NBC Correspondent Received $30K for Speech Attacking Sen. Edwards ...

[waiting for hope]

Now who says the Media isn't biased?

This spring, NBC chief Pentagon correspondent Jim Miklaszewski took $30,000 from the Greater Providence Chamber of Commerce to address its Business EXPO 2007. During his talk, Miklaszewski attacked a prominent presidential candidate.

As Washington Post media critic Howard Kurtz pointed out in 2002, professional journalists accepting fees for speaking engagements is widely frowned upon by the media and a "number of news organizations including, ABC and NBC, banned the practice."

Just last year, Media Matters for America noted the apparent conflict of interest and violation of NBC's ban on paid speaking gigs when Chris Matthews received "tens of thousands of dollars in exchange for delivering speeches to corporate interest groups." Controversy surrounding Matthews' speaking fees prompted then MSNBC president Rick Kaplan to clarify that NBC policy prohibited anchors from personally accepting speaking fees and anyone who did so "would risk being fired."

But as The Providence Journal reported, Jim Miklaszewski not only took $30,000 from the Chamber of Commerce in apparent violation of his employer's policy on paid speaking engagements, the NBC correspondent then proceeded to call presidential candidate and former Sen. John Edwards (D-NC) a "loser" for attempting to defend a pricey haircut.

It's reasonable to assume that John Edwards' economic policies -- his focus on poverty and health care and the growing gap between rich and poor, and his proposed solutions to these problems -- aren't very popular at the Chamber of Commerce. Edwards, for example, has said he would repeal the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans in order to pay for his health care proposal, while the U.S. Chamber of Commerce lists making the Bush tax cuts permanent first among its tax policy priorities. And in 2006, the U.S. Chamber gave nearly five times as much money to Republicans as to Democrats.

Put simply, an NBC correspondent took $30,000 from the business lobby to give a speech -- then, during the speech, he attacked a candidate whose policies the lobby opposes. This is deeply unethical, to say the least.

As Edwards embarks on his poverty tour this week, it's fitting we call upon the media to stop their endless stream of personal, negative, and often absurd attacks against progressives and return their focus to where it belongs: the issues. As a respected and influential journalist, Miklaszewski has a reputation to uphold as a serious and objective source of information on air and off. Calling a presidential candidate a "loser" over a haircut would be absurd enough. Doing so after taking $30,000 from special interests opposed to that candidate is scandalous.

Media Matters

I wonder how much more of this is going on? Makes you wonder.....

[leftofthedial]

1. just doing his (RW) job

anyone who really thinks the media is independent of the RW national "security" institution is not paying attention

[blm]

13. Exactly right. Jim was doing the job he REALLY gets paid to do. Has been since corporate takeovers

of our broadcast and print media became the norm in the 80s and 90s.

[leftofthedial]

15. and CIA infiltration during the Cold War, which was escalated significantly during

Reagan's Operation Truth

[liberal N proud]

2. Ethics in the new bu$h republic

[GreenTea]

3. Will the republicans get their way and drive Edwards out of the race over a haircut? Destroy Edwards

I think they will, Although Edwards is a fighter. The republicans want to run against who they believe they can beat much easier than an excellent charismatic politician with a great progressive platform as John Edwards...They are doing everything possible to destroy Edwards early and get him out of the race...

The republicans much prefer and like their odds running against an African-American or a woman. This is no slight to either, it's just quite obvious...Much the same way ALL republicans have been trashing Edwards from the very beginning....just as they did with Howard Dean in 2004...The republicans don't just sit around each and every day, they are busy and conniving and setting things up, it's to their benefit to make sure the weakest Democratic candidate is nominated and running against them...And Edwards would indeed kick republican ass and the republicans absolutely know it!!

[hatrack]

4. Speaking of "losers" . . . .

Oh, no, I forgot. We're the losers - loss of the press, loss of accountability, loss of journalistic standards.

But hey, as long as the bucks continue to roll in for members of the Belters . . .

Miklaszewski = whore.

[Mass]

5. I' ve stopped wondering years ago.

Edwards is not the first one to have been attacked by a complicit media and wont be the last one.

[truedelphi]

6. The MSM is superfluous anyway

[Canuckistanian]

7. Wow. Some people around here do it for free. n/t

[waiting for hope]

8. No shit.

[11 Bravo]

9. But, but, but ... haircut! big house! and, oh yeah, haircut!

[1932]

28. And I suspect some are doing it for money.

[yardwork]

35. Oh yeah.

[LostInAnomie]

10. What a time we live in where ethics have become a commodity.

NBC should be ashamed of itself if they keep this fuck employed.

