overread already tell the truth the truth is that you are uncomfortable with the fact that there is a black guy in the white house and that's the very very ugly. right now coming up there is a quartz place and of course he's a nasa roadblock in front of governor scott walker's union busting bill what's next for the senators who supported him after the great. you know something if you see a story at the scene so you think you understand it and then you glimpse something

else you're seeing some other part of this to realize that everything you say. i'm sorry. all right welcome back to the big picture i am lucy for tom parker and coming up in this half hour as opposition against him governor scott walker's anti union those strengthens i want to talk to one of the key players behind the movement to strip republicans of their rule in wisconsin. fox news executive was caught on tape admitting that he lied i know that that's probably not news in the fall but we have some of the steamy audio behind that scandal.

well yesterday a district court judge in wisconsin where of course this nationwide union war began the walk the implementation of scott walker so you can busting bill and some republicans passing legislation with less than a one hour notice in the dead of night they broke was actually a state law that requires at least a twenty four hour i've been snowed us so while walkers union fight is tied up in the courts progressives in wisconsin are pushing full steam ahead with a new fight a fight to recall republican state senators who supported walkers and agenda but the progressive change campaign committee and democracy for america are both launching a one hundred thousand dollar ad campaign in the state it targets republican senators and it's a pretty interesting out. let's take a look. at church my family it's a gold mine it's real wealthier college students like me are kindergarten the

republicans are hurting everyone this is for my children and my wife this is for my friends my neighbors this is for republican security more on the middle class and with this recall campaign you're fighting back and you're going to win. all right so is this going to work even though republicans won the first battle of getting that bill passed will they lose the war and then that losing their majority in the state senate but the answer is i'm joined by stephanie taylor co-founder of the progressive change campaign committee with bold progressive stephanie thank you so much for being here great to be here so break it down for us i mean what's actually going on on the ground right now in this fight it's actually incredibly exciting there is a huge amount of energy which we really tried to capture to me there's so much momentum this is a movement that includes republicans democrats independents people of all ages and walks of life who are just outraged at what the republicans are doing this is really a war on working families well you know and it's interesting that you guys are

actually putting money into these ads we're not seeing this on a nationwide level and i do wonder if it's going to rub off a little bit but i have to say it's great that we're at least talking about serious issues as opposed to i don't know obama's trying to kill old ladies are trying to turn people into gays but what's the timeline on this when are you actually hoping to see the recall elections if they do come out right will people are collecting signatures now and it's going credibly well we expect the elections to happen in late june. right now you can see the recall the republicans we've put a huge amount of money obviously into the state really it's about what's happening on the ground there and people just really being determined to unite and come together and fight this do you feel that this is going to spread to other states do you feel like this is sort of catching on. and what i think we're also seeing in other states is that this is definitely a national movement by republicans to really. make war on working families you see state after state cuts happening and you see just today governor john kasich is to

get rid of collective bargaining for state workers in ohio passed the ohio state house you see in indiana the state legislators also had to flee the state in order to try and stop collective bargaining law as you see in maine the governor look page taking down a mural in the department of labor the praetorians workers i mean this is really a national war on workers as terrible as this is i almost feel like it's having these kind of good unintended consequences for democrats for people who support workers' rights because it's really getting people to wake up out of their stupor and really try to fight and stand up for what's right for them so do you expect that you guys are coming going to come out on top in this fight well we hope so and also what i would urge every democrat to do is look at this as the best pass to victory in two thousand and twelve because they should be embracing this and saying yes we are on the side of working families we don't we don't embrace cuts we do

support workers' rights to organize and that that is the difference between democrats and republicans that's really a way to draw a distinction going into the two thousand and twelve elections and before we run out of time you know you've mentioned ohio you've mentioned some other states what are the next sort of big battlegrounds that we should be watching out for i think we should keep watching ohio i think that we should keep watching mean you hampshire right now the state legislature is also trying to repeal collective bargaining also i would say we should watch tuesday in wisconsin april fifth there's a really important supreme court election that's happening statewide the winner of the election and it will be the judge who decides whether to union bill is legal or not it's now there's a republican david prosser who's running who voted ninety five percent of the time with scott walker when he was in the state legislature he's obviously has an agenda right right so it's really really important people can actually. call voters a call out to vote dot com which is one of our websites that really last people to

