Bill Moyers Weighs in on the Washington Post's Pay to Play Scheme
By Heather Sunday Jul 12, 2009 5:00pm
Bill Moyers on what's wrong with our government, citing the Washington Post's recent embarrassment, asking for lobbyists and CEO's to fork out a load of cash for a cozy dinner at their publisher, Katharine Weymouth's house, until they decided to cancel it after one of the lobbyists leaked the story to The Politico.
MOYERS: Quality, affordable health care's on the critical list in America. And so is the newspaper business. So maybe it's not surprising that one of the most powerful papers in the country attempted an unholy alliance, trying to turn a profit from its newsroom's coverage of the fight for health care reform.
You may have missed the story because it broke on the eve of the July 4th weekend. The publisher of THE WASHINGTON POST, Katharine Weymouth — one of the most powerful people in the nation's capital — invited top officials from the White House, the Cabinet and Congress to her home for an intimate, off-the-record dinner to discuss health care reform with some of her reporters and editors covering the story.
But she then invited CEOs and lobbyists from the health care industry to come, too — providing they fork over $25,000 a head, or a quarter of a million if they want to sponsor a whole series of these cozy little get-togethers. And what is the inducement she offers them? Nothing less than — and I'm quoting the invitation verbatim — "An exclusive opportunity to participate in the health care reform debate among the select few who will actually get it done." The invitation reminds the CEOs and lobbyists that they will be buying access to "those powerful few in business and policy making who are forwarding, legislating, and reporting on the issues."
Remember, the invitation promises this private, intimate, and off-the-record dinner is an extension "of THE WASHINGTON POST brand of journalistic inquiry into the issues, a unique opportunity for stakeholders to hear and be heard."
Let that sink in. The "stakeholders" in health care reform in this case do not include the rabble — the folks across the country who actually need quality health care but can't afford it. If any of them showed up at the kitchen door on the night of this little soiree, a bouncer would drop kick them beyond the beltway.
In other words, before you can cross the threshold in Washington to reach "the select few who will actually get it done," you must first cross the palm of some outstretched hand. The dinner was canceled after the invite was leaked to the website politico.com — by a health care lobbyist, of all people. But it was enough to give us a glimpse into how things really work in Washington. A clear insight into why there is such a great disconnect between democracy and government today, between Washington and the rest of the country.
According to one poll after another, a majority of Americans not only want a public option in health care, they also think that growing inequality is bad for the country, that corporations have too much power over policy, that money in politics is the root of all evil, and that working families and poor communities need and deserve public support when the market fails to generate shared prosperity. But when the insiders in Washington finish tearing worthy intentions apart and devouring flesh from bone, none of these reforms happen. Oh, they say, "it's all about compromise, all in the nature of the give-and-take of representative democracy." That, people, is bull — the basic nutrient of Washington's high and mighty.
It's not about compromise. It's not about what the public wants. It's about money, the golden ticket to "the select few who actually get it done." And nothing will change. Nothing. Until the money-lenders are tossed out of the temple, and we tear down the sign they've placed on government — the one that reads: "For sale."
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Capitalism at its finest.
As an aspiring capitalist pig myself, I say make it where you can...but ethically! This story sure did get stuffed on the back pages somewhere. Is it because if we dug deeper, we'd find that this kind of thing takes place more often than we'd like to believe? The problem in this country and the world at large is a crisis of mismanagement. The people running things are doing a great job of lining their pockets and screwing things up...
DeniseD
www.reallybadboss.com
making whoppin' fat salaries and bonuses for failing!
Sure sounds a lot like Cheney's 'special Energy Taskforce' whose membership is still top secret. Suppose Cheney himself pocketed the 'stipends' that were paid by these players.
healthcare debate by politicians, can be summed up here...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JkhX5W7JoWI
With all the recent newspapers going under, why wasn't the Wash Post one of them? It above all deserves to fail. Talk about scum. And they wonder why the MSM is so despised.
And they wonder why the
MSMCORPORATE MEDIA is so despised. There is no such thing as "main stream media"....this is one thing upon which both the right and left agree.
I've heard people in the media (like David Gregory) smugly say, "Well, then we must be doing something right." Funny, though: I don't remember anyone ever complaining like this about Walter Cronkite.
Maybe there's a way we can join forces and clean out the scum???
the biggest mass transfer of wealth in history, transferring our wealth (what we had left of it) to their friends on Wall Street and in the banking industry just last fall after the crash and it's still happening.
Yes We Can, Change You Can Believe In. It would be funny if it wasn't so serious.
third or fourth generation fuck ups who get their mitts on a once stellar family business now spiraling into decline.
The Post is so morally and politically corrupt that NONE of them know how to behave OR know what the fuction of the fourth estate is for.
Not that it's all her doing - that paper's slide into ignomy began the day Granny Graham had her first lunch with Nancy Raygun.
Needless to say the Graham krackers helped rewire the Beltway bubble for the Goopers.
