Autocrats & fascists, know the importance of media ownership (Hitler &Mussolini also took over radio & newspapers during their time). Why this simple lesson is lost on progressives is confounding...
Murdoch understood that long ago too. Look at the damages he has done to UK (ie news of the world scandal, brexit insane failure). Not mentioning his fucking fox news of course
The Dominion settlement shows how vulnerable Murdoch et al are. Lots more to come, including shareholder derivative suits alleging an equivalent of corporate malpractice. The Smartmatic case alleging damages of $2.7 bil is pending. I am amazed that other potential creditors, like the police officers injured by mob violence egged on by Fox on Jan 6 have not joined them for contribution.
Could have had criminal; liability. Normally, a grand jury would have inquired about that fact pattern.
The defamation scenario also should apply to every other network that knew or had reason to know that the big liar was Trump, spread bull as truth.
Fox is involved in at one least case defending it's license for its TV station in Philadelphia. The FCC has rules against broadcasting false information. "FCC rules specifically say that the “public harm must begin immediately, and cause direct and actual damage to property or to the health or safety of the general public, or diversion of law enforcement or other public health and safety authorities from their duties.”" If a complaint is filed, the FCC should investigate. https://www.fcc.gov/sites/default/files/broadcasting_false_information.pdf
And nobody paid any attention to Reagan when he fast tracked Murdoch's citizen application. There is a reason my generation of liberals called Reagan Reaganze.
Yes! This! So very far out of my field of expertise. Nonetheless it has been apparent to me for the last 12 or so years that the democrats need to counter Fox News and the ilk. And yes, having just driven across the vast emptiness of west Texas and east New Mexico, I can attest that there are no “decent” radio stations to listen to. And the buy up of local newspapers is limiting the ability to report on local stories and news.
The right wing take over of the media has coincided with the decline in the quality of public education. We now have a population that is less engaged and unable/unwilling to question and think critically.
It would appear that Clinton paid the price for her comment on the “free market”.
I am continually stunned at the dystopia of our modern society. The earth is round, the sky is blue, vaccines save lives, and sadly Sandy Hook really happened.
It’s wrong to condemn Hillary for her opinion that it should be done in the free market. That would indeed be part of the solution, but we needed more. I’m still just appalled at the indifference shown by our legislators. It requires a multi prong plan. The clock is ticking…
I don’t hate Hillary, but I think she was off base. It sounds like the proposal was for left wing competitors in the free market, not a government or DNC-run entity. Saying that NPR is doing a good job is a very “Let them eat cake” attitude. Obviously their appeal is limited, and they do not effectively combat right wing disinformation.
Ture enough Justannotorange. NPR can't compete with right wing hate radio, because it is not inflammatory and doesn't create it's own reality.
Twas Samuel Clements that said, "A lie will go twice around the world, before the truth gets its boots on".
Demagogues rise to power because they tell lies that appeal to the masses who want simple answers. Like Germany lost the war because Jews stabbed it in the back, no mention that Germany should not have been in the war in the first place, save for an alliance the Kaiser had with the Emperor of Austria Franz Joseph I, and it was a naval embargo by Britain and America that brought Germany to the rail road car at Versaille on 28 Jun 1918, not Jews stabbing Germany in the back, but demagogues like Hitler and Trump never let the truth stand in the way of scapegoating and propaganda.
In Germany everyone pays for their television and radio stations. They get a monthly bill, not very much money, and they can opt to pay yearly instead and people from all parties basically trust their media. It is not free market and it helps the journalists to be critical when they are interviewing politicians who are showing up on the news regularly to be interviewed, so no press conferences when things happen, but instead interview on live news by a journalist who presses them. Here is an expat in Germany comparing the two.
Look at the numbers of how many people watch the main channel. While I don't agree with what he is saying totally, because my mom's friend who is a member of the Left party, gets most of her news from reading publications that are Leftist. Still, in general Germany has a funding formula for television and radio that is different from the US, and safer. So no chance for criminals from other countries owning the news.
Unless there was a radical socialist takeover of all three branches of government (as unlikely as humans building homes and gardening on Mars), the only option is a free market solution Linda.
The money in America is towards privatization, first it was Public Utilities, now federal functions like CMS handling the billing for Medicare/Medicaid, and even the DoD, has privatized some of it's functions, like food service and housing.
I lived in base housing when it was run by the Base Commander, and the houses were maintained and spotless w hen you moved in, because the outgoing tenant had to pass a white glove inspection , or hire a crew approved by the housing officer.
Then they contracted it out, and now even the Marine Corps is having problems with run down and black mold infected family housing and barracks.
Even portions of interestate hiways have been sold to private companies that extract tolls and do not do maintenance, When the roads deteriorate to unsafe to travel, the companies simply walk away,
Spanish company owns six major US Toll roads, problem is that these were once portions of the Interstate which was supposedly free because it was built with federal funds, but the states had to kick in their share, and the time limit for free usage has expired
I don’t condemn her, just the opposite. My point which wasn’t clear is that had the Dems seen the threat and acted back then, we might have had a different President in 2016. And even if not, we would be a lot closer to countering the all MAGAts all the time airwaves and print/digital media.
To turn the right, one has to craft a message, cnsistently, that will appeal to their bias, bigotry and ignorance up front. in other words sound like Rush Limbaugh.
Free Speech TV has one, Rick Smith, he comes on and even sounds like Rush, but he is definitely progressive. Problem is getting him on the air. The over the air channels and stations, which are what truckers, salesmen and commuters listen to are owned by Clear Channel (which owns the most including iHeart), Cox communications, Cumulus Media, Emmis Communications, Entercomm communications,.
There are six other conglomerates like Disney, gannet and News Corp (Murdoch) that own most of the Press and TV stations. Does not include NYT owned by the Ochs Sulzberger Family , The Observor owned by Jared Kushner, WAPO owned by Jeff Bezo's.
For anyone to break through that cabal , they would have to be a liberal multi billionaire, easier to just buy out Clear Channel or Cox.
There used to be progressive radio stations, there was a great one out of Seattle, but it was bought by iHeart, Clear channel, and stopped prrogressive programming and switched to sports and trivia., this has happened all over the country. I doubt that there are any progressive stations left, maybe in some small insignificant market.
Meanwile there is Freespeech.org which carries Thom Hartmann, Randi Rhodes, David Pakman, and The Rick Smith.
Spanish are Catholic., Evangelical and Pentecostal that translates into conservative, which translated into culture warrior.
Mayra Flores,herself an immigrant,is the rep from 18th Texas District and is a wild eye Trump humping right winger., and of course Joe Arpaio, Nick Fuentes, Enrique Tarrio.
These right wing Hispanics are not sympathetic to migrants, because they believe that they make them look bad.
It is the old "i got mine, to hell with you".
Soros is the bete noir of the right, he is code for Jew, the only thing that he has done is contribute to Democratic campaigns.
I’ve been saying this for over two decades! But I never had an audience. I’m glad to hear that you tried. The Democrats resistance to your message is beyond comprehension.
