MSNBC Brings on MPAA Lobbyist Chris Dodd for 'Fair and Balanced' Discussion on SOPA Protest
After virtually ignoring the upcoming SOPA legislation and the upcoming online blackout to protest the pending legislation, now that the blackout is upon us, the corporate news channels that also support the bill finally decided to let their viewers know what was going on, because they had no choice. Were it not for the blackout, I'm sure they'd still be ignoring it for the most part.
MSNBC decided to bring on recently retired Senator and now lobbyist for the motion picture industry, Chris Dodd, for a nice "fair and balanced" discussion on the blackout. Dodd more or less accused the web sites participating in the blackout of acting like a bunch of spoiled children and offered little in the way of details to address the concerns of those who are against the legislation.
Glenn Greenwald wrote a pretty scathing piece on Dodd and the letter he issued via the L.A. Times. You can read the rest for his criticisms of Dodd's lobbying activity among other issues, but I thought I'd share some of his thoughts on Dodd and the MPAA's response to the protest -- Chris Dodd’s paid SOPA crusading:
The L.A. Times, yesterday – “MPAA’s Chris Dodd takes aim at SOPA strike”:
Hollywood’s chief lobbyist lashed out at tech companies for mounting Tuesday night’s planned online blackout to protest proposed anti-piracy legislation that has pitted Southern California movie and music distributors against Silicon Valley Internet corporations.
Motion Picture Assn. of America Chief Executive Chris Dodd, the former Senator from Connecticut, accused technology companies such as Google, Mozilla and Wikipedia of resorting to stunts. . . .
“It is an irresponsible response and a disservice to people who rely on them for information and who use their services,” Dodd said in a statement. “It is also an abuse of power given the freedoms these companies enjoy in the marketplace today.”
[...]
It is in that capacity that Dodd has become the leading public spokesman and private lobbyist for the truly dangerous PROTECT IP Act (PIPA) in the Senate and Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) in the House, bills craved by the industry that pays him. These bills, which vest the power in large corporations and the government to seize and shutdown websites with little or no due process in the name of stopping piracy, pose the greatest dangers to Internet freedom of any bill in the last decade, at least. So serious are these threats that they have prompted a rare — and inspiring — protest movement from numerous large Internet companies and blogs in the form of an Internet “blackout” today.
In his SOPA advocacy, Dodd has resorted to holding up Chinese censorship as the desired model, mouthing the slogans of despots, and even outright lying. Like virtually all extremist, oppressive bills backed by large industry, SOPA and PIPA have full bipartisan support; among its co-sponsors are Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy and GOP Rep. Lamar Smith, with many Senators from both parties in support and Harry Reid pushing it forward (to its credit, the White House expressed opposition to several of the worst provisions, though has not yet issued a veto threat). Read on...
I was wondering how long it would take them to finally cover the pending legislation or the blackout. We got our answer yesterday when we started getting some very glossed over and brief coverage of the blackout and now today, with some completely one sided coverage and name calling of those opposed to it.
The man is a total sellout.
congress critter.
Dodd has accessorized his wardrobe with a for sale sign for a long time. A guy who got sweetheart mortgage deals from Countrywide shouldn't be writing financial reform legislation,.
Get a clue.
I always miss the good stuff...
~albabe (The Writer/Artist Formally Known As Al Gordon)
http://www.comicon.com/gordon/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Gordon
That must be the slag du jour. Seems to be getting a lot of mileage lately, whether it's opposing SOPA or not getting everything you wanted from our most liberal ever president.
Guess it's easier than presenting a real argument.
prefacing the
discussionmention with the inconvenience of Wikipedia going black for a day. Absolutely zero description of what the bill(s) entail, but they did disclose that their parent corp (I forget which one-- doesn't much matter) supports SOPA. End of discussion.Gotta admit it was extremely truncated, but maybe just as well. CNN is truly Corporate News Network.
"Parachutes are allowed in checked or carry-on baggage, but may not be worn in flight."
---Southwest Airlines
was also blacked out. Nice portrayal of what may be.
Isn't it always that way? The MSM ignores real issues until they become so big that they have no choice but to report them.
Here in L.A., ABC has interrupted their regular programming to broadcast live from - the State legislature, where they're busy patting themselves on the back about some water legislation. Amazing the lengths they'll go to just to prevent people from paying attention to the REALLY important stuff.
