Approaching crisis point for journalism and corruption – Bill Moyers talks with John Nichols and Robert McChesney

Bill Moyers, John Nichols and Robert McChesney are three of the people I admire most in the world. Here they are sitting at the same table discussing what to do about the massive corruption of our political system, specifically, the challenges faced by those who are trying to do responsible journalism to report on this travesty. These issues are discussed with precision in the latest book by Nichols and McChesney: "Dollarocracy," a stunningly sober look at the situation (I've almost finished reading it). Toward the end of this excellent video, McChesney and Nichols indicate that they are "optimists." They argue that we are at one of those acute crisis points periodically faced by Americans and thus positive change is in our grasp. The authors further argue that it is becoming apparent that we need to make the case for publicly funded journalism. This is an approach taken by many functional governments, and it was one of the cornerstones of early America, a topic discussed by Nichols and McChesney in one of their previous books.

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Elizabeth Warren’s war on opacity

I am in Washington DC for the national conference of the National Consumer Law Center. Our special guest today was Senator Elizabeth Warren. In a blistering plain-language talk, delivered to an audience of approximately 900 consumer lawyers, Warren took aim at lobbyists, courts and the campaign finance system. [more . . . ]

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Scotland Yard attempts to criminalize journalism

Read this quote prepared by Scotland Yard in consultation with the MI5 slowly and carefully: "Additionally the disclosure, or threat of disclosure, is designed to influence a government and is made for the purpose of promoting a political or ideological cause. This therefore falls within the definition of terrorism..." Glenn Greenwald's contention is proven true by the above words of the British Government. Greenwald is contending: "For all the lecturing it doles out to the world about press freedoms, the UK offers virtually none...They are absolutely and explicitly equating terrorism with journalism."

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On the failures of Obamacare

I'm reading a lot about the recent problems with Obamacare. For everyone complaining about this new program, however, I would ask "You say Obamacare is bad, but compared to what?" I'm on COBRA, having left a job a few months ago. I shopped around on the open market PRE-Obamacare. The prices were already high, even for high-deductible coverage. My wife, who walks briskly every day and who is in very good health was deemed uninsurable because of four separate reasons, all of which were total bullshit (one was that she broke her ankle last year, and it had substantially healed by the time we applied for coverage). The for-profit insurance companies have been out there cherry-picking and leaving families in desperate straights. I know of one family that has been paying almost $40,000/ year because two children are fighting depression and the husband has some physical injuries (though he is working). This is all PRE-Obamacare. For all of those people who want to blame Obamacare I would like to remind them that things were terrible before Obamacare. Coverage was shrinking and prices sky-rocketing BEFORE Obamacare. Not that I'm a big fan of Obamacare--we need Medicare for all--some reasonable level of care for all Americans, combined with many of the strategies offered by "Bitter Pill," the blockbuster Time Magazine article published a few months ago. We were lucky to get anything at all accomplished in Congress given the abject corruption. There are many aspects of the so-called health care system that need immense rehab, and Congress is not up to the task. Half of Congress wants to destroy Obamacare and replace it with "Fend for yourself, and good luck not getting fleeced by huge profit-driven companies, including all of those huge "non-profit" hospitals who are gobbling up your favorite doctor's medical practices." I fear for many people out there. Too bad ordinary folks can't afford lobbyists. If they did, we could bring some sanity to the prices charged by many providers and Big Pharma. Finally, as Dylan Ratigan has written, we also need to reconceptualize health care as "Help me, my family and friends live long and prosper" instead of "Don't let me or anyone I know die." We need to have courage to face our deaths with dignity in order to reset our priorities in a meaningful way, but there is no sign that this is likely.

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