call from home really easily call wisconsin voters and say hey this election is happening to state and it's really. a profound all out the vote dot com and i r i take that me thank you so much now the radical agenda that wisconsin republicans are pushing may or may not cost them their seats and office but one thing is for sure if them republicans costing them republican voters and here's what tom had to say about one particular republican who said that he's sworn off the g.o.p. in the wake of the wisconsin lever right less than three months into their two thousand and ten election mandate he'll let the american people are finding out what the republicans really are. their shills for transnational corporations and the millionaire and billionaire c.e.o.'s. and it's just a matter of time before lifelong republican voters start leaving the party in droves in fact the exodus has already begun i've received dozens of letters

recently from lifelong republicans who are disavowing this new incarnation of the party that they supported in the past i want to share with you a few words from one of those converts named michael a fellow who said he voted for reagan bush sr bush sr dole bush jr bush jr and mccain. but whether it was entirely from a conservative who's been mugged and michael road. some thirty years of commitment to a traditionally conservative ideology has very recently given a way to my realisation that the political movement which gained my loyalty in the seventy's has been hijacked. but nice talking about here is what i've been saying for a very long time the republican party of today is not the same as yesterday's it's not the same as my dad said nixon eisenhower republican party for decades republicans and democrats by and large a lot of the same things. both democrats and republicans wanted a strong middle class they wanted strong families they wanted

a strong healthcare system they wanted a strong national defense now the two parties may have each had different strategies on how to achieve these things. but the goals were the same. as look at the white hundred fifty six republican party platform when delight eisenhower was running for reelection it reads like something the fox news would call socialist propaganda champion champion organized labor unemployment insurance environmental protections and federal health care assistance even republican richard nixon who less than forty years ago created the environmental protection agency fought for an employer health care mandate and kept the tax bracket for the wealthiest americans at seventy four percent it was by the way when nixon was vice president it was ninety one percent for eight frawley hears that he was vice president and nixon was just fine with that so it was eisenhower. any of those guys

nixon. eisenhower they're far closer to the democratic party of today. but the republicans of today. michael in his letter to me went on to talk about what pushed him over the edge. he wrote the one word stimulus for my opinion was wisconsin what happened to me was simply a retired teacher from the new york city high schools recalls ronald reagan's eloquent characterization of the teacher as america's finest but he announced in august one thousand nine hundred four his goal to put one on board and a shuttle mission he was talking of christa mcauliffe as you know what i observe now is a crusade against my profession by republican governors senators congressmen and presidential wannabes. egged on by the angry voices of radio and the poison pen writings of the internet and print media. they see nothing less than

a glorious opportunity to move in for the kill all of organized labor. it's a pity that the tea party composed mostly of working folks as emerge as a group of useful idiots in support of policies that will ultimately be their own undoing. conservative power elites must be rolling on the floor with laughter over having nice fools as their foot soldiers. this illustrates by the way a great opportunity for the rest of us. partiers we need to show up at tea party rallies you go home go make or sign you know the next tea party rally you know they're not going to hold a whole lot of know in the future because everybody's kind of guys putting on the rallies but anyhow if there's one make a sign this is get out of nafta or throw the banks threes in jail. because largely

you agree that most of the tea party guys will agree with you and it will slowly dawn on them. but they're fighting for the wrong side by the way the people who run the tea party who put the thing on paper the speakers in the platform in the microphones and the busses they're not all i happy with that topic and it's just a matter of time before their job those tea partiers or their pension or their health insurance falls on the chopping block to as a result of a pro billionaire class agenda being pushed by that is republican party think about it for a second how morally bankrupt as one party become it feels the need to steadfastly protect banks who committed fraud but our economy to the brink of collapse and attack schoolteachers who make fifty thousand dollars a year and call them quote blood suckers who are tanking our economy and quote this is insanity. and michael who wrote the letter finally saw it as he concluded

that qadri of radio shock jocks led by the likes to limbaugh and the crowley live in back and gallagher constantly decry the viciousness of the liberals good grief do they ever listen of themselves so of three short weeks of mid february early march of two thousand and eleven the right first lost my enthusiasm then my assistance and finally my vote you could take this to the bank tommy wrote if they lose me they will lose millions more. mike is not an anomaly he's the start of a new trend in america the billionaires who thought they could take control of our country and sold off for profit right in an ether noses and are about to receive a rude awakening america is not for sale it belongs to us and when more people like mike step up and lead today's republican corporate republican party then we can officially put an end to this bad deal in america and put into place another new deal with the middle class all right well after the break i'll look into the fox

news agenda and how it's hurting our country and i say everything. for. you know sometimes you see a story and it seems so you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else and you hear or see some other part of it and realized everything you thought you don't. charge is a big. earlier