The lack of understanding of how ideas are promoted and exactly what base campaigning is truly confounds the health of the Dem Party. The truth ought to be enough but always comes short to kabuki theater. Constant echos from right wingers on radio complaining about the state of the economy and crime has made the population believe the economy and crime are worse despite reality. How long can we withstand these toxic lies before it destroys society? We need fighters to fight for the truth and media outlets to promote truth. The media is working against the truth. The Dem Party needs media that supports facts before we die in a swamp of lies. Make Free Speech TV our Fox and shoot down lies. Just show some fight and see how much that rallies the people from the swamp of lies.
Freedom of speech does not include the right to lie. The spreaders of false facts need to be flogged. The truth is why people become religious, they don't want to get depressed. But living in a world of lies will also make them depressed when their world and the people they hates world comes crumbling down. We need an FCC with an iron fist.
Apparently Trump broke the law (again) by lying about the financials of Truth Social. Fox lost a lot of money for lying about Dominion voting machines and Smartmatic is suing them for the same thing. So investors and businesses are protected from damaging lies, in spite of the First Amendment. What about lies that harm our democracy? Free and fair elections? Voters, and taxpayers? Should progressive politicians sue for defamation? There must be a reasonable way to combat the objectively false mantras from right wing propaganda, at least by bringing back the Fairness Doctrine. The Telecommunications Act (1996) seems to be part of the problem, too, by enabling monopolization of media ownership. Surely this could be reformed, with enough progressives in office.
Around 1992, Americans thought they won the “Cold War.” In truth, the winner was hyper-capitalism, not democracy and freedom. Since then, America has been increasingly bought and run by billionaires. Musk even runs the US space program and the satellite communications system in Ukraine. Zueckerberg, Gates, and a few dozen other billionaires whom you have never heard of are buying up neighborhoods, school systems, newspapers, radio, and influencing all of the other media. Some of these people are supporting progressive causes, but the rest are supporting messages that the wealthy should become wealthier, and everyone else should become Christian.
But, there are several TikTok sites that are fighting for democracy and we need to at least watch them to increase their chances of getting the algorithm to spread them around. TikTok is the new radio. I heard on Hard Fork that some 14 year-old are spending 12 to 18 hours a day on TikTok. While this is certainly a problem, it offers a way to reach the younger generations.
I am banned on X. I guess they think my many postings of "Trump hates dogs" is spam. Facebook wants a copy of my driver's license. Wants my SSN.
I don't know that Tic Toc is the new radio. IMHO it's true that the effect of social media is deeper. more personal than broadcast radio. My niece, who is in the field, says that ads on social media are three times more cost effective. That's because many "influencers" have a personal connection with their followers. I had law clerks tell me that when they had interviews with Big Law firms, they were asked what social media services they used and how many followers they had. Maybe that, typing speed and computer skills are probably as important academic achievement and work experience.
Although Oldandintheway (which is the name of one of my favorite albums) references Tic Tok,, Instagram and Facebook are bigger. They are owned by the same company. The way it should work, when a message is sent to someone the user is following, that same message is sent to the followers. Thom has 13K followers. Taylor Swift, the Number 1 Democratic influencer, who endorsed Biden in 2020, is Time Magazine woman of the year, and who is in msm every day, has 283.4 million followers. If she is sent a message, all those followers could hypothetically receive them. The cost for sending that message is zero (0.00).
In a nutshell it is more cost productive for an advertiser to use social media. Ads usually generate "hits." X has a premium program ($16/mo.) that treats ordinary users like advertisers and if the user generates sufficient hits, is compensated. BTW Taylor Swift also has 79 Million followers on X.
So it could be that if Thom gets a good review of his new book from a Taylor Swift follower, it may generate more revenue that all broadcast media combined. And it may provide him with many more followers. Multiply Taylor Swift by other influencers, and consider the future value.
Meanwhile if we want to make the media more equitable, we need to sweep the elections. FT6 registers more democrats to save democracy -- and perhaps free speech. https://voterizer.org/ Pass it on.
I'm already hooked into Field Team 6. I will do social media stuff for them after I do stuff here in the Bluest of the Blue, getting signatures for E. Warren to get back on the ballot. We have to do that every time anyone runs in this fair and safe election state.
THIS… and as an old school direct marketer… I wish I could send hard copies of Thoms articles to lists in swing states. If each of us mails 10 articles I believe our contributions could make an impact. Vote Forward has demonstrated that postcard mailings work. And those are just to get out the vote.
Last May, I deleted my long time Facebook page. Though I followed many liberal pages, I was incredibly agitated by right wing commenters and trolls....the hate, vitriol and misinformation were more than I could take.
This week, I opened a new Facebook account, strictly to follow some of the great groups I used to follow.
My entire news feed was full of right wing propaganda and misinformation.
Another far reaching piece by our dear Thom! Sadly, in our massively overpopulated nation and world, now in a progressive state of climate collapse, folks sort ourselves out in our massive status hierarchies by our sole measure of status: MONEY. I don't know about anyone else, but I live just below the median income level, own no stocks or bonds, and buy books, with food purchases if any money is left over. I say, let the materialists race on, I-phone in hand, until they one day soon wake-up at the Gates of Hades, but it will be too late then. Just imagine how long that line of millionaires like Romney will be trying to squeeze themselves through the eye of a needle.
It's funny how the press doesn't cover overpopulation population and global warming. No one dares to criticize the pope for being opposed to birth control. No one criticizes the billionaires for being greedy. No one criticizes the poor for having babies they can't afford. No one criticizes the churches for detaching children from reality for the rest of their life. No one dares to criticize the family unit concept that has stopped the evolution of the human race! The right wing mob just wants to blame the truth seekers, and not the liars. There is no such thing as alternative facts!
Doc explicame, por favor, yo no entiende que is possible a buy and iPhone and a cell carrier, living below the median income level,(not what one would expect of an MD), and buy books with food purchases (that one no comprendo)
I honestly don't understand, I've been on phorae and substack with commenters who claim to be poor, have to just between food and medicine, but yet they own an IPhone (which is damned expensive) and/or a computer. Cell service is around $70 a month, and an ISP, at least$80 a month, more depending on download speed.
Then there is transportation expenses, and unless you live in SF, NYC or some other big city with Public Transportation, we are talking expense, big ones, car payments, gas, insurance,registration, taxes, if not then Uber or Lyft (also expensive).
Probably the most important article Thom has written in a while.
There is almost no real strategy or process to craft, then deliver, a Progressive vision of society. And there is absolutely no organized program for playing hardball to expose, dismantle, and discredit the right wing message.
Colbert and a few others are fine in making fun of the obvious fools. It will not make a difference.
We are at war and that requires a policy, strategy and tactics to research, frame, and then deliver a unified progressive vision. It is no good to keep featuring yet another group that deserves support. The Right's message designers salivate every time the newest Handicapped Lesbians with AIDs gets up in front of the microphone and begins demanding their rights.
If progressive action means endlessly splintering the American community and its commonwealth, we are doomed. Every new suffering minority only provides more ammunition for FOX, etc, to .deepen the anger and distrust of Americans in general.
The goal must be to develop a single, common vision that functions for everyone, leaving Identities at the door.
We need a process that includes research -- to ensure accuracy of our facts and uncover the falsehoods or theirs.
We need a group skilled in framing messages that move people, not lecture them in what they SHOULD be thinking. And we need a tight team of talented deliverers of the message.
And we need an overall structure that funds and keeps the three points in touch and able to react quickly.
