used by politicians who makes decisions to. be made who can you trust no one who is you know view with the global machinery to see where are we heading state controlled capitalism is called sad when nobody dares to ask we do our t. question more.

about the big picture i'm john berman coming up in this half hour the federal communications commission is putting their foot down with media outlets demanding timely and accurate news to be reported at all times but is a fair for the f.c.c. to make standards of they're not even made and republicans of louisiana are fighting for the right to place a ten commandments monument on the grounds of the state capital is that right about that separation of church and state and if you're a government worker you don't have a real job at least according to the g.o.p. by they insist on bashing the government and sides believe. you know our hall lawmakers are turning their backs on thomas jefferson news the state house of louisiana just passed a bill that calls for the construction of the six. tall monument to the ten

commandments we placed on the grounds of the state capitol democrat patrick williams introduced the bill calling it a context for acknowledging america's history or as other people see the monument as nothing more than a wrecking ball over the wall separating church and state in america the legislation will now head to the louisiana senate and then governor jindal already said he plans to sign it by the monument will be built using private donations it's likely that taxpayers will end up footing the bill for this religious symbol as the new law will almost certainly be challenged in the courts so here we go again with republicans trying to inject religion into government what don't they understand about the child separation of church and state for more on this dr carol swain joins me she's the author of the book be the people a call to reclaim america's faith and promise dr swain welcome tom ridge nice to have you here with us if the dearborn michigan city hall wanted to put up a monument to the qur'an given the dearborn is the largest muslim community in the united states would you object would i say. i think that they want to use

state funds to do it i think citizens have a right to decide through that legislate towards what type of laws and actions that they want to take and so i think that. well to tell you the truth i would object ok you would but no no do you object to the ten commandments are not up in the house and i hear you so what's the difference in a crate of the internet music difference and you keep talking about that wall of separation you know between church and state yes but there's nothing in the cost to ship in about a wall of separation between church and state you know from a lot of time and yes the metaphor but answered by saying our situation here it separates religion from government. in one nine hundred forty seven there was a court case and that was the first time that the metaphor you know was it was thought in try and in law that there should be a separation between church and state and as you know in the one nine hundred sixty s. . progressively the courts have ousted you know references to god from

our public life to the extent to the extent it's possible and that's not something that is a part of our american tradition if you look at judeo christian her church it goes back you know to the banded of this nation and many of our secular laws are based on the table don't have to now it's not a lot of that is twenty first eighteen eleven was when president james madison the fourth person united states issued his first veto it was a veto to a bill giving money to churches in washington d.c. to feed the poor and he did it because he said this should not be something that we run through the churches this should be a secular process because this is a secular country thomas jefferson went off on a link for some of the most most of our state legislatures start their days with prayer that congress has prayer so it's part of an american right what do you mean

it doesn't make it right it's a part of our judeo christian herd to you know if you look at you and actually do christians we do have a good day of christian heritage thomas jefferson was a deist george washington refused to acknowledge christianity ben franklin was essentially an atheist you have you have a model you know patrick henry was a bible thumping fundamentalist but he was he was the outlier you know this not surely if you go back to the writings of the founding fathers that we consider d.s. they all put me at our references to bill because scriptures and even thomas jefferson there's a draw in that he did put the seal of the united states that included most of the hard part of the warders and so. thomas if thomas jefferson february tenth eight hundred fourteen i don't care ok cooper he says finally an answer for test you allen's question why the ten commandments should not now be part of the common law of england or the united states we may say they are not because they never were anyone who asserts the ten commandments are the basis of american or british law is