Wurlitzer." The Washington Post sold its soul a long, long time ago. And now it's trying to sell everything else.
when old timers like Moyers go out to pasture. Who you think they'll replace him with? Palin? Hannity? Malkin?
I'd like to think Rachel Maddow, or Amy Goodman.
Both left and right--although the left does a far better job because they believe in statements of integrity like "facts don't lie," "site your source," "never trust a pundit," and, above all else, "follow the money."
There's a reason why more and more general assignment reporters keep their eyes on FDL, BradBlog, HuffPo, and other left-leaning sites: those sites are reporting the things that corporate media fears to--too threatening to the advertisers and publishers.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=206011...
Handing them their heads in a basket would be too good for them.
They, being the oligarchs and their honchos.
said it!! Outrageous and we've known this or at least suspected if to many years!
librul media. They f**ked up their investigative reporting where they were going to get all the healthcare people in one room and expose their attempts to shut down healthcare reform. I hope you all recognize a snark.
Moyers is, unfortunately, a rare and dying breed. Like Murrow, a true old-school journalist (stands up to power instead of sucking their dicks to further their own careers). We could use a few new ones like him.
Olbermann is the closest, but still a "infotainment" kind of style.
Still, 50% of something is better than 100% of nothing.
. . period.
to that too short list, her and Moyers need more airtime on the possible shows like Olberman and Maddow, in fact I wouldnt miss any show they are on.
We can also count among this rare breed Rachel Maddow, Glenn Greenwald, Charlie Savage, Amy Goodman.
One can only imagine what News would look like if those were the ones running the show at CBS, NBC and ABC.
That'll be the day!
the want to turn the internet into a "Pay Model". These guys can't figure out Americans aren't spending money so their whole balloon is deflating.
Moyers is about the only good thing to come out of Texas.
Molly Ivins & Stevie Ray Vaughan.
as Ag. Commissioner he pushed 'buying local',organics, and many other great things that doomed him when the neocons got control.
Fortunately, it is now the neocons who are doomed. They won't survive this economic crisis, since their stupid ideas was at the root of all of it.
Unfortunately, Americans have notoriously short attention spans--this isn't news to any of us reading this site. It's a cycle. Neo-cons are on the outs right now, but they're already working to weasel their way back in, having begun to repackage themselves for general consumption (what the hell's the name of that new 'PNAC-lite' organization that Kristol, Kagan and Senor have started? Keep an eye on it.).
This economic crisis is making people desperate--and desperate people in large numbers do profoundly stupid things. We have to be vigilant about shining a bright light on the neo-cons' activities as they scuttle to divert attention to other "problems" the country supposedly faces.
If we don't, distracted, overworked, overfed, overstressed, over-indebted Americans will return to the trap of trusting some neo-con-based group (with a charismatic leader "you'd like to have a beer with") to solve a nonexistent problem invented only to cover the theft, greed and malfeasance they created the last time around to enhance their wealth and power.
Keep in mind, Kristol has already said a "return to power" among neo-conservative thinking is "inevitable."
ZZ Top, Jimmie Vaughan, and I think the Winter brothers - thats about it :)
Asleep at the Wheel, Doug Sahm, Lightn' Hopkins, Ann Richards, etc.
Be careful how broad a brush you (sixandseveneights) paint with. I can't stand it when the right does it to me, and as a resident of Austin, it gets tiresome when those on the left do it too.
rest her soul...
Jim Hightower
Tom Landry.
When right wingers talk of liberal elitism, it's comments like this that prove their point. Some of the smartest, strongest and most forceful voices for progress came from Texas.
I could go on for a long time, but here are a few things that a Texan (LBJ) brought to you:
Medicare, The National Endowment for the Arts, Medicaid, The Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act.
The great American rip-off.
Democracy for sale.
To the highest bidder goes the health of the nation, both literally and figuratively.
The rise and fall of the Roma - er American Empire... RIP
Moyers have provided us with excellence in broadcasting for a long time exposing the politics and corruption in corporate America and in government. Friday's programs was a great overview of the healthcare corruption and oppression in this country. His critique of WaPo was one of the few times (almost never) times I have seen him this angry under his usually calm veneer. There has always been corruption in politics, but we are now little better than a third world dictatorship run by the monied interests that embody a real callousness toward the surfs they represent.
... and I mean philos, not eros. :-P
I am always in amazement on how morally wise, politically astute, and exceedingly talented this man is.
Bill Moyers is truly a national treasure.
in the mold of Edward R. Murrow - when Mr. Moyers quits - turn off the lights, no one else is left in the journalists room. With the media completely corrupted and pwnd there is no way that they will let any poor up and coming old school gumshoe journalist, Like Mr. Moyers (or Greg Pallast) near a microphone and T.V. camera. America wants infotainment, and as Mr. Murrow warned would happen - then that is what they get, and what they deserve.
the money lenders are tossed out of the temple .