Too much corporate Democratic Party money is being spent on their buddies in tired, old polling organizations with their study groups.
Why don’t some liberals with relevant academic training and/or political experience join forces with liberals in Hollywood, who have the skills - and money - to package and distribute information in a way that’s compelling?
There are some YouTube channels/podcasts I like that have more mass appeal, I think, than NPR, or Democracy Now! (which I think does a much better job than NPR in terms of content, but not style). Google goes overboard with censoring comments but doesn’t censor the videos themselves, from what I can tell. Meidas Touch is even getting mentioned on mainstream (including right wing) media. I’m pretty sure these channels post on Tik Tok, too.
The issue is that a weakness of progressive action is that it is often grass-roots. Community focus often means community action, which is bottom up messaging.
That takes us to the weakness i am highlighting... Every different issue group getting their five minutes at the microphone.
It is gold for the FOX types... an endless supply of ammunition to fire up "normal" Americans.
Specifically to your point: We do not need bottom up message framing. We need a top down approach, which means a unified, central leadership team for messaging. This will generally upset Progressives as it does not immediately represent an "inclusive" style.
The issue is: Who is going to organize Hollywood liberal personalities with progressive poli sci people into a tight messaging program?
Well, Thom Hartmann tried to get the ball rolling on some unified top-down messaging. There are already liberal academics and pols that make the rounds on news shows, and now on YouTube/podcasts. As for liberals in Hollywood, I’m just bringing it up because it makes sense to me, that they have skills to get people’s attention without the lying, exaggerating or divide-and-conquer fear mongering used by the right.
There are people I watch on YouTube (not sure if you’re suggesting that’s bottom up grassroots messaging?) who are very knowledgeable and professional. I’m learning a lot from many attorneys who provide commentary. It’s not top down like Republicans, where everyone has the same talking points, and I don’t agree with everything people say in these videos, but viewers are pretty unified in the comments section. That includes progressives as well as independents, former Republicans, and never Trump Repubs.
Yes, there are many on-point and focused individuals presenting clear, insightful messages and information. But it is scattered and not woven into an overall strategy.
Unfortunately, any framing plan for a campaign that succeeds in (a) getting across to the body politic an evolving progressive vision, and (b) dissects the poison of the right wing blather-sphere will require... well, a plan.
That means organization. It means leadership that sets priorities... perhaps the handicapped lesbians with AIDs would have to sit in the back for now and shut up.
Essentially, there would need to be agreement on a top-down program.
Donald: I was a financial supporter of Democracy Now, until Putin invaded Ukraine, they are old time Marxists, and view the world through the lens that America is colonialist and imperialist. Marx was actually a proto libertarian. I've posted how and why many times on Thom's pages.
Democracy Now, Noam Chomsky and even the Nation are 21st Century equivalent of Tankies. Tankie is a pejorative reference to hard-line, pro-Soviet members of the Communist Party of Great Britain, and in some cases more broadly to supporters of authoritarian socialism. They stood in support of the USSR as Tanks rolled into Budapest during the Hungarian Revolution.
Amy Goodman is an antisemitic Jew, and much of her staff and on air commentators are Muslims. Jews have no loyalty to the world wide Jewish community, Muslims are loyal to the Ummah (world wide community of Muslims) regardless of sect, Sunni or Shia, and regardless of that they do.
You don't see Muslims standing up and protesting IISIS, DAESH, ISK, Al Qaeda, or HAMAS and Hezbollah, but you find Jews leading anti Israel protests.
It is precisely this internecine finger-pointing that condemns rational progressive action.
Reminds me of the MONTY PYTHON movie scene where the Peoples' Front of Judea start fighting with the the Judean People's Front over something like the placement of a semi-colon in their manifesto.
Because many a so called progressive, are not actually progressives, but enemies of America, and thus allies of Putin and even China.
If they are only Marxist purists, their demand for purity, enables and allies with Trump.
For instance. these campus radicals, as well as the Muslims who call Biden genocide Joe, and the young blacks who are peeved because they haven't had their wish list fulfilled, are the allies of Trump. Blasting Biden, sitting out the election or voting third party, (like for Cornell West) is Trump's path to victory.
There are 235 votes in red and red leaning states. 226 in Blue and blue leaning states. Since 2020, Republican legislatures have passed voter restriction and suppression laws, Nebraska has passed a law that all electors will be selected by majority vote.
In 2020 VA, GA, NC were swing states, but because of Republican voter lawsThe only swing states are AZ, NV, MI, PA, WI and they have 61 electoral votes. The election hinges on MI, PA Mi has 15 electoral votes, PA has 19 votes, that is 35 votes, if the other swing states go for Biden,
Then that means Trump has 269 votes and Biden 269, 538 Total, with a tie, the question goes to the Congress and each state has one vote, there are 31 Red states and 19 Blue states... Trump becomes #47.
And only because of asshole Campus Idiots, Muslims and Blacks.
And of course they will deflect, and blame Biden, because he hasn't kissed their asses.
A lot of good that will do, as they will suffer the consequences of their own stupidity. For one thing Trump and his base have promised to cleanse America of 1st and 2nd generation mid east Muslims, and set civil rights back to 1860, and this time he will do it, because the Federal Society has put together Project 2025, and Trump will staff the cabinets with loyalists that will enable his objective, and he will do it by appointing acting Secretaries and reissuing EO 13957, which created Schedule F civil servants. Which are political loyalists, that he embedded in civil service while reclassifying and fire long protected civil servants. Expect to see the Jan 6 traitors pardoned and even placed in cabinet and civil service positions. Imagine Stewart Rhodes as Director of the FBI, and Lev Parnas as Acting Secretary of Defense., Weisselberger as Secretary of the Treasury.
We should have begun the tasks you speak of a couple of decades ago. At least. Democrats have been so engulfed in promoting minorities they have failed at representing the values of the entire party. Always believing Dems are superior to Republicans, our Democratic leaders and promoters believed the entirety of our population would feel the same empathy and validity of raising all people to betterment.
But as the Republicans continued their reverse Robin Hood strategy, and most of us became the unknowing, vulnerable recipients of the ploy, the economic damage to everyday families turned many into angry, selfish individuals without a future unless someone swooped in to save us.
I believe you have hit the nail on the head. Over the years it seems as those who are in control of the Democratic party do not wish to rock the boat lest they lose their lucrative gig. In Minnesota we are still DFL but in reality that is in name only. You can see that by the map. Outside the cities is entirely red whil the metro area is blue but losing ground. The DFL has become the metro-corporate party and we are paying a price for this nonsense.
I hate to agree with you, but BLM did more for the Jan 6 insurrections, than even the Proud Boys, that and other movements unified the right and gave the FBI something to target.
Remember leading up to Jan 6, the FBI and Homeland security, ignored the Proud Boys,k Bugaloo Boys, the militias, Oath Keepers, Constitutional Sheriff's and Peace Keepers Assoc. and were dedicated on inflitrating and snooping on BLM and other leftist movements.
As regards the DNC, too many old hands, ones that grub for handouts from Corporations and Billionaires. Bernie did away with that myth, but the entrenched "strategists" are effete Milquetoasts, and the policy of the DNC is to push to the starting gate, the old tired race horses, that have bided their time, paid their dues and will not make waves.