manifestly believing a document that was a manifest forgery mistakenly believe. this is thomas jefferson he went on to say christianity is he says but christianity was not introduced until the seventh century in the in the united kingdom the conversion the first christian king of the up darkie took place in five ninety eight the last in six eighty six here and swizz a space of two hundred years during which common law was into existence and christianity no part of it we might as well say that the newtonian system of philosophy is a part of the common law as that the christian religion is in truth the alliance between church and state in england has ever made their judges accomplices in the frauds of the clergy and even bolder than they are but i was hardly there i thought we were talking about the united states and not about europe but it was he's saying that it is that christianity has no part in american common law because it actually even had no part in britain he lost that battle because we know that it has been a part of american common now and that many of the knowledge that we have all now

of the says you can't come you can't worship a god of the christian god of course and that there's no law that says that first of the ten commandments no law that says that there's no law that says that but so so you know the assertion that i'm behind you know i was that is that we have laws against stealing and killing and things not because they're in the tent it's because every human on earth regardless of their religion has these things are wrong and yet they know because of the natural law to come from god and grain natural law but not not because it's written in a particular you know same you agree with me i'm agreeing that it that they're there is a loudmouth ingrained in human being that is they know right from wrong absolutely and that's why we don't need as as jefferson said in fact he said. i. find the quote right he said when we started we didn't have to do go to the must be homes of other religions to religions define he said we looked in our hearts and we found it in three of the roads. he you know he said it was natural well it is

natural law but i have thanks to citizens of louisiana have a right through that legislature as they wanted to the ten commandments to be in the capitol building i think that they should have a right not a career and their well i mean if they decide they want to grant there they would have the right to do that because this is a government of the people by the people and for the people should. i mean what happened on the scientologists i don't think you know and as long as america is that it's an overwhelmingly archdale christian country i think that christians and jews have a right to say what kind of nation they want to live in they don't have a right you know. they don't have it's already dominated the country is overwhelmingly christian your country is law even though through religion we we're not a country of lowell's if you notice how the law with of the united states are not being enforced especially by this administration will differ but no i mean it's a slippery slope if you think that you know there's an intrusion of religion look

at how about our rule of law look at the patriot act look at look at all of our other constitutional are just when i think we found that area where we can agree in front of it so thank you very much for being. this fight over the ten commandments is particular trouble in louisiana state that's had an awful lot of misfortune the last few years we're just dealing with a stagnant economy and a devastated coastline and the museums are secondary priorities for that state's lawmakers and how much jefferson apparently is their top. the f.c.c. just released a report today saying that local news. agencies are not doing their job in holding local governments and schools accountable by the uptake in online news the report concludes there's a lack of local investigative reporting and this is causing a ray of problems including scandals not exposed government waste not discovered health dangers not identified in time and local elections involving candidates

about whom we know little if the seaward recommends that local media outlets create c.-span like broadcasts to inform their communities curiously in the same week this report was released the f.c.c. gave ender a publican's in the house and completely pledged to take the fairness doctrine off its books the fairness doctrine toward media outlets that call themselves news to devote a sliver of every hour to actually covering straight news reagan stopped and forcing the fairness doctrine in one thousand nine hundred seventy which is a large part of why we now have infotainment instead of news so if the f.c.c. is really looking for someone to blame for a lack of real news in america maybe they should look in the mirror for more on the state of our news media the role of the f.c.c. drawn by matt wood policy director of free press dot net matt welcome so the fairness doctrine and so on tell us what's the deal here what was it how is the media changed since well i don't think the fairness doctrine being taken off the

books officially this week is really the story here i mean that is a really administrative cleanup job that this administration is taking care of now and it's not something that free press would have advocated for at the time but we're also not calling for the return of the fairness doctrine today we think that the f.c.c. has other levers and other licensing conditions that would allow them to ensure that we have quality news and that this report identifies a lot of problems very well doesn't go far enough to provide solutions to those problems where the f.c.c. could foster a more vibrant and truly civically minded discourse on our nation's news programs isn't the essence of the issue really whether those who have access to the public airwaves or the public rights of way through which cable lines are run or the airways via whatever that they should be. i mean in the public interest not just in the interest of profits i think i think that they are right i think that the real problem here today the fairness doctrine as that's the see has highlighted does have some first amendment implications and we can talk about those and there are people on both sides of that debate who would have reasonable positions in my mind the real problem with today's report is that it basically attacks those kind of

