and dined’ NYT and WSJ for favorable coverage, health insurance whistleblowe…. Share and [...]

[...] Exclusive: I ‘wined and dined’ NYT and WSJ for favorable coverage, health insurance whis… [...]

Fuck you back!

Fuck you back!

WWwhhaaaaaaa!

WWwhhaaaaaaa!

[...] [more...] // [...]

There is no credible source for that quote. I call BS.

There is no credible source for that quote. I call BS.

You’re right, that was insulting to prostitutes. You guys are stenographers; everything is he said/she said with no attempt to determine the truth.

You’re right, that was insulting to prostitutes. You guys are stenographers; everything is he said/she said with no attempt to determine the truth.

Well go investigate it big boy, get that big story. Saying ‘no it’s not’ followed by ‘la, la, la, I can’t hear you’ is hardly doing your job as a reporter. You have done zero investigation of this but you know it’s not true.
Nice job reporter … not.

Well go investigate it big boy, get that big story. Saying ‘no it’s not’ followed by ‘la, la, la, I can’t hear you’ is hardly doing your job as a reporter. You have done zero investigation of this but you know it’s not true.
Nice job reporter … not.

Hello Mr x. —and if something like that was going on at your paper you, Mr Editor, would of course be the first one to let us know?
Furthermore, until proven otherwise, I will argue that you have never, nunca, done any, none, nada, of investigative reporting. You, most likely, do just as everybody else, even some big papers, just copy what comes over the wires without even correcting any grammatical and/or spelling errors.

Hello Mr x. —and if something like that was going on at your paper you, Mr Editor, would of course be the first one to let us know?
Furthermore, until proven otherwise, I will argue that you have never, nunca, done any, none, nada, of investigative reporting. You, most likely, do just as everybody else, even some big papers, just copy what comes over the wires without even correcting any grammatical and/or spelling errors.

Yeah… I agree with you. I mean, all we have to do is look at the GREAT job Judith Miller & the Times did in the lead in to the war.

:;sarcasm off::

Problem with that judge’s decision (aside from the fact he stands to make money from his ruling) is that is wrong on the MERITS of the law. Even conservative legal scholars are laughing at him today.

I’m no fan of Obama’s Giveaway to the Insurance Giants, but it doesn’t mean I’ll cheer lead a neocon sycophant in judge’s robes.

Good points all around. let me add that while you’re correct in citing the WSJ’s investigative reporting, its editorial page was almost ALWAYS full of wingnuttery (sometimes even contradicting some of the papers factually-based, investaigattive efforts)

The merits of the law? What law? Better yet, whose law?

I was surprised to find myself actually agreeing with one of ‘em misguided reich wing nutters but I have to confess, I do agree with this one. This was wrong at the very core and, misguided as his intentions may have been, I agree with his rationale as well.

[...] NYT & WSJ for favorable coverage, health insurance whistleblower says,” The Raw Story. http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2010/12/exclusive-wined-dined-nyt-wsj-favorable-coverage-health-insurance-whistl…Student Researcher: Kyle PhelixFaculty Evaluator: Professor Brett Smith, Department of Economics [...]