They hate progressives, which Rahm Emanuel the mother effer, called "fucking retards", the the bastard goes on to privatize the school system of Chicago, (Betsy DeVos', raison d'etre), and sell out the black Communit. Laquan McDonald was murdered by Chicago Police and racist Rahm took the side of the Police.
I am correct in all my analysis, because I am not burdened with ideological purity, and motivated by wishful thinking. Hopefully I see the world as it is, not through some emotional/ideological lenses.
The media's Fairness Doctrine desperately needs to be updated and reinstated. (It was allowed to die during Reagan's reign and gave rise to RWNJ talk radio and to Faux News, etc.)
But Clinton killed it officially, it died with the Telecommunications act of 1996. Perhaps one can blame all of the right wing acts he signed on his sexual liaison with Monica, but I think not, he was a satyr, a narcissist (just not as malignant as Trump) and also into self aggrandization.
He publicly lauded international financial institutions 21 times while President, and though left the White House broke, was gifted his own non profit, Clinton Global Initiative, which provides him a healthy salary.
He also single handedly turned the blue states of the Great Lakes, into Swing states, and Ohio into Republican, with NAFTA and GAAT, and the blue collars of those states haven't forgotten.
As regards the progressive movement, LGBT, labor, gays, women he was even more disastrous than Trump. Trump was all mouth and rhetoric yet was not able to advance the right wing agenda, except when it comes to the Federal Judiciary, 1,500 Federalist vetted Judges and three ridht wing Catholics on SCOUS, but Clinton was, in my opinion, responsible for Trump, as Clinton turned blue states, purple and red.
History really is a great teacher. Three things to review: 1) the undoing of the Fairness Doctrine in broadcast content, 2) Newt Gingrich’s sponsorship of Rupert Murdoch’s US citizenship, 3) the Telecommunications Act of 1996. And one to remember from disgraced former CBSNews CEO Les Moonves: Trump’s buffoonish candidacy “May not be good for America, but he’s damned good for CBSNews.” Last week I did a TrumpvsBiden check on HuffPost and Yahoo, a top-to-bottom scroll of one page for each site. The results: HuffPost 111 Trump windows, 20 Biden windows ; Yahoo offered 25 Trump clicks and 7 Biden clicks, 3 of which were windows split with Trump. So, the Trump beat goes on, and on, and on. After all, he’s SO newsworthy! And, importantly, how did he color his hair today?
Murdoch was granted ciitizenship in 1985 by Ronald Reagan, Tip O'Neil was speaker of the house.
Huff Post is an untrustworthy "rag", Ariana sold it to AOL, who sold it to Verizon. AT&t was bought by SBC communications. (South Western Bell, which changed its name after acquisition to AT&T.
The biggest shareholders of AT&T are
Vanguard, Black Rock, State Street and Newport Trust Co. these are private equity funds, investment funds that own majority shares in Hospitals, Utilities, Broad casting including MSNBC the "liberal" channel.
MSNBC is owned by NBXUniversal, which is owned by Comcast and GE,
Comcast is owned by Largest shareholders include Vanguard Group Inc, BlackRock Inc., State Street Corp, VTSMX - Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund Investor Shares, Capital International Investors, Fmr Llc, Capital World Investors, Jpmorgan Chase & Co, VFINX - Vanguard 500 Index Fund Investor Shares, and AWSHX - WASHINGTON MUTUAL , It's largest single shareholder is Brian L Roberts, who is CEO and Chairman of the Board.
The top shareholders of General Electric are Vanguard, Capital Research Global Investors, and BlackRock.
Now we see Vanguard and Black Rock again.
Both are major shareholders in utiltiies and health care, Black Rock, has contracts for management of non profit hospitals, like the administration and emergency room, while they don't own the medical centers, they control them via contracts, even with health care staff.
BlackRock is publicly owned, with its shares held by various shareholders, including institutional investors like Vanguard Group and State Street Corporation and individual shareholders.
Quite the incestuous relationship, Black rock owns share in Vanguard and vice versa.
This excellent offering offers timely solutions re possibly the most critical area of needed efforts to keep democracy alive. What should merit equal attention is why, just why, there has been very little action from progressive fronts to accountably join in. Start with the billionaires. Accountability must be demanded here. If frail emotions spur them to distance themselves farther in participation, so be it. Many billionaires are actually emotionally febrile. There is gain coming from needed sunshine. Equally strong demands must be applied to the structured Democratic Party. Why the passive no action? I could talk for weeks about the no action response on many fronts of the Democratic Party in the face of this coup, but more salient crticisms might be directed at Democratic voters nationwide re their inaction demanding more action from the players they voted into office. Key word--DEMAND.
Well Thom we told you that and I gave you guys our information so that you could interview an actual Whistleblower who knows what is going on. Instead you guys just ignore it and keep doing the wrong things.
What's with this "we" then "I", who is "we" and what did you give Thom, that he could interview a whistle blowe. shed some light, otherwise you are just barking at the moon.
In 2005 I was introduced to am760 out of Denver, Colorado.
That's when Thom Hartmann came into my life - and I've been an ardent student of all things Thom ever since. Thom has my ear on just about every issue because he's shown me his wisdom and good intent - every single day - for almost 20 years now.
Thom literally changed the course of my life, for the better. He put to words those massive and amorphous clouds of elusive thought that I hadn't been able to properly construct nor articulate to others. Through his radio program I found comfort knowing I was not alone in my hope for a world that could be better for everyone. My book collection exploded as a result. So did my knowledge. So did my belief that, one day - perhaps far beyond my lifetime - this world could be a better place for all that is Life.
That's the power of radio, of mass communications accessibility. I had a situation where I could listen and learn from Thom 5 days out of every single week. It's not rocket surgery - if people have easy access to truth and compassion, the world is reborn.
Why hasn’t Soros bought up a good newspaper? (Knight-Ridder would have been a wise choice !). We don’t have many centrist newspapers left. A Wall Street hedge fund bought two of our hood area papers.
Besides WAPO, and it is debatable if it was ever left leaning, it helped elect Trump, by covering him and not exposing his lies, crimes and "sins"m what is the other "left leaning paper"? WSJ, I think not, NYT, still owned by Ochs Sulzaberger family and it's editorial board is, and has always been rightist, and neo con.
Murdoch understood that long ago too. Look at the damages he has done to UK (ie news of the world scandal, brexit insane failure). Not mentioning his fucking fox news of course
The Dominion settlement shows how vulnerable Murdoch et al are. Lots more to come, including shareholder derivative suits alleging an equivalent of corporate malpractice. The Smartmatic case alleging damages of $2.7 bil is pending. I am amazed that other potential creditors, like the police officers injured by mob violence egged on by Fox on Jan 6 have not joined them for contribution.
Could have had criminal; liability. Normally, a grand jury would have inquired about that fact pattern.
The defamation scenario also should apply to every other network that knew or had reason to know that the big liar was Trump, spread bull as truth.
In a perfect world all broadcast media that were involved that may have aided, abetted Jan 6 or who give comfort to insurrection should have been investigated. The Federal Communications Commission regulates interstate and international communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and U.S. territories. It's supposed to be an independent agency. DOJ has a subagency assigned to investigate violations. https://bja.ojp.gov/program/it/privacy-civil-liberties/authorities/statutes/1288#:~:text=The%20Act%20created%20the%20Federal,broadcast%2C%20cable%20and%20satellite%20television.