this week media matters uncovered an audiotape the fox news executive bill sammon this is a big big heavy hitting by admitting to a clear agenda of lying to discredit president obama in the weeks leading up to the two thousand and eight election. i have to admit that i went on t.v. on fox news and publicly engaged in what i guess was some rather mischievous speculation about whether barack obama really advocated socialism a premise that privately i found rather farfetched. ok now i get that the whole fox news line thing might not be a complete surprise but especially when you know we're talking about i don't know the personalities of the shows right but this isn't just some personality with a show this is an executive about it makes decisions financial decisions editorial decisions lying and sameness stuff now keep in mind that this isn't sam it's first

foray into the world of misleading journalism he's the same guy who urged his anchors to question global warming and he's the same guy that sends out those mailers asking them to use the government option instead of public option because of polls better for the g.o.p. well tom had some intense words for mr salmon and the rest of his fox so-called news outfit is tonight's take. me bill sammon he's the managing editor of fox news basically he's the guy in charge of choosing the content that is anchors will be reporting throughout the day he's also the man behind the curtain the republicans don't want you to know about guys that is if you look at each major g.o.p. talking point over the last two years bill sammon was the guy at the middle of most of them were fox news. fox news recently sprung a leak and some of their internal e-mails have gone public thanks to media matters the work of me matters these internal e-mails originating from managing editor bill

sammon and sense of colleagues all over the news bureau reveal a clear agenda to smear president obama to distort the facts about climate change and misinformed viewers about health care reform the first of the e-mails we've seen we have started in two thousand and eight may have gone well before that but that's the first we have at the end of october just a few days before the presidential election salman sent an e-mail to his anchors with the subject quote f why obama's references to socialism and liberalism marxism and marxists in his autobiography dreams of my father was a couple of his many self described radical obsessions end quote contained in that e-mail five passages from men president presidential candidate obama's autobiography in which he talked about the dynamics of race and politics that he encountered while going to college right after that e-mail was sent off salman himself appeared on here at fox news to open the can of worms take

a look if you read the autobiography of. his first autobiography it's very telling you talks a lot about you know these words that you're getting tossed around the socialism and liberalism of marxism and he was drawn to marxists he was drawn to liberals he was drawn to socialists by his own admission as a young man then the next morning on fox and friends he comes out with lists. he writes in his book dreams from my father and in college he chose his friends carefully so as not to appear south among his friends marxist professors and his activities attending such alist conference that's right i guess you could say that the rest is history. using the socialist yes you do now lock it be better for i thought it was rather dense and really are moving toward the fastest president i think he's going to adopt the entire socialist program by essentially circumventing

the constitution. so salmon was successful in using fox news to paint the president as a socialist who was going to try next take a look at this interview with sean hannity on fox news back in september of two thousand and nine right the middle the health care debate if you call it a public option the american people are split if you call it the government option the public is overwhelmingly against it you know what it's a great point and i'm for now all couldn't call it the government because well hannity wasn't the only one to make the pledge to rename the public option a few weeks later bill sammon sent out an e-mail to all of his anchors titled subject friendly reminder let's not slip back into calling it the public option there were some some some of the tips that were contained in email please use the term government run health insurance or when brevity is a concern government option whenever possible when it's necessary to use the term i'm still quoting from his memo public option which is after all firmly ensconced

in the nation's life sick on use the qualifier so-called as in the so-called public option here's another way to phrase it bill sammon wrote the public option which is the government run plan so here we have the managing editor of fox news directing his talking heads to refrain from using the term public option as it was written in the legislation and debated on the floor of the house of representatives in the senate and instead use a better poll tested franklin's phrase like government option to stir up opposition among thoughts viewers and of course his minions responded. which is really government run health care that's what the name should be going to take over he we have had we have experience with a triggered public option he said you care much about the way the government option ok are you sure it isn't a government option it's sponsored by the government paid for by the government it's one of the most important points in this entire debate if you can begin the

rest is history the public option was killed then a few months later in december of two thousand and nine as leaders from around the world gathered in copenhagen for un climate talks and just a short time after the u.n. world meteorological organization announced that the first decade of the twenty first century was on track to set a new record as the hottest decade ever recorded bill sammon sent out another email this one had the subject line given the veracity of the climate change data. it's text said we should refrain from asserting that the planet has warmed or cooled in any given period without and this was in all caps it media too late pointing out that such theories are based upon data that critics have called into question it is the place as journalists to assert such notions as facts especially as this debate intensifies right. just like it's not boxes news this is place to report on two

