Ethics

Triumph of the Trivial

New York Times' columnist Paul Krugman looks into why Americans haven't heard much about John Kerry's proposal to extend health insurance to lower- and middle-income families. After "reading 60 days' worth" of transcripts from major cable and broadcast TV networks Krugman writes, "Never mind the details - I couldn't even find a clear statement that Mr. Kerry wants to roll back recent high-income tax cuts and use the money to cover most of the uninsured. When reports mentioned the Kerry plan at all, it was usually horse race analysis - how it's playing, not what's in it.

No

CSE, Nader and the Hidden Power of the Brothers Koch

Center for Public Integrity examines the hidden power of the Koch brothers, the billionaires who launched the corporate front group Citizens for a Sound Economy. "CSE has found itself in hot water in recent weeks over charges it has been working illegally to get consumer activist Ralph Nader on the presidential ballot in Oregon.

No

Draining the Public Well Dry

Several former employees of the giant public relations firm Fleishman-Hillard say F-H routinely overbilled the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power some $30,000 a month. One described F-H's attitude as, "Get as much as you can because these accounts may dry up tomorrow." Questionable charges include $50 for leaving a phone message and $850 for a two-hour business lunch (not including the cost of the meal). A former executive said that Douglas Dowie (then head of F-H's L.A.

No

GOP's Denial of Democracy Attack

The former head of a GOP Marketplace, a Republican consulting group, has pleaded guilty to jamming get-out-the-vote efforts on election day in New Hampshire two years ago. The company used computer-generated phone calls to flood phone lines that were set up so voters could call for rides to the polls.

No

"The Digestive Tract of the Disinfotainment Industry"

"If your calling is journalism, you enter the job market at the same time that that the long and honorable history of American journalism is traveling through the digestive tract of the disinfotainment industry," declared writer Howard Rheingold in his recent commencement speech at Stanford University. "But at the same time, you arrive on the scene just at the moment something broader, faster, and perhaps more democratic than the invention of journalism is emerging. ...

No

Unspinning the Web of Corporate Influence

When it comes to stealthy PR campaigns, the biotech industry has spared no expense. For the past six years, the UK-based public interest group GM Watch has been tracking and documenting biotech's dirty tricks, learning that the PR web reaches further than just GM food.

No

Pages

Subscribe to Ethics