Fox is involved in at one least case defending it's license for its TV station in Philadelphia. The FCC has rules against broadcasting false information. "FCC rules specifically say that the “public harm must begin immediately, and cause direct and actual damage to property or to the health or safety of the general public, or diversion of law enforcement or other public health and safety authorities from their duties.”" If a complaint is filed, the FCC should investigate. https://www.fcc.gov/sites/default/files/broadcasting_false_information.pdf
Wow! Thank you for all of this! Great to know!
And nobody paid any attention to Reagan when he fast tracked Murdoch's citizen application. There is a reason my generation of liberals called Reagan Reaganze.
I would invest in a crowdfunded Democratic Party media conglomerate owning radio, tv and social mass medias.
Me too!
Yes! This! So very far out of my field of expertise. Nonetheless it has been apparent to me for the last 12 or so years that the democrats need to counter Fox News and the ilk. And yes, having just driven across the vast emptiness of west Texas and east New Mexico, I can attest that there are no “decent” radio stations to listen to. And the buy up of local newspapers is limiting the ability to report on local stories and news.
The right wing take over of the media has coincided with the decline in the quality of public education. We now have a population that is less engaged and unable/unwilling to question and think critically.
It would appear that Clinton paid the price for her comment on the “free market”.
I am continually stunned at the dystopia of our modern society. The earth is round, the sky is blue, vaccines save lives, and sadly Sandy Hook really happened.
It’s wrong to condemn Hillary for her opinion that it should be done in the free market. That would indeed be part of the solution, but we needed more. I’m still just appalled at the indifference shown by our legislators. It requires a multi prong plan. The clock is ticking…
I don’t hate Hillary, but I think she was off base. It sounds like the proposal was for left wing competitors in the free market, not a government or DNC-run entity. Saying that NPR is doing a good job is a very “Let them eat cake” attitude. Obviously their appeal is limited, and they do not effectively combat right wing disinformation.
Ture enough Justannotorange. NPR can't compete with right wing hate radio, because it is not inflammatory and doesn't create it's own reality.
Twas Samuel Clements that said, "A lie will go twice around the world, before the truth gets its boots on".
Demagogues rise to power because they tell lies that appeal to the masses who want simple answers. Like Germany lost the war because Jews stabbed it in the back, no mention that Germany should not have been in the war in the first place, save for an alliance the Kaiser had with the Emperor of Austria Franz Joseph I, and it was a naval embargo by Britain and America that brought Germany to the rail road car at Versaille on 28 Jun 1918, not Jews stabbing Germany in the back, but demagogues like Hitler and Trump never let the truth stand in the way of scapegoating and propaganda.
In Germany everyone pays for their television and radio stations. They get a monthly bill, not very much money, and they can opt to pay yearly instead and people from all parties basically trust their media. It is not free market and it helps the journalists to be critical when they are interviewing politicians who are showing up on the news regularly to be interviewed, so no press conferences when things happen, but instead interview on live news by a journalist who presses them. Here is an expat in Germany comparing the two.
https://youtu.be/jphacgBLrc0?si=gLJxYQodBTKtcOvh
Look at the numbers of how many people watch the main channel. While I don't agree with what he is saying totally, because my mom's friend who is a member of the Left party, gets most of her news from reading publications that are Leftist. Still, in general Germany has a funding formula for television and radio that is different from the US, and safer. So no chance for criminals from other countries owning the news.
Unless there was a radical socialist takeover of all three branches of government (as unlikely as humans building homes and gardening on Mars), the only option is a free market solution Linda.
The money in America is towards privatization, first it was Public Utilities, now federal functions like CMS handling the billing for Medicare/Medicaid, and even the DoD, has privatized some of it's functions, like food service and housing.
I lived in base housing when it was run by the Base Commander, and the houses were maintained and spotless w hen you moved in, because the outgoing tenant had to pass a white glove inspection , or hire a crew approved by the housing officer.
Then they contracted it out, and now even the Marine Corps is having problems with run down and black mold infected family housing and barracks.
Even portions of interestate hiways have been sold to private companies that extract tolls and do not do maintenance, When the roads deteriorate to unsafe to travel, the companies simply walk away,
Spanish company owns six major US Toll roads, problem is that these were once portions of the Interstate which was supposedly free because it was built with federal funds, but the states had to kick in their share, and the time limit for free usage has expired
https://www.thetruckersreport.com/news/foreign-company-now-owns-six-major-us-tolls-roads/
I don’t condemn her, just the opposite. My point which wasn’t clear is that had the Dems seen the threat and acted back then, we might have had a different President in 2016. And even if not, we would be a lot closer to countering the all MAGAts all the time airwaves and print/digital media.
To turn the right, one has to craft a message, cnsistently, that will appeal to their bias, bigotry and ignorance up front. in other words sound like Rush Limbaugh.
Free Speech TV has one, Rick Smith, he comes on and even sounds like Rush, but he is definitely progressive. Problem is getting him on the air. The over the air channels and stations, which are what truckers, salesmen and commuters listen to are owned by Clear Channel (which owns the most including iHeart), Cox communications, Cumulus Media, Emmis Communications, Entercomm communications,.
https://www1.udel.edu/nero/Radio/pdf_files/T&A_%20Media%20Ownership.pdf
There are six other conglomerates like Disney, gannet and News Corp (Murdoch) that own most of the Press and TV stations. Does not include NYT owned by the Ochs Sulzberger Family , The Observor owned by Jared Kushner, WAPO owned by Jeff Bezo's.
For anyone to break through that cabal , they would have to be a liberal multi billionaire, easier to just buy out Clear Channel or Cox.
There used to be progressive radio stations, there was a great one out of Seattle, but it was bought by iHeart, Clear channel, and stopped prrogressive programming and switched to sports and trivia., this has happened all over the country. I doubt that there are any progressive stations left, maybe in some small insignificant market.
Meanwile there is Freespeech.org which carries Thom Hartmann, Randi Rhodes, David Pakman, and The Rick Smith.
I wish Soros would buy up a few TV/radio stations. Fox is buying up many popular Spanish radio stations They are swaying Latino voters
Me too.
Spanish are Catholic., Evangelical and Pentecostal that translates into conservative, which translated into culture warrior.
Mayra Flores,herself an immigrant,is the rep from 18th Texas District and is a wild eye Trump humping right winger., and of course Joe Arpaio, Nick Fuentes, Enrique Tarrio.
These right wing Hispanics are not sympathetic to migrants, because they believe that they make them look bad.
It is the old "i got mine, to hell with you".
Soros is the bete noir of the right, he is code for Jew, the only thing that he has done is contribute to Democratic campaigns.
I’ve been saying this for over two decades! But I never had an audience. I’m glad to hear that you tried. The Democrats resistance to your message is beyond comprehension.
The lack of understanding of how ideas are promoted and exactly what base campaigning is truly confounds the health of the Dem Party. The truth ought to be enough but always comes short to kabuki theater. Constant echos from right wingers on radio complaining about the state of the economy and crime has made the population believe the economy and crime are worse despite reality. How long can we withstand these toxic lies before it destroys society? We need fighters to fight for the truth and media outlets to promote truth. The media is working against the truth. The Dem Party needs media that supports facts before we die in a swamp of lies. Make Free Speech TV our Fox and shoot down lies. Just show some fight and see how much that rallies the people from the swamp of lies.