thousand and ten is the hottest year ever recorded and the freak weather being unleashed all around the world the worst storm in decades is sweeping across the united states as we speak it's a two thousand mile long system it's dumping multiple feet of snow with white out conditions and tropical storms strength winds across many states and the full damage of the storm is still unknown as large tracks of our nation right now are inaccessible as people dig out of the snow at the same time on the other side of the world australia is bracing for its worst psych own in history it's a category five storm named yasi and it's roaring toward the coast of queensland australia's premier anna bligh informed or citizens don't even bother to pack bags just grab each other get to a place of safety i mean we're talking about the ocean coming in she said this storm was more threatening than any experience during recent generations or is the

focus of fox news think that when it snows the winter than global warming must be wrong right. why has southern new york turned into the tundra. i have a call into al gore sixty three percent of the country is now covered in snow and it's breaking outdoors hard because the snow is also burying it is global warming theory and i believe scientists you know they've lied to us that all global warming climate change doesn't just mean global warming sorry oil industry funded deniers snow in the winter does not disprove the theory in fact the climate change does predict increasingly volatile weather patterns all across the world and that's what we're seeing today from the u.s. to australia oh that's a rant for another day anyway the anchors picked up on salman's quiet change denial email and ran with it remember climategate. all this of course comes amid the growing controversy over global warming which some people are calling climate gate

it involves more than a thousand e-mails that have been leaked that indicate that some of the climate scientists were apparently thought to in the numbers and tried to suppress opposition comments republican lawmakers now demanding the white house hold efforts to combat global warming into a controversy as a result of recently leaked emails reveal that scientists use quote tricks to hide evidence of a decline in global temperatures it will be bringing because of viewers are screaming at this point they want to hear about climate gate they want. and as a result the g.o.p. was successful in killing president obama and the democrats climate change legislation and americans are now more skeptical of global warming than ever before even in the face of intensified natural disasters wreaking havoc around the low the globe either way that is very concerned about these issues but here in america according to a pew research poll this month americans place global warming at the bottom of their priority list on what congress needs to focus on it ranks twenty first out of

twenty two agenda items just below transportation and just ahead of obesity. i mean this is astounding here we have the managing editor at fox news bill sammon orchestrating a massive misinformation campaign has led to the defeat of major pieces of legislation in congress and the demonization of our nation's democratic politicians and of our elected president as you can see these guys get results they are operating in an echo chamber according to last month's television rating spock's news dominates when it comes to highest rated cable news shows the top eleven cable news shows the longer fox news high ratings because well donna lies often sell better than borean need to know news oh and this should put to rest the myth of the liberal bias in the media here are the top five cable news shows on fox news. and what have these programs devoted massive amounts of the coverage to in the past

few years stories like these the threat of a new black panther party the threat of racists in the us department of agriculture the threat of voter fraud within community organizing groups the threat of buzz wilma's building victory mosques in new york city and most recently the threat of the muslim brotherhood coming to power in egypt now to sitting here. is it just a coincidence that a group of white anchors largely white anchors are targeting racial and religious minorities in the u.s. and we can't forget the relationship between fox news and the tea party and especially our white movement fearing a socialist takeover by a black president and the tea party is funded by the billionaire code brothers who in turn fund republican politicians to do their bidding on capitol hill like killing the health care bill stopping climate change legislation and making sure president obama doesn't see a second term which is basically the subject of bill salman's internal e-mails at fox news. you see what's going on here you see this nexus of money politics and

so-called news fox news devotes much of its programming to telling americans what they should fear but it's all crap the really scary thing in america is this the pollution of our news in the subsequent corruption of our politics before nine hundred eighty seven if you claimed you were a news outfit then you had to report actual factual new novel idea and reagan blew up the fairness doctrine deregulated that is media clinton for the process with the telecommunications act of ninety six and now as a result we no longer have news in america we have infotainment corporate billionaire run brainwashing just look at our major networks are scrambling to cover the revolution in egypt and the race for profits that close down their bureaus around the world after all they are necessary to report our ratings great grabby news like lindsey lowe and in jail or governor mark sanford is up to our news outlets are no longer prepared to cover the news we need to know anymore and this is scary abraham lincoln famously said let people know the facts and the

country will be safe but how do we give people the facts again we encourage our legislators to bring back programming in the public interest and we force fox to drop the word news from their name this is not a call for the fairness doctrine this is about returning to a higher standard of journalism and use in america just give the people the facts and our country will be just fine. and that's the big picture now for more information on the stories we've covered please visit our website at thom hartmann dot com and our team dot com we're all over the internet so this show is also available as a free podcast on i tunes so they can drive them to listen to it at the same time and check out our youtube page at youtube dot com slash the big picture our team as tom always says democracy begins to live you get out there get active tag you're it .

well see british soil it's not. going to go.