There's always free cheddar in the mousetrap, baby. - Tom Waits
True. Anything to distract us.
That means they didn't have a missing, blonde, blue-eyed, white girl to cover...
Reader, suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself.
I saw the guy sucking up to the hollywood elite at the Golden Globe awards. Remember the saying, politics is show business for ugly people?
It is. So many politicos are ugly as hell, both inside and outside.
Sad how even people who've done a lot of good can end up being useless corporate whores.
There's always free cheddar in the mousetrap, baby. - Tom Waits
Just like Clinton and future 1-term president Obama.
you have to know the players:
"Sad how even people who've done a lot of good can end up being useless corporate whores."
Christ (Banker-boy) Dodd has a history:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/12/15/1045...
http://www.correntewire.com/another_one_leave...
Dodd has been the go-to guy for the Bankers for more years than most of us have been alive! Now that he has switch "Sugar Daddies" and now whores (my apologies to whores) for the entertainment industry one should not be too surprised. At some point we on the left must take a long hard look at who we vote into office and pay less attention to the "GOP side show".
end of messaqe!!!!!!!
"There is a principle which is a bar against all information, which is proof against all arguments and which cannot fail to keep a man in everlasting ignorance - that principle is contempt prior to investigation."
life is fragile and the last thing i want to do is to go out with a wimper!!!!!!
"There is a principle which is a bar against all information, which is proof against all arguments and which cannot fail to keep a man in everlasting ignorance - that principle is contempt prior to investigation."
Please vote NO on PIPA/SOPA
They are unnecessary, overly broad, ineffective, and set dangerous judicial precedent.
In the first place the Entertainment Industry already has plenty of tools at its disposal to combat theft of its products, tools it has already abused by going after, for instance, teens who have downloaded material from pirate sites.
In the second place, major sites like YouTube already do a good job of policing themselves, blocking copyrighted material upon request and closing accounts of users who repeatedly post material illegally.
In the third place, PIPA & SOPA are overly broad, threatening to close sites simply because a user of the site has linked to a site that contains illegal content, rather like punishing the entire class because of the misbehavior of one student.
In the fourth place, PIPA & SOPA will prove ineffective stopping users with minimal technical knowhow from posting or downloading illegal content.
And lastly PIPA & SOPA violate the bedrock American principle of due process, allowing a judge to close a site simply on suspicion of illegal activity.
Please vote NO on PIPA/SOPA.
When will government of the people, by the politicians, for the corporations perish from this Earth?
Not soon enough!
I just signed a petition to Congress. I googled for an address and zip in Chicago. So it's fake, but let's get them a ton on names to sift through.
Edit: Besides I am a person and this shit affects me. I really dislike this Americo-centric everything. Why shouldn't these petitions be international? America wants to rule the planet.
far left loon >.<
Poor avatar had some illegal copies out there. It ONLY grossed $2,783,919,000 as of August 2011. WTF. That is just not enough.
Let's make it worse. Currently ASCAP and other maniacs are attacking every little business demanding fees - after all, if you play the radio in the business and a person overhears it and it is ASCAP, you have to pay royalties. The media industry has demanded money for songs heard in the background of home movies of infants dancing. The media industry has made fair use into a joke - (where are the folks who want listen to what the fore fathers said - and it was only 10 years after creation!). A few months ago Time Warner complained of copyright infringement on a recording of my own band original material which Warner doesn't even own the rights to! Of course, Google has never followed up on my counter. This is what we live with and SOPA will only make it worse.
Part of me hopes for old school revolution like the French revolution and off with the heads of 1%. They will not be missed.
Sounds very mafia
PS Avatar grossed $2,783,919,000 and it was CRAP.
far left loon >.<
Leave Senate - straight to corporate carpet bagger.
What a total scumbag.
If I were a psychopath, I would join the republican party, and get in on the gravy train taking the Teabircher morons to the cleaners.
like Strom Thurmond, Robert Byrd, or Ted Kennedy; 2) thrown out by voters (too numerous recently to list); or 3) retire quitely on their pensions or donate their time to worthy causes.
"Folks, this is not your father's Republican Party."
Joe Biden
for your post Heather.
Let's take just one main sentence from Glenn which exhibits the hypocrisy so prevalent in today's
blogos-fear.