Freedom of speech does not include the right to lie. The spreaders of false facts need to be flogged. The truth is why people become religious, they don't want to get depressed. But living in a world of lies will also make them depressed when their world and the people they hates world comes crumbling down. We need an FCC with an iron fist.
EXACTLY! Freedom of speech implies responsibility for what one says over the airwaves, in the print media, etc.
Apparently Trump broke the law (again) by lying about the financials of Truth Social. Fox lost a lot of money for lying about Dominion voting machines and Smartmatic is suing them for the same thing. So investors and businesses are protected from damaging lies, in spite of the First Amendment. What about lies that harm our democracy? Free and fair elections? Voters, and taxpayers? Should progressive politicians sue for defamation? There must be a reasonable way to combat the objectively false mantras from right wing propaganda, at least by bringing back the Fairness Doctrine. The Telecommunications Act (1996) seems to be part of the problem, too, by enabling monopolization of media ownership. Surely this could be reformed, with enough progressives in office.
Around 1992, Americans thought they won the “Cold War.” In truth, the winner was hyper-capitalism, not democracy and freedom. Since then, America has been increasingly bought and run by billionaires. Musk even runs the US space program and the satellite communications system in Ukraine. Zueckerberg, Gates, and a few dozen other billionaires whom you have never heard of are buying up neighborhoods, school systems, newspapers, radio, and influencing all of the other media. Some of these people are supporting progressive causes, but the rest are supporting messages that the wealthy should become wealthier, and everyone else should become Christian.
But, there are several TikTok sites that are fighting for democracy and we need to at least watch them to increase their chances of getting the algorithm to spread them around. TikTok is the new radio. I heard on Hard Fork that some 14 year-old are spending 12 to 18 hours a day on TikTok. While this is certainly a problem, it offers a way to reach the younger generations.
Broadcast media vs social media.
I am banned on X. I guess they think my many postings of "Trump hates dogs" is spam. Facebook wants a copy of my driver's license. Wants my SSN.
I don't know that Tic Toc is the new radio. IMHO it's true that the effect of social media is deeper. more personal than broadcast radio. My niece, who is in the field, says that ads on social media are three times more cost effective. That's because many "influencers" have a personal connection with their followers. I had law clerks tell me that when they had interviews with Big Law firms, they were asked what social media services they used and how many followers they had. Maybe that, typing speed and computer skills are probably as important academic achievement and work experience.
I was not aware that Soros has stepped up. Attached are the US statistics. https://www.statista.com/outlook/amo/media/tv-video/united-states
Although Oldandintheway (which is the name of one of my favorite albums) references Tic Tok,, Instagram and Facebook are bigger. They are owned by the same company. The way it should work, when a message is sent to someone the user is following, that same message is sent to the followers. Thom has 13K followers. Taylor Swift, the Number 1 Democratic influencer, who endorsed Biden in 2020, is Time Magazine woman of the year, and who is in msm every day, has 283.4 million followers. If she is sent a message, all those followers could hypothetically receive them. The cost for sending that message is zero (0.00).
In a nutshell it is more cost productive for an advertiser to use social media. Ads usually generate "hits." X has a premium program ($16/mo.) that treats ordinary users like advertisers and if the user generates sufficient hits, is compensated. BTW Taylor Swift also has 79 Million followers on X.
So it could be that if Thom gets a good review of his new book from a Taylor Swift follower, it may generate more revenue that all broadcast media combined. And it may provide him with many more followers. Multiply Taylor Swift by other influencers, and consider the future value.
Meanwhile if we want to make the media more equitable, we need to sweep the elections. FT6 registers more democrats to save democracy -- and perhaps free speech. https://voterizer.org/ Pass it on.
I'm already hooked into Field Team 6. I will do social media stuff for them after I do stuff here in the Bluest of the Blue, getting signatures for E. Warren to get back on the ballot. We have to do that every time anyone runs in this fair and safe election state.
THIS… and as an old school direct marketer… I wish I could send hard copies of Thoms articles to lists in swing states. If each of us mails 10 articles I believe our contributions could make an impact. Vote Forward has demonstrated that postcard mailings work. And those are just to get out the vote.
That's the idea.
All true, and I have a further example.
Last May, I deleted my long time Facebook page. Though I followed many liberal pages, I was incredibly agitated by right wing commenters and trolls....the hate, vitriol and misinformation were more than I could take.
This week, I opened a new Facebook account, strictly to follow some of the great groups I used to follow.
My entire news feed was full of right wing propaganda and misinformation.
One hundred percent of it.
Another far reaching piece by our dear Thom! Sadly, in our massively overpopulated nation and world, now in a progressive state of climate collapse, folks sort ourselves out in our massive status hierarchies by our sole measure of status: MONEY. I don't know about anyone else, but I live just below the median income level, own no stocks or bonds, and buy books, with food purchases if any money is left over. I say, let the materialists race on, I-phone in hand, until they one day soon wake-up at the Gates of Hades, but it will be too late then. Just imagine how long that line of millionaires like Romney will be trying to squeeze themselves through the eye of a needle.
It's funny how the press doesn't cover overpopulation population and global warming. No one dares to criticize the pope for being opposed to birth control. No one criticizes the billionaires for being greedy. No one criticizes the poor for having babies they can't afford. No one criticizes the churches for detaching children from reality for the rest of their life. No one dares to criticize the family unit concept that has stopped the evolution of the human race! The right wing mob just wants to blame the truth seekers, and not the liars. There is no such thing as alternative facts!
Preach it bro. righteous rant, spot on, and on target.
Doc explicame, por favor, yo no entiende que is possible a buy and iPhone and a cell carrier, living below the median income level,(not what one would expect of an MD), and buy books with food purchases (that one no comprendo)
I honestly don't understand, I've been on phorae and substack with commenters who claim to be poor, have to just between food and medicine, but yet they own an IPhone (which is damned expensive) and/or a computer. Cell service is around $70 a month, and an ISP, at least$80 a month, more depending on download speed.
Then there is transportation expenses, and unless you live in SF, NYC or some other big city with Public Transportation, we are talking expense, big ones, car payments, gas, insurance,registration, taxes, if not then Uber or Lyft (also expensive).
Probably the most important article Thom has written in a while.
There is almost no real strategy or process to craft, then deliver, a Progressive vision of society. And there is absolutely no organized program for playing hardball to expose, dismantle, and discredit the right wing message.
Colbert and a few others are fine in making fun of the obvious fools. It will not make a difference.
We are at war and that requires a policy, strategy and tactics to research, frame, and then deliver a unified progressive vision. It is no good to keep featuring yet another group that deserves support. The Right's message designers salivate every time the newest Handicapped Lesbians with AIDs gets up in front of the microphone and begins demanding their rights.
If progressive action means endlessly splintering the American community and its commonwealth, we are doomed. Every new suffering minority only provides more ammunition for FOX, etc, to .deepen the anger and distrust of Americans in general.
The goal must be to develop a single, common vision that functions for everyone, leaving Identities at the door.
We need a process that includes research -- to ensure accuracy of our facts and uncover the falsehoods or theirs.
