NPR asks you to 'Name that lobbyist'
By John Amato Friday Jun 26, 2009 5:45am
NPR turned their camera to the audience instead of the senators involved in crafting legislation and asks readers to "name that lobbyist."
When 22 senators started working over the first health care overhaul bill on June 17, the news cameras were pointed at them -- except for NPR's photographer, who turned his lens on the lobbyists. Whatever bill emerges from Congress will affect one-sixth of the economy, and stakeholders have mobilized. We've begun to identify some of the faces in the hearing room, and we want to keep the process going. Know someone in these photos? Let us know who that someone is -- e-mail dollarpolitics@npr.org or let us know via Twitter @DollarPolitics.
This is pretty cool. They aren't doing a Michael Savage on them, but pointing out how much the Health Care Industrial Complex is invested in what happens with health care reform.
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With my horrible memory for people's names and faces, I doubt if I actually saw someone I knew that I would recognize them.
Why aren't the lobbyists REQUIRED to identify themselves for this senatorial session, so the taxpayers can understand the legislative motives? Sounds democratic to me.
http://www.google.ca/search?hl=en&defl=en&q=d...
pbs can't do their own homework?
oh yeah, they're just stenographers!
http://www.npr.org/
http://www.pbs.org/
a typo, but the point stands (have you listened to much npr lately?)
marketwatch,fresh aire, bbc. for me npr is a glass half full for now.
sorry, but all those are, imo, main-stream-media fare.
no doubt i still find some value.
There are still some good programs (and our NPR affiliate in Oregon is particularly good).
That said, Morning Edition has SUCKED since NPR pushed Bob Edwards out. I get tired of hearing two self-important, snarky, sing-song voices dripping with irony as they make sure they hit all the Republican talking points. I was fortunate enough recently to hear Bob Edwards on satellite (since I don't buy it), and yes, there is a difference.
NZR, National Zionist radio. The morning show with Inskeep and Montaigne is a telecourse in manufacturing truth.
control the world's media? Banks too. Hollywood. Most of the smoked fish concessions. I get so tired of the klezmer rock blocks on my radio.
npr is a "pr" firm for many of those lobbyists interest anyway.
Look at who under writes many of the national shows and the "slant" they give to stories which effect those companys' bottom lines or investments.
wonder if that photographer will last long
Have you ever watched PBS?
Obviously not judging by your comment. It's the only TV news in America that actually provides real news. Try watching Wideangle, NOW or Bill Moyers sometime and you'll see what I mean.
That's where I've learned about the Iraqi refugee crisis in Turkey and Syria, the people who are profiting off the Wall Street chaos, the severe overtaxation of the poor despite the myth of the rich paying more in taxes and much more you'll never see on TV or in the NY Times.
the repugs sought for many years to destroy pbs (yes, of course i watched), and unfortunately they've mostly succeeded.
you can't even get an unbiased frontline report on health care for gawd's sake!
... until we displace/counter the purveyors of the prevailing media framework.
i think name tags identifying their employer would be a good idea. a more entertaining idea would be to base the size of the tags on how much the lobbyist's firm pays out in bribes.
Make the politicians wear tabards/jackets with their corporate sponsors logos/names on them.
And they have to drag large sacks with a dollar sign on them indicating the relative size of the "contributions" they've accepted. Burglar masks optional.
I like it.
It'd be like NASCAR but even more boring.
to bump into each other and burst into flames.
First Row:
Guilty,guilty,guilty
Second Row:
Guilty,guilty,guilty,guilty
3rd row:
Guilty,guilty,guilty,guilty.....
What a great idea.
I wonder how long it will take before some senator or lobbyist claims that their privacy is being violated.
lobbyists have played a MAJOR fuckin role along with the corporations they work for in bringing about the current clusterfuck we're living in right now.
I could give a flyin fuck about their goddamn privacy.
Has the latest details (may 15th 2009) of Congressional financial details.
http://www.legistorm.com/
Sadness in Congressional circles as AIG tanks
... applies to them just as much as it does to you.
Otherwise, we're just enabling idiots like Bill-O and his goon squad.
but damnit I hate those assholes!
there's cameras. What right to privacy should they expect?