"In his SOPA advocacy, Dodd has resorted to holding up Chinese censorship as the desired model, mouthing the slogans of despots, and even outright lying."
Lets work backward on Glenn's charges: Did Dodd "resort" to "outright lying" in his SOPA advocacy?
Glenn links to a blog piece which quotes Dodd at a Center for American Progress forum
(which was not covered by C&L, much less criticized with a snarky head even though Dodd was given a whole hour unlike his five minutes on MSNBC).
Dodd said: "The entire film industry of Spain, Egypt and Sweden are gone." The headline from Glenn's
link screams: "Chris Dodd Resorting To Outright Lying In A Desperate Attempt To Get SOPA Passed."
If you watch the hour long CAP video (26 minutes in) Dodd makes this claim in response to a question
from the moderator about other countries and their response to the same issue. The sentence Greenwald
chose to prove Dodd is resorting to lying in his advocacy is taken from a rambling several minute discussion of what is happening in other countries, and is an aside hardly resembling desperation or even advocacy of SOPA. Is it a lie? On the order of "Death Panels in Health Care Bill," "Obama Fosters Government Takeover of Health Care" and "Republicans Vote to End Medicare" it is one which Politifact would have to give a "Pants on Fire" rating to. While there is ample evidence piracy is a problem for the film industries of all three countries, Dodd engaged in the very hyperbole he accuses opponents of SOPA and PIPA of engaging in. He lied.
The problem with Greeenwald's comment about Dodd lying is that he makes it a capstone in a three prong charge against Dodd in which his first two charges are examples of Greenwald himself lying. Nowhere does Dodd ever hold up "Chinese censorship as the desired model" nor does Dodd ever "mouth the slogans of despots" to advocate SOPA. (Greenwald provides you with the links on both these charges so I won't bother unless someone chooses to use the distortions supplied by his sources instead of the direct quotes.) Greenwald uses the same hyperbolic falsehood and distortion with a tiny grounding in fact that he lays at the feet of Dodd when calling Dodd a liar. If Dodd is lying to promote SOPA, Greenwald is lying to attack it and Dodd personally.
"Folks, this is not your father's Republican Party."
Joe Biden
nom nom nom nom...
CTHULHU 2012 "Why vote for a lesser evil?"
I was, after all, talking about fish tales in the first place.
"Folks, this is not your father's Republican Party."
Joe Biden
Your surf and astroturf combos always hit the spot! nom nom nom nom nom nom...
CTHULHU 2012 "Why vote for a lesser evil?"
The bile runs deep in this one.
far left loon >.<
who always seems to comment on those he professes to ignore?
"Folks, this is not your father's Republican Party."
Joe Biden
The kind of bile from the self annointed ignorer
:) Peace and love, ricky.
far left loon >.<
It seems that you (eventually) admit Dodd lied when he claimed:
Dodd wasn't engaging in mere hyperbole (e.g. calling those countries' film industries gone when they were devastated, but not entirely), Dodd was calling these countries' film industries gone when they had actually grown.
In other words, Greenwald was entirely accurate on that point. It seems to be an awful lot of ado about nothing.
Corruption favors the wealthy.
And Greenwald uses two lies and a passel of distortion in the same damn sentence before calling Dodd a liar.
My beef here is with Greenwald and the hypocrisy he regularly displays which is all too often celebrated on the internet.
I'd love to go off topic by discussing Glenn's recent rambling about Ron Paul which illustrate the same phenomena, but lets just stick to Heather's unfortunate use of the sanctimonious clown here.
"Folks, this is not your father's Republican Party."
Joe Biden
Naaaaah, too easy.
CTHULHU 2012 "Why vote for a lesser evil?"
Ixnay.
"Folks, this is not your father's Republican Party."
Joe Biden
Isn't it nice that the channels that pretend to keep us
informedin line, now are unwillingly ready to talk about something they are against. The hypocrites. Keep a close eye on these robots for the rich, don't be fooled by their double talk, and misinformation. We know piracy is not the real issue, it is corporate control. OWS was born of this overbearing corporate, undemocratic, illegitimate power grab, and us Americans who will not allow the country to be destroyed by greed must stand our ground. Kudos to all who are protesting today, it is making a difference.When the MSM don’t report fairly on issues like SOPA, we can’t participate as citizens. We can’t have a functioning democratic system without informed choice. These days we have few sources of unbiased information, outside the internet.