[Jackpine Radical]

11. Well, it wasn't like Miklaczewski used the money for $400 haircuts, ya know.

Let's keep some proportion here. All he did was slam Edwards around. I mean, Hell, most media talking heads will do that just as a matter of course. It's expected, it's part of the job to badmouth Democrats. Where would Rush be, where would any of them be, if suddenly people started thinking it's wrong to take money for attacking Democrats?

[waiting for hope]

14. Proportion?????

Put simply, an NBC correspondent took $30,000 from the business lobby to give a speech -- then, during the speech, he attacked a candidate whose policies the lobby opposes. This is deeply unethical, to say the least.

[nolabels]

23. Yea, PROPORTION, that's what it's all about

Like why get a haircut when you make $30,000 just for flapping your lipps about someone else getting one :hippie:

[stellanoir]

12. This sort of thing has to have been going on for years beneath the radar.

Otherwise we'd still have real journalists instead of handsomely paid talking heads masquerading as truth seekers and tellers espousing their Rovian talking points of the day.

Oh and oddly enough. . .I live in RI and the ProJo (as we call it locally) was creepily bought off by a "Texas Corporation," around '00-'01.
Not sure of the date. Haven't read it ever since.

Miklaszewski has been BSing about Iraq and the oxymoronic "War on Terror" from the get go.

[Tom Joad]

16. It would seem unethical even if he had only talked about his summer vacation

Because either way he would be receiving funds from a special interest group.

if someone pays you this much money for an hour or so of your time, then it just might give the appearance of a conflict of interest, that you might feel at least a little beholden to the group, a little grateful.

Going after edwards just makes it worse.

[Kolesar]

29. Yes! Because Miklaszewski portends to be a reporter, not a commentator.

[bettync]

17. I like Howard Kurtz

His column and his program on CNN are good. I hope he stays on this kind of abuse by the media. I wonder how much really goes on that we never find out about. Sometimes the criticisms of Edwards are so foolish that it makes me very suspicious of the agenda. It doesn't make sense that seasoned journalists would talk about silliness like "the haircut" instead of the real issues of the campaign. I guess it is difficult to make Edwards look bad on the issues, because his plans are all very sound and substantive. So "journalists" try to misdirect attention with silly criticisms. I wish there were more good reporters like Howard Kurtz.

[waiting for hope]

18. Exactly on the silliness -

How much air time is Romney's $300 make up session getting?

[seemslikeadream]

27. Howard Kurtz?

This guy

[WorseBeforeBetter]

32. LOL He's a regular Edward R. Murrow. (n/t)

[Maestro]

19. Sounds like payola to me.

This just disgusts me. First, nothing he has to say is worth 30K when people can barely make that in a year. Secondly, he should be barred from covering politics with NBC. This guy has no integrity. Go work for Faux Jim.

[EFerrari]

24. Exactly. n/t

[SalmonChantedEvening]

20. Shill be comin' round the mount...

Sorry.

No, really. That was wrong of me. My apologies.


...

















:rofl:

[Mutineer]

21. No journalist should be giving speeches to groups period.

No matter what those groups are, left or right. It's just wrong and a huge conflict of interest.

[autorank]

22. This clown should not be able to cover the campaign. If he is, no ethics exist at this network.

Period.

[progressoid]

25. Hey, do you suppose Fox has a policy like that?

[libnnc]

26. Ah, Mick, you sorry little sonofabitch

Shame. On. You.

[Mike Nelson]

30. Jim Miklaszewski took $30,000 to put down Edwards' $300 haircut?

Somebody should show Jim Miklaszewski the door.

[Hawkowl]

31. Revoke the FCC licenses

Either restore a fairness doctrine or simply revoke their licenses. It is absolutely insane to allow the biggest defense contractor in the world (GE) to own a media network to force war, and a right wing political agenda down our throats, choking us all to death. The airwaves belong to the people. There should no longer be any television "networks". No one company should be allowed to own more than a handful of broadcast outlets. Democracy only thrives with a multitude of diverse viewpoints and a free exchange of ideas. Make T.V. and radio more like the internet. If we don't, then the corporate whores will make the internet more like T.V. and radio. Then democracy will indeed be doomed.

[Sapphire Blue]

33. K&R! "Miklaszewski has a reputation to uphold as a serious and objective source..."

He has given up any and all claims to such a reputation.

:kick:

[hatrack]

34. Not any more he doesn't

nt