We need a group skilled in framing messages that move people, not lecture them in what they SHOULD be thinking. And we need a tight team of talented deliverers of the message.
And we need an overall structure that funds and keeps the three points in touch and able to react quickly.
Too much corporate Democratic Party money is being spent on their buddies in tired, old polling organizations with their study groups.
We are running out of time.
D. Laghezza
Why don’t some liberals with relevant academic training and/or political experience join forces with liberals in Hollywood, who have the skills - and money - to package and distribute information in a way that’s compelling?
There are some YouTube channels/podcasts I like that have more mass appeal, I think, than NPR, or Democracy Now! (which I think does a much better job than NPR in terms of content, but not style). Google goes overboard with censoring comments but doesn’t censor the videos themselves, from what I can tell. Meidas Touch is even getting mentioned on mainstream (including right wing) media. I’m pretty sure these channels post on Tik Tok, too.
The issue is that a weakness of progressive action is that it is often grass-roots. Community focus often means community action, which is bottom up messaging.
That takes us to the weakness i am highlighting... Every different issue group getting their five minutes at the microphone.
It is gold for the FOX types... an endless supply of ammunition to fire up "normal" Americans.
Specifically to your point: We do not need bottom up message framing. We need a top down approach, which means a unified, central leadership team for messaging. This will generally upset Progressives as it does not immediately represent an "inclusive" style.
The issue is: Who is going to organize Hollywood liberal personalities with progressive poli sci people into a tight messaging program?
D.
Well, Thom Hartmann tried to get the ball rolling on some unified top-down messaging. There are already liberal academics and pols that make the rounds on news shows, and now on YouTube/podcasts. As for liberals in Hollywood, I’m just bringing it up because it makes sense to me, that they have skills to get people’s attention without the lying, exaggerating or divide-and-conquer fear mongering used by the right.
There are people I watch on YouTube (not sure if you’re suggesting that’s bottom up grassroots messaging?) who are very knowledgeable and professional. I’m learning a lot from many attorneys who provide commentary. It’s not top down like Republicans, where everyone has the same talking points, and I don’t agree with everything people say in these videos, but viewers are pretty unified in the comments section. That includes progressives as well as independents, former Republicans, and never Trump Repubs.
Thank you for following up.
Yes, there are many on-point and focused individuals presenting clear, insightful messages and information. But it is scattered and not woven into an overall strategy.
Unfortunately, any framing plan for a campaign that succeeds in (a) getting across to the body politic an evolving progressive vision, and (b) dissects the poison of the right wing blather-sphere will require... well, a plan.
That means organization. It means leadership that sets priorities... perhaps the handicapped lesbians with AIDs would have to sit in the back for now and shut up.
Essentially, there would need to be agreement on a top-down program.
D.
Donald: I was a financial supporter of Democracy Now, until Putin invaded Ukraine, they are old time Marxists, and view the world through the lens that America is colonialist and imperialist. Marx was actually a proto libertarian. I've posted how and why many times on Thom's pages.
Democracy Now, Noam Chomsky and even the Nation are 21st Century equivalent of Tankies. Tankie is a pejorative reference to hard-line, pro-Soviet members of the Communist Party of Great Britain, and in some cases more broadly to supporters of authoritarian socialism. They stood in support of the USSR as Tanks rolled into Budapest during the Hungarian Revolution.
Amy Goodman is an antisemitic Jew, and much of her staff and on air commentators are Muslims. Jews have no loyalty to the world wide Jewish community, Muslims are loyal to the Ummah (world wide community of Muslims) regardless of sect, Sunni or Shia, and regardless of that they do.
You don't see Muslims standing up and protesting IISIS, DAESH, ISK, Al Qaeda, or HAMAS and Hezbollah, but you find Jews leading anti Israel protests.
And you are writing all of this to me why??
How does it help the issue being discussed????
It is precisely this internecine finger-pointing that condemns rational progressive action.
Reminds me of the MONTY PYTHON movie scene where the Peoples' Front of Judea start fighting with the the Judean People's Front over something like the placement of a semi-colon in their manifesto.
Because many a so called progressive, are not actually progressives, but enemies of America, and thus allies of Putin and even China.
If they are only Marxist purists, their demand for purity, enables and allies with Trump.
For instance. these campus radicals, as well as the Muslims who call Biden genocide Joe, and the young blacks who are peeved because they haven't had their wish list fulfilled, are the allies of Trump. Blasting Biden, sitting out the election or voting third party, (like for Cornell West) is Trump's path to victory.
There are 235 votes in red and red leaning states. 226 in Blue and blue leaning states. Since 2020, Republican legislatures have passed voter restriction and suppression laws, Nebraska has passed a law that all electors will be selected by majority vote.
In 2020 VA, GA, NC were swing states, but because of Republican voter lawsThe only swing states are AZ, NV, MI, PA, WI and they have 61 electoral votes. The election hinges on MI, PA Mi has 15 electoral votes, PA has 19 votes, that is 35 votes, if the other swing states go for Biden,
Then that means Trump has 269 votes and Biden 269, 538 Total, with a tie, the question goes to the Congress and each state has one vote, there are 31 Red states and 19 Blue states... Trump becomes #47.
And only because of asshole Campus Idiots, Muslims and Blacks.
And of course they will deflect, and blame Biden, because he hasn't kissed their asses.
A lot of good that will do, as they will suffer the consequences of their own stupidity. For one thing Trump and his base have promised to cleanse America of 1st and 2nd generation mid east Muslims, and set civil rights back to 1860, and this time he will do it, because the Federal Society has put together Project 2025, and Trump will staff the cabinets with loyalists that will enable his objective, and he will do it by appointing acting Secretaries and reissuing EO 13957, which created Schedule F civil servants. Which are political loyalists, that he embedded in civil service while reclassifying and fire long protected civil servants. Expect to see the Jan 6 traitors pardoned and even placed in cabinet and civil service positions. Imagine Stewart Rhodes as Director of the FBI, and Lev Parnas as Acting Secretary of Defense., Weisselberger as Secretary of the Treasury.
We should have begun the tasks you speak of a couple of decades ago. At least. Democrats have been so engulfed in promoting minorities they have failed at representing the values of the entire party. Always believing Dems are superior to Republicans, our Democratic leaders and promoters believed the entirety of our population would feel the same empathy and validity of raising all people to betterment.
But as the Republicans continued their reverse Robin Hood strategy, and most of us became the unknowing, vulnerable recipients of the ploy, the economic damage to everyday families turned many into angry, selfish individuals without a future unless someone swooped in to save us.
Enter trumpism…precursor to fascism.
You're making too much sense for the Democratic party to listen and pay attention.
I believe you have hit the nail on the head. Over the years it seems as those who are in control of the Democratic party do not wish to rock the boat lest they lose their lucrative gig. In Minnesota we are still DFL but in reality that is in name only. You can see that by the map. Outside the cities is entirely red whil the metro area is blue but losing ground. The DFL has become the metro-corporate party and we are paying a price for this nonsense.
I hate to agree with you, but BLM did more for the Jan 6 insurrections, than even the Proud Boys, that and other movements unified the right and gave the FBI something to target.