Probably less than a week...
My husband just lost two of his bottom front teeth and he feels very ugly right now. So far we have been told $8,000.00 to get a full set of dentures and implants. And we have dental insurance, but we could not afford health insurance. Hopefully we will be able to find a low-income solution soon. I guess because we are poor we aren't good enough to have teeth....
They can do dental work for a fraction of the cost of normal places.
Mexico. just check out the Dr. there is lots of Americans Dr down there.
That in the end, NPR reports merely that x number of those people were lobbyists and doesn't report their identities. Not that I think lobbyists should be protected but I also think the media shouldn't be used as a club against legally behaving individuals.
Legally behaving individuals? It is only legal because politicians have made it legal to allow lobbyists to give politicians money to influence how the vote on issues. In many countries that practice is called bribery and it should be called that here too!
Oh, can anyone here point to the lobbyist in that crowd that represents the American people? You can't? Neither can I. You want to know why? Because there aint one!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It was said in another post that they're in the crowd.
... IF ...
I have no idea whether or not anyone from Blue America was in the audience.
Thanks. I missed that.
Our "lobbyists" are supposed to be the elected senators crafting the legislation.
...at least that's how it is supposed to work if it wasn't painfully obvious that the system is broken beyond repair.
You are so right Symon!
I should have stated my second paragraph a bit differently. I should have said:
Oh, can anyone here point to the lobbyist in that crowd with deep pockets that represents the American people? You can't? Neither can I. You want to know why? Because there aint one!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
There may be some lobbyists there that represent the average person, but if they don't have a lot of money to "grease the skids" their influence will much less than lobbyists with access to big money.
Regardless whether or not I agree with what they do (i don't) I still don't think the media should be used as a club.
NPR's point is made if they simply say "According to our investigations and the help of the blogosphere, we've identified over [x number] lobbyists in the audience"
What a bunch of scumbags pices of shit. to see people selling out people. what, do they think at all about what ther doing. I am just amazed just how fast people will sell out people.
... the folks at Blue America were sitting in the audience, would it be fair to identify them as lobbyists?
Simply sitting in the gallery is not a crime. Identifying 'lobbyists' would have to be 'This is John Doe. He works for Medical MegaCorp. Medical MegaCorp contributed twenty-umptillion dollars to Senator Hornswaggler last week.'
Blue America isn't bribing anyone. Especially to promote government welfare designed only for them.
... that every single person that is identified as a lobbyist or working for a firm is complicit in bribery?
Sitting in the gallery is not a crime.
Even if this were an actual crime scene, you'd not only have to place the suspect at the crime scene at the time of said crime, you'd have to have forensic evidence to back up your allegations.
Some background - as an editor who works on a newscast, we have to be careful not to misconstrue or misrepresent facts by the pictures we choose. Showing a black man on the street, for example, while the reporter talks about a suspect in a murder case is unethical.
In the same manner, the careless identification of someone as a lobbyist is equally wrong.
You made a pretty amazing jump in logic there. Of course sitting in a gallery is not a crime. Of course every single person involved in lobbying is not necessarily complicit in bribery.
But Mr shadowgm we are all adults here and know how the world really works. Why do you think lobbyists give politicians money? Because they think they are nice people? I consider myself a very nice person who happens to not be a politician, and guess what, no lobbyist has ever given me a dime.
Lobbyists give politicians money to influence their votes. These people are not fools. They know if they give politicians enough money they will get what they want. Just look at what is going on in the health care debate. Over 70% of people want a public option and politicians are desperately trying to keep it off the table.
Very similar to how some drug dealers entrap their customer base.
The first 'hit' is free, then maybe the second 'hit' is cheap, then when people are hooked or enjoying it too much/often, then the full price is applied.
So is it the fault of lobbyists, or the politicians who accept contributions, even legal ones and become compromised?
And, frankly, any time someone tells me they understand how the world really works ... I have to be skeptical. Bill-O, Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck ... they all understand how the world works, too. So do the people I know who believe some bizarre conflux of the Anunaki, Bilderbergers, and Tri-Lateral Commission are running everything.
