Sebastian Jones has an excellent piece in The Nation on the lobbying-media complex:
As Ridge counseled the administration to “put that package together,” he sure seemed like an objective commentator. But what viewers weren’t told was that since 2005, Ridge has pocketed $530,659 in executive compensation for serving on the board of Exelon, the nation’s largest nuclear power company. As of March 2009, he also held an estimated $248,299 in Exelon stock, according to SEC filings.
Moments earlier, retired general and “NBC Military Analyst” Barry McCaffrey told viewers that the war in Afghanistan would require an additional “three- to ten-year effort” and “a lot of money.” Unmentioned was the fact that DynCorp paid McCaffrey $182,309 in 2009 alone. The government had just granted DynCorp a five-year deal worth an estimated $5.9 billion to aid American forces in Afghanistan. The first year is locked in at $644 million, but the additional four options are subject to renewal, contingent on military needs and political realities.
In a single hour, two men with blatant, undisclosed conflicts of interest had appeared on MSNBC. The question is, was this an isolated oversight or business as usual? Evidence points to the latter.
beltane
Is this really a surprise to anyone other than the perennially naive. MSNBC is itself owned by defense contractor General Electric, and all our major media outlets, without exception, are little more than propaganda arms for various corporate interests. Marketing and propaganda is what TV has always been about. In this environment it is a miracle that the odd bit of honest journalism sometimes manages to slip in under the radar.
Fergus Wooster
Whores. The lot of them.
I’m torn: Sewn in a sack with a wild animal and thrown into river, or tossed off the Tarpeiian Rock?
beltane
@Fergus Wooster: The former option would produce the maximum amount of pain and terror. Being pushed off a big rock is instantaneous death. Where is the fun in that?
cat48
Business as usual–probably the result of all news being owned by large corporations or multicorporations. This is one reason it is hard for me to tolerate most of the sanctimonious anchors like Dylan Ratigan who rail constantly about “banksters” and “corporate communists”, bailouts (which GE received for their financial corp.), special interests groups, lobbyists, and unions. Every friggin day with this and they are all OWNED.
At least most of them are not as obviously hypocritical as he is. He loves to brag about leaving CNBC because of all the special influence to come to MSNBC. I’m supposed to be impressed why?
Brian Williams did a long editorial defending McCaffrey when the news broke. No credibility for any of them for things like this.
/rant over
geg6
If there is anyone more disgusting than Barry McCaffrey on this front, I don’t know who it would be.
A broken down, old, syphilitic whore, that Barry.
Fergus Wooster
@beltane: Eh, it’s dramatic, and you get to see the splat. Plus doesn’t harm any third parties (animals in this case).
Of course, as Murkins we have more cinematic options than the Tarpeiian Rock available. Rushmore. The Grand Canyon. Every year, the worst influence whores, torture enablers and usurpers are lined up and pushed. We’d make it a holiday.
My lefty inclinations necessitate the tongue-in-cheek, but a man can dream.
Fergus Wooster
@geg6:
Somewhere in his attic, there’s a portrait of him covered in chancres, lesions and granulomas.
fraught
@Fergus Wooster: Mc Caffrey cannot pronounce ‘S” ; it comes out “sch” every time. For some reason this sets off my gaydar and not in a good way. This fear of the sibilant S is an old signal that there’s something wrong with the guy’s perception of his masculinity.
Maybe I’m wrong. He’s still repulsive though.
Scruffy McSnufflepuss
The real question about McCaffrey is whether he’s a war criminal or not.
scudbucket
@beltane: MSNBC is itself owned by defense contractor General Electric
A CEO is contractually obligated to maximize profit for share-holders. Increased defense spending increases GE profits. Since lobbying is legally permissible on teevee, is the GE CEO contractually obligated to lobby for increased defense spending on NBC networks?
ETA: I meant this sorta snarkily, but now I’m curious
Fergus Wooster
@fraught:
Except, one must note, in the case of Sean Connery.
capt
That is truly the SCLM at work.
OMG – what would happen if all the M$M was run by amoral – profit at any cost – multinational corporations?
Whoop’s too late.
HyperIon
@capt:
This reminds me of a button I got at the WTO dustup in Seattle: If corporate interests ruled America, there would be a MacDonalds in every town.
*snap*
Mumphrey
It also saddens me that there was little in the news through the last year about Evan Bayh’s and Joe Lieberman’s wives lobbying for drug companies while Congress was working on health care reform. How is that not a big story? There should have been something on the front pages of all the big newspapers and on the cable news channels every damned day while Congress was working on that. Instead, I wonder how many Americans even know that.
I can’t think of a better example of “conflict of interest” than having somebody you sleep with every night lobbying for a company that will be greatly affected by a bill you’re working on. And in this case, it’s even easy to explain it. Instead, they’re always prattling on about what great “moderate” fellows these guys are and how it’s so wonderful that they want to “work with the Republicans” all the time. They’re so “thoughtful”. And I guess they are, if “thoughtful” means “doesn’t think a whole lot” or “doesn’t give a shit about the people he ostensibly represents”.
Brian J
@beltane:
Isn’t it now owned by Comcast?