If corporate citizens have a greater say and influence than corporeal citizens, and if our mainstream information is filtered into weak tea, and our choices are increasingly meaningless, then our democracy will also become meaningless.
ever since Glenn Greenwald drew contrast between Obama and Ron Paul's foreign policy (the nun on the white house lawn example) the right wing "trolls" have been circling the progressive waters trying to pick him off like a wounded animal who now trails behind the herd.
As a Liberal, I refuse to throw "brother" Glenn to the narrow minded wolves! You see, I have enough background knowledge on both Glenn Greenwald and Chris Dodd to know what old "ricky" said above is nothing more than classic "misdirection!"
It is merely another of my consistent effort, often unappreciated, to point out the hypocrites running around accusing others of doing exactly what they are doing. Greenwald in this case happened to do it in one sentence.
But since you invoked his great nun fiasco, and his Ron Paul ramblings, I suggest you read his two most recent Paul-Obama comparisons. You will find that in his second, where he goes to great length to prove those attacking him are merely Democrats circling the wagons, he accuses people of saying things about him they never said.'
There are many good things to say about Glenn Greenwald's work on civil liberties. But adherence to truth in making his points is unfortunately not one of them.
"Folks, this is not your father's Republican Party."
Joe Biden
Under bu$hCo., Glenn was a font of truth.
Under Obama he -"Glennzilla" (ha ha ha)- is a liar liar pants on fire with a nefarious agenda.
Funny how that works.
Edit: I haven't seen many threads with our old Constitutional expert friend Jonathon Turley lately either. He used to be a fixture around here.
far left loon >.<
Make your voice heard here:
SOPA: https://www.popvox.com/bills/us/112/hr3261
PIPA: https://www.popvox.com/bills/us/112/s968
RIAA member contact information here: http://www.riaa.com/news_room.php?content_sel...
I just sent Lamy a (nasty and impolite) email over his Tweet, found here:
http://gizmodo.com/5877143/riaa-reminds-us-wh...
far left loon >.<
I am against piracy. But I am for Free Speech. This bill is using a machete where a scalpel is required. There is a way...as a matter of fact there are many ways to combat piracy without shutting down someone's site because they referenced V for Vendetta.
I can't stand it when a bunch of old men and women who don't understand or use the internet try to regulate it. I hope SOPA and PIPA fail. Or the internet is literally doomed.
NOBODY 2012
of oligarchy-approved legislation masquerading as something else.
"When you're president -- as opposed the head of a private equity firm -- your job is not simply to maximize profits. Your job is to figure out how everybody in the country has a fair shot." - President Barack Obama
A far cry from what this is all about: making digital copies.
CTHULHU 2012 "Why vote for a lesser evil?"
MSNBC regularly months ago. This is a great example of why.
"When you're president -- as opposed the head of a private equity firm -- your job is not simply to maximize profits. Your job is to figure out how everybody in the country has a fair shot." - President Barack Obama
SOPA = Stop Online Protesting by Americans
PIPA = Plutocratic Internet Police-State Act
"When you're president -- as opposed the head of a private equity firm -- your job is not simply to maximize profits. Your job is to figure out how everybody in the country has a fair shot." - President Barack Obama
of this land the concept of "land ownership" they must have surely considered it a joke! One of my Navajo friends in Gallup NM compared it to claiming a cubic centimeter of air. Now "capitalistic pigs who live on back of working man" assert that they can lay claim to the very substance of life itself (genetic Patent).
I guess the only thing left is to build a fence around "ideas" at post a cover charge?
"I am against piracy. But I am for Free Speech."
The only "pirates" are the ones who try and slap a God Dam price tag on reality itself! So, everything in the public domain will be for sale.
P.S. to my buddy ricky; I would much rather fight back to back with Glenn and Ron Paul who both have "zero" dead little brown people at their feet than Obama's where the bodies pile up daily (drone strikes). Besides, I am still pulling knives out of my back concerning retro active immunity for the telecoms, a public option, ....
akin to what the Israelis dish out in GAZA daily. Basically, if some one outside of the US has figured out how to skim off some of their vast corporate profits all citizens within the US must be punished (censorship) to correct the problem. Group Punishment historically, only breeds resentment. Never for get; most who are backing this are Democrats!
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