The updated verison should be read as ,
when the money takers are placed in the arena .
Then we will have justice ! .
want to give them indigestion?
teaches us that when the covenant between the power and its people breaks, there is at first denial, blame, cynicism, sense of impotence and finally despair, as the gap between the rhetoric and reality becomes impossible to ignore.
When this final phase is reached, upheaval is near, and it is always very painful and messy.
I would postulate that if health care reform, financial regulation and the stimulus package fail, the sense of impotence will shoot exponentially among the people. That will place us dangerously close to despair, the final stage.
I'd suggest to our elected representatives (yes! that includes the president) to think long and very hard about that.
That is not a threat. I'm merely stating a process that readers of history know quite well; and until proven otherwise, there is nothing in the so-called American Exceptionalism that protect it from the forces of History.
I believe Louis the XIV found out about those ramifications. Messy indeed.
Bill Moyers, you nailed it. It IS a clear picture of how Washington works in some ways and possibly most ways (I still hold out believing there's some actual policy making happening without special interests). Is this the worst Washington has ever been or is it just more transparent now? This situation can't hold on much longer without some serious countervailing force righting the ship. I wonder what form it will take.
Sure got that right!
nothing will change until we run the money changers out!!!
We need to clean out Washington.
It is the root of all evil.
Where the evil go to practice the black arts.
Reminds me of an old joke about lawyers.
You know what you call 500 lawyers at the bottom of a lake?
A good start.
But it would ruin the lake.
republicanism is a mental illness!
Bill Moyers is always a class act, and the 'fix' on Health Care is going to be the tipping point.
Moyers' program should be required viewing/listening for every half-intelligent (and up) American who wants to know what's real and true out there amid the chaff we get from our mainstream media. Wendell Potter interview exceptional...an insider's view of what's really going on. And it further emphasizes our crying need for re-consideration of the single-payer health-care coverage option. "Public option" will have the impact eventually of getting to "single-payer"...but why dicker around for 10+ yrs. while more of our country becomes financially and morally bankrupt? It just makes no sense... and I would suggest that those who like their present employer-provided health care insurance may need more experience with it before they give thumbs-up (we just saw our in-patient deductibles go up $300/visit...and the insurance "arrangers" were thrilled to take kudos for keeping down health ins. premiums!)
Just goes to show, the people who are still worried about race are fighting the wrong fight now. Class has become the new form of inequity.
Remember that quaint, all too brief moment when lawmakers were promoting "Campaign Finance Reform"? Whatever happened to that? Oh yeah, the promoters got elected and suddenly developed selective amnesia.
"But it was enough to give us a glimpse into how things really work in Washington. A clear insight into why there is such a great disconnect between democracy and government today, between Washington and the rest of the country."
And we can't pretend we didn't see this, can we? Time to hit the streets... these corporations and mofos who run 'em need to be tarred and feathered, and run outta town on a rail! Or better yet... they need to be prosecuted and tried by a jury of their peers (We the people!) and sentenced accordingly.
As succinct and accurate a commentary about the failed state of our governance as I've ever heard.
Now, how do we start to do something about it?
Bill Moyers summed it up succinctly. We, the average American citizen, who keeps America moving, don't count. The powers that be meet at gala affairs to decide our fate, whether we live or die, prosper or fail, are educated or live in ignorance,are wire-tapped or not, etc. We don't count. This really makes me angry. How dare anyone not include the American people in decisions like this. If President Obama wants us to have any belief at all in his "change", he better change the way that this government operates. We need to get out into the streets like the Iranians, the French, and all people who have the nerve to question and to fight back. When did this country become Animal Farm when some animal are "more equal or more worthy or just more" than others? Healthcare is a right due to all people and is not meant to be granted or denied by the elite of the world.
Great. Pretty much everyone here agrees this is scandalous, disgusting and all too common. Now: what are you DOING about it? Are you calling your reps and senators and giving them what-for? Are you demanding what you want and telling them in no uncertain terms they will be out of a job next election if they don't support it? And don't you DARE give me that whiny "oh, it won't make any difference" crap or the "don't be naive" rationalization for not making the effort.
Do the math. Figure out how many voters in your district and state that 72% translates into, then imagine what your senators' and reps' reactions would be if only half of that number called, or even emailed, and told them if they don't work for what you want, they've lost your vote. No amount of corporate contributions and lobbyist pressure - in other words, bribes - could overcome the fear it would instill.
The power IS in your hands. If you don't believe that, then you've been suckered by the insiders; you've bought into a snow-job that works only because of your inaction. There are more of you than there are of them, and your senators and reps are more afraid of you than anyone else. On the few occasions when voters have gotten fired up in sufficient numbers, it's worked every time.
So spend that 30-60 seconds you were going to use telling me I'm naive - which won't get you anything - calling them instead, which, if enough of you do it, will get you something. The only reason they do what the lobbyists tell them is because enough voters don't.
What have you got to lose?
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