Back in the day of real journalism, Walter Cronkite earned the respect of the America people. We trusted “Uncle Walter” to deliver the news with credibility, accuracy and the most important of all, the facts.
Today’s TV “news” is another animal completely removed from the real news we got back in the Cronkite-era.
Today’s TV news readers are manufactured creatures, there to promote the ideological views of their corporate owners. NBC = Comcast; CBS = Sumner Redstone (a man currently defending his mental fitness in court); ABC = Disney; Fox = Rupert Murdoch. Get the picture?
Of that group, most are big donors to the Hillary Clinton campaign!
As Lee Fang reported at The Intercept:
Fundraising disclosures released this month and in July reveal that lobbyists for media companies are raising big money for establishment presidential candidates, particularly Hillary Clinton…
The top fundraisers for Clinton include lobbyists who serve the parent companies of CNN and MSNBC.
The National Association of Broadcasters, a trade group that represents the television station industry, has lobbyists who are fundraising for both Clinton and Republican candidate Marco Rubio.
Presidential campaigns are obligated by law to send the Federal Election Commission a list of lobbyists who serve as “bundlers,” collecting hundreds of individual checks on behalf of a candidate’s campaign.
CNN’s parent company, Time Warner, is represented on Capitol Hill by SteveElmendorf, an adviser to Clinton during her 2008 campaign, who is also known as “one of Washington’s top lobbyists.” He’s lobbied on a number of issues important for media companies like CNN, including direct-to-consumer advertising policy.
Elmendorf, according to disclosures, has raised at least $141,815 for Clinton’s 2016 bid for the presidency.
Comcast, the parent company of NBC Universal, which includes cable networks NBC, CNBC, and MSNBC, has a number of lobbyists on retainer who are working to raise cash for the Clinton campaign, including Justin Gray, Alfred Mottur, Ingrid Duran and Catherine Pino.
Much of the $5 billion expected to be spent over the course of the 2016 presidential election cycle will be on cable and network news advertisements. The election-related spending bonanza is singularly boosting the profit margins of many media companies, as we’ve reported.
“Super PACs may be bad for America, but they’re very good for CBS,” LesMoonves, president and chief executive of CBS, memorably said.
So it’s little wonder that any time spent watching MSNBC MSHRC or CNN aka the Clinton News Network reinforces the notion that they’re all carrying water for the Clintons.
Just listen to my interview with Adryenn Ashley (yesterday’s show) and then watch how Rachel Maddow mis-reported it last night on her shill show. *** MSNBC, for some reason (ahem) didn’t post this segment on their website. I found the entire episode hiding online, and linked it above, and played it on today’s show so they can’t delete it.
Rachel Maddow just forfeited her “journalist” card by misreporting what went down in Las Vegas on Saturday, making no attempt whatsoever to find out what really happened. Sickening.
By the way, I’ve put out a challenge on Twitter and Facebook – IF anyone threw chairs at the Nevada Democratic convention, there must be pictures somewhere. After all, there is tons of footage from Saturday, yet I’ve seen not a single one of a thrown chair. (Rachel Maddow instead offered footage of chairs being thrown at a wrestling match… seriously!). So, if it happened, pictures will exist. I’m waiting……
Chain Of Title
David Dayen‘s long-awaited book, Chain of Title: How Three Ordinary Americans Uncovered Wall Street’s Great Foreclosure Fraud is officially released today, and it is a must-read for everyone.
He joined me to discuss it all today, and we barely scratched the surface. What you need to know and will truly understand after reading the book is that we are being lied to, scammed and our homes stolen by banksters and others engaging in wholesale fraud, and the government continues looking the other way.
The NY Times gave it a nice review; mine is even more enthusiastic – read this book and give a copy to everyone you know. It’s that well written and that important. Seriously!
Women
Laffy is on vacation this week, so today it was just Amy Simon and me in place of the Gliberal Goddesses. Sadly, we got pushed off track when Amy began proclaiming that Hillary Clinton has fought for women “from the beginning.” As you know, I don’t allow bullshit to pass on this show unchallenged, so the gauntlet is thrown. Amy will try to convince me that HRC has been “good for women” next week. Should be interesting…
I’m off to our new studio to get to work… back tomorrow, radio or not!
[…] of America Penalty Thrown Out in Crisis-Era ‘Hustle’ Case.” Wait, what? I hope you heard my interview with David Dayen from last Tuesday about his must-read book, Chain of Title. I called on David […]