Remember leading up to Jan 6, the FBI and Homeland security, ignored the Proud Boys,k Bugaloo Boys, the militias, Oath Keepers, Constitutional Sheriff's and Peace Keepers Assoc. and were dedicated on inflitrating and snooping on BLM and other leftist movements.
As regards the DNC, too many old hands, ones that grub for handouts from Corporations and Billionaires. Bernie did away with that myth, but the entrenched "strategists" are effete Milquetoasts, and the policy of the DNC is to push to the starting gate, the old tired race horses, that have bided their time, paid their dues and will not make waves.
They hate progressives, which Rahm Emanuel the mother effer, called "fucking retards", the the bastard goes on to privatize the school system of Chicago, (Betsy DeVos', raison d'etre), and sell out the black Communit. Laquan McDonald was murdered by Chicago Police and racist Rahm took the side of the Police.
In this analysis you are correct.
I am correct in all my analysis, because I am not burdened with ideological purity, and motivated by wishful thinking. Hopefully I see the world as it is, not through some emotional/ideological lenses.
The media's Fairness Doctrine desperately needs to be updated and reinstated. (It was allowed to die during Reagan's reign and gave rise to RWNJ talk radio and to Faux News, etc.)
But Clinton killed it officially, it died with the Telecommunications act of 1996. Perhaps one can blame all of the right wing acts he signed on his sexual liaison with Monica, but I think not, he was a satyr, a narcissist (just not as malignant as Trump) and also into self aggrandization.
He publicly lauded international financial institutions 21 times while President, and though left the White House broke, was gifted his own non profit, Clinton Global Initiative, which provides him a healthy salary.
He also single handedly turned the blue states of the Great Lakes, into Swing states, and Ohio into Republican, with NAFTA and GAAT, and the blue collars of those states haven't forgotten.
As regards the progressive movement, LGBT, labor, gays, women he was even more disastrous than Trump. Trump was all mouth and rhetoric yet was not able to advance the right wing agenda, except when it comes to the Federal Judiciary, 1,500 Federalist vetted Judges and three ridht wing Catholics on SCOUS, but Clinton was, in my opinion, responsible for Trump, as Clinton turned blue states, purple and red.
History really is a great teacher. Three things to review: 1) the undoing of the Fairness Doctrine in broadcast content, 2) Newt Gingrich’s sponsorship of Rupert Murdoch’s US citizenship, 3) the Telecommunications Act of 1996. And one to remember from disgraced former CBSNews CEO Les Moonves: Trump’s buffoonish candidacy “May not be good for America, but he’s damned good for CBSNews.” Last week I did a TrumpvsBiden check on HuffPost and Yahoo, a top-to-bottom scroll of one page for each site. The results: HuffPost 111 Trump windows, 20 Biden windows ; Yahoo offered 25 Trump clicks and 7 Biden clicks, 3 of which were windows split with Trump. So, the Trump beat goes on, and on, and on. After all, he’s SO newsworthy! And, importantly, how did he color his hair today?
Murdoch was granted ciitizenship in 1985 by Ronald Reagan, Tip O'Neil was speaker of the house.
Huff Post is an untrustworthy "rag", Ariana sold it to AOL, who sold it to Verizon. AT&t was bought by SBC communications. (South Western Bell, which changed its name after acquisition to AT&T.
The biggest shareholders of AT&T are
Vanguard, Black Rock, State Street and Newport Trust Co. these are private equity funds, investment funds that own majority shares in Hospitals, Utilities, Broad casting including MSNBC the "liberal" channel.
MSNBC is owned by NBXUniversal, which is owned by Comcast and GE,
Comcast is owned by Largest shareholders include Vanguard Group Inc, BlackRock Inc., State Street Corp, VTSMX - Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund Investor Shares, Capital International Investors, Fmr Llc, Capital World Investors, Jpmorgan Chase & Co, VFINX - Vanguard 500 Index Fund Investor Shares, and AWSHX - WASHINGTON MUTUAL , It's largest single shareholder is Brian L Roberts, who is CEO and Chairman of the Board.
The top shareholders of General Electric are Vanguard, Capital Research Global Investors, and BlackRock.
Now we see Vanguard and Black Rock again.
Both are major shareholders in utiltiies and health care, Black Rock, has contracts for management of non profit hospitals, like the administration and emergency room, while they don't own the medical centers, they control them via contracts, even with health care staff.
BlackRock is publicly owned, with its shares held by various shareholders, including institutional investors like Vanguard Group and State Street Corporation and individual shareholders.
Quite the incestuous relationship, Black rock owns share in Vanguard and vice versa.
Great followup!
This excellent offering offers timely solutions re possibly the most critical area of needed efforts to keep democracy alive. What should merit equal attention is why, just why, there has been very little action from progressive fronts to accountably join in. Start with the billionaires. Accountability must be demanded here. If frail emotions spur them to distance themselves farther in participation, so be it. Many billionaires are actually emotionally febrile. There is gain coming from needed sunshine. Equally strong demands must be applied to the structured Democratic Party. Why the passive no action? I could talk for weeks about the no action response on many fronts of the Democratic Party in the face of this coup, but more salient crticisms might be directed at Democratic voters nationwide re their inaction demanding more action from the players they voted into office. Key word--DEMAND.
Well Thom we told you that and I gave you guys our information so that you could interview an actual Whistleblower who knows what is going on. Instead you guys just ignore it and keep doing the wrong things.
What's with this "we" then "I", who is "we" and what did you give Thom, that he could interview a whistle blowe. shed some light, otherwise you are just barking at the moon.
In 2005 I was introduced to am760 out of Denver, Colorado.
That's when Thom Hartmann came into my life - and I've been an ardent student of all things Thom ever since. Thom has my ear on just about every issue because he's shown me his wisdom and good intent - every single day - for almost 20 years now.
Thom literally changed the course of my life, for the better. He put to words those massive and amorphous clouds of elusive thought that I hadn't been able to properly construct nor articulate to others. Through his radio program I found comfort knowing I was not alone in my hope for a world that could be better for everyone. My book collection exploded as a result. So did my knowledge. So did my belief that, one day - perhaps far beyond my lifetime - this world could be a better place for all that is Life.
That's the power of radio, of mass communications accessibility. I had a situation where I could listen and learn from Thom 5 days out of every single week. It's not rocket surgery - if people have easy access to truth and compassion, the world is reborn.
Why hasn’t Soros bought up a good newspaper? (Knight-Ridder would have been a wise choice !). We don’t have many centrist newspapers left. A Wall Street hedge fund bought two of our hood area papers.
( Our good left leaning papers were both just sold in the past year )
Besides WAPO, and it is debatable if it was ever left leaning, it helped elect Trump, by covering him and not exposing his lies, crimes and "sins"m what is the other "left leaning paper"? WSJ, I think not, NYT, still owned by Ochs Sulzaberger family and it's editorial board is, and has always been rightist, and neo con.
Newspapers are passe, to reach the people you need to own Communications Media, namely radio and TV like Clear Channel and Cox.
In 2024, the most effective means, at least for Millenials through Gen Z, is an app, with huge app with huge ass servers, a Tik Tok, plus.
Only old farts like moi, get info from TV and desk top computers., maybe tablets, I don't own one, but the wife does.
"It’s time to get started!"
I already am with my podcast every week, The Village Oak Tree. Thank you Thom Hartmann for giving me the idea over a year ago.