"Journalists" Williams, Gallagher, McManus: Tip of Iceberg - Here's Why

[gristy]

All three of these journalists were paid by the government to promote government policies or viewpoints. But what about businesses paying off journalists to promote government policies or viewpoints that could benefit them? I think the latter could be the far more prevalent type of relationship, as it is easier to keep under wraps (no publicly-available contracts to disclose the relationship), and the money involved can be staggering. Any "journalists" supporting the Jets stadium initiative? The war in Iraq? The NCLB act? There are plenty businesses that would readily "support" those journalists.

Government-paid pundits are just a tip of the iceberg...

[skylarmae]

1. the concept is mind-numbing with its possibilities.

Wow, exactly who's books do you start looking at first. The companies, I suppose.

[Eric J in MN]

2. I wrote a blog article about media ownership and the Iraq War

http://www.moveleft.com/moveleft_essay_2005_01_14_friday_fun_great_animation_from_saturday_night_live_re_media_ownership_conspiracy_theory_rock.asp

"Great Animation From 'Saturday Night Live' About Media Ownership (Shown in 1998 Then Censored)"


Conservative commentator Armstrong Williams is in the news recently.

He accepted $240,000 to promote Bush's education bill "No Child No Left Behind." The money went from the federal Education Dept. to public relations firm Ketchum to Armstrong Williams, under the condition of promoting NCLB in his columns, tv show, and radio show.

The money of taxpayers should NOT go to P.R. firms to secretly-pay commentators. There should be an investigation and people held accountable.

HOWEVER

No one died because of the "No Child Left Behind" education bill.

Thousands died because of the Iraq War. The Lancet estimates 100,000 more people have died in Iraq because of the US invasion than would have died otherwise.

That is why the issue of media ownership, addressed in the animation linked at the top of this article, is more important than the Armstrong Williams case.

General Electric makes money through contracts with the US military, and has made massive profits from the Iraq War.

General Electric partly owns the cable news channel MSNBC.

Before the Iraq War, MSNBC ran a program each weeknight titled "Countdown: Iraq" which gave the impression that the war was inevitable, and so we might as well "countdown" to it instead of asking:

Is the war moral? Is the war in the best interest of average Americans? Average Iraqis? When would the US leave Iraq?

The conflict-of-interest of corporations-which-profit-from-war owning news-organizations is more significant than the conflict-of-interest of a commentator secretly-paid to promote an education bill.

I would support a law barring any corporation from owning a news-organization if the corporation gets more than a quarter of its revenue from non-media sources.

Such a law would fight bigger conflicts-of-interest than Armstrong Williams' conflict.

I'm not aware of any proposals for such a law.

[Scout1071]

3. I couldn't agree more

I've seen this model in sports. One sport in particular has a player salary cap, but the good players have many higher paying opportunities in Europe. Soooo, the league stealthly "partners" with major sponsors to increase the actual salaries tenfold.

With the likes of GE, Disney, Siemens, etc. there is potential for the money to come from any number of different sources.

I still think we need to absolutely comb the contracts with pr firms such as Fleishman-Hillard and Ketchum. I'm no legal expert, but isn't this money laundering as well? RICO act? I just tried to look up the definition on the gov website, but it says "document not found."

[ashling]

4. Williams was not a "Journalist"

he just played one on T.V.

[peacetalksforall]

5. Does anyone think that employees of CNN, FOX, NBCs, CBS, ABC

make only their salary? Or are there salary perks equivalent to a $240,000 pay-off given to them?

If an employee received a perk of $240,000 (or more since their exposure is grander than Williams), how much do the top executives get?

Where is this money coming from? I feel it's from laundering by the Enron type companies, plus benefactors. And the missing HUD money. Time will tell if it is also drug money.

WHY TALK ABOUT THOSE WHO TAKE IT, IF NOT ABOUT THOSE WHO REACH IN THEIR POCKET AND GIVE IT TO THEM?

Let's remind each other - these are the people who said they would bring honor and integrity to the WHite House - notice that they did not make that claim in 2004.

These are earth extractors and people mowing-down tractor operators.

Whether it's liquid or plant as in oil, gas, water, coca, or poppy, they want it all.