Quite simply money and power run the world, and you will never hear that from Bill-O, Rush, Glenn Beck etc. because they represent that power. And Shadowgm I suspect either you do too, or you are one very naive person. Open your eyes and look around.
They admit to accepting lobbyist cash. Right?
Lobbying with cash = bribery.
All the evidence I need.
How about a simle show of hands for any "contributor" to a Senators campaign. That oughta settle it.
No matter what laws are passed or enacted, the politicians will find a way to skate around them by observing the letter of that law, or following standard GOP practice: if it's not explicitly stated as being illegal, it's legal.
I'd like to think that if I had millions to spare, that I'd be able to contribute as I saw fit to campaigns and causes I see as worthy without the implication that I'm bribing a senator.
Would you use your millions to bribe politicians to screw 90% of your fellow citizens so that you could have your own private welfare system?
You don't strike me as a sociopath.
Take a good look at the people in this shot. This is the real legislative branch of the government.
MICHAEL JACKSON DIED.
Without taking anything away from MJ's contributions to music or his achievements, he displaced fucking everything in the news. Even Farrah Fawcett, who worked towards cancer awareness, took a back seat to Jackson. Mark Sanford went from being the subject of packages (reporter story) to a VO in the bottom half of the hour.
I'm sure every single scumbag there has taken vacation time and is on their own personal time.
me the diffrence between the US and Mexico. in Mexico they bribe the goverment, in the US, What "WE" have is campaign contrbutors. What WTF is the diffrence.
there's too much influence/money on k-street. check this out during the BUSH years:
Lobbyists in 2000: 16,342 2005: 34,785
these special interest firms love to go after formerly elected lawmakers and/or their assistants/associates.
it seems to me we may need to lengthen the time in between being in office to being able to start on
k-street. the lobbyists have a lot of power to write legislation and to delay/defeat legislation.
But I know part of what they have been bribing with and who they are giving bribes to!
Here is a list of elected people taking payoffs to cheat the American people and the amounts of bribes being taken. This is just from health care and insurance.
It is mind boggling to think how much these people are taking from others!
Arlen Specter (R-D- PA- $4,026,933)
Max Baucus (DLC- MT- $2,833,731)
Mitch McConnell (R-KY- $2,758,468)
And when you just go right to Big Insurance, the non-presidential candidates who got the biggest legalized bribes were the 7 senators who have been tasked with the job of killing single-payer:
Ben Nelson (DLC-NE- $1,196,799)
Max Baucus (DLC- MT- $1,184,113)
Joe Lieberman (DLC- CT- $1,036,302)
Arlen Specter (R-D- PA- $1,035,530)
Chuck Schumer (D-NY- $981,400)
Mitch McConnell (R-KY- $929,207)
Chuck Grassley (R-IA- $884,724)
We need to investigate and prosecute these criminals now. Severe jail terms are in order for these criminals!
..is more than just a blemish, but I suspect the framing from the right will continue.
the right is ahead of us. this is good for npr and the netroots to do, but on a much broader scale.
this link shows how the right is mobilizing the troops regarding cap and trade and also pirates the contact info for representatives they post:
http://blahgblog.wordpress.com/2009/06/26/dir...
quality photos of all these people with their names. Surely they couldn't protest that. I mean if they're doing something honorable, no one could complain.
out them all. Out all the brutes.
Name 'em and shame 'em. The health care lobby and our representatives cannot be allowed to continue rape and bankrupt the populace over health care coverage.
http://www.opednews.com/articles/Health-CARE-...
How can NPR or any other tv/radio station give us real news when ALL of them are paid for by corporations. Of course they'd say that these sponsors have NO control over what NPR says or does, but how many stories about corporate influence over everything we say and do in this, the "greatest" country on earth? None.
Big coal, big oil, big pharma, big insurance all control the media. We have no free press in this country. All we have is "Here's a small part of one side of the story." now "Here's a small part of the other side of the story." No matter how factual, you'll never hear Jim Lehrer say "You can see from our coverage that coal plants in Ohio spread their pollution far and wide and kill the fish and ruin the water in states as far away as Maine. The government should be doing something about this."
As my husband says "It's a small price to pay for living in the greatest country on earth." Smirk, smirk.
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