public interest obligations that you're pointing to and says those haven't worked but those have not worked to ensure that we have a vibrant local media or a vibrant national media for that matter the problem that we see with that information or cops highlighted with that as well and his statement about the report today is that if those were if the obligations hadn't worked in large part that's because the f.c.c. has got to them it hasn't ever turned down the stations license for failure it's hurt the local community well in in fact in eighty seven when from when reagan stopped in force in there and start him in the entire history of c c they're all one challenge right about there being a lack of fairness you know i worked in news back in the seventy's and you know we would station would run an editorial and we would invite somebody from the local community to have a rebuttal but the station can still have seven minute editorial the rebuttal might be thirty seconds talk show might run like i produced a talk show for a while and seventy three seventy four that ran for an hour every afternoon with the host bloviating about his opinion and if somebody called him that was. a

fairness doctrine was rather toothless when it came to saying you know who's a liberal who's conservative and like that what it really focused on was that as as the as the news director ultimately that radio station i would get fired if i talk to anybody from sales it was the separate was it was making news news how do we get back to that now while we think if he had an opportunity to do that again as i said the basis tack on public interest obligations of that is what we really see as problematic the f.c.c. has right now a localism proceeding that has considered ways to encourage patients to serve their local communities better and this report actually suggest terminating that proceeding and not concluding that we think that's outrageous the record is there you know obviously it is a little bit out of date now perhaps but it could be refreshed as a person it was started by a republican chairman of the f.c.c. . michael powell under george bush and this report is suggesting that that report not be concluded but the proceeding just they basically shuddered and at the f.e.c. not proceed to adopt any sort of recommendations in regard to how to make stations more responsive to their local communities to what extent is that the. problem

is probably the wrong word but a lack of better one is that the problem versus the telecommunications act of ninety six versus reagan's decision in one thousand nine hundred two to stop and force in the sherman act which led to the war mergers and acquisition mania which spilled over into the media right i mean they're all related the problem with the antitrust lack of enforcement for the last several decades is that we do have the f.c.c. also approving mergers there are two bodies of radio mergers like the merger that are before the commission now like the f.t. it's like the comcast n.b.c. merger that was approved earlier this year yes he has a separate mandate not only to ensure that there is competition in local media markets but that the local media is serving the public interest and it's been that twin failure to enforce both the competition laws and the public interest mandate to be i think he has that has really led to the situation right now unfortunately this report is not good enough on the media consultant consolidation issue either it suggests concentration doesn't necessarily lead to better news and we are welcoming that acknowledgment but it also says in something to asians for the concentration might make a local market more healthy and if you reduce from ten t.v.

stations to nine perhaps they would actually improve the quality of local journalism i don't know i think that there's this myth that we have to fight that by reducing the number of voices in the market we're making stronger competitors and also there's a method with you get increased efficiencies and savings that the stations can claim when they merge they will then plow that back into local news production and that's the mythology that reagan used to try to justify his suspension of the sherman act and the numbers don't bear that out we've seen newsroom shrinking and basically disappearing into from two thousand six thousand i knew the papers have had twenty five percent other jobs network news it's down fifty percent this report finds the total number of reporters on the beat since the 1980's and also local radio news the all news station to participate around the country and we see this wave of consolidation where the. ok what you talked about earlier is more profitable and hence that's what play is not good matt thanks so much for the great work you do and chart i very much for being with us here tonight abraham lincoln knew how important and informed electorate was to the survival our night of our nation and he famously said let the people know the facts and the country will be

safe unfortunately since ronald reagan blew up the fairness doctrine people are no longer getting the facts that our nation is facing so many challenges today. after the break a daily take out alive government bashing isn't anything new for the republican party actually dates back to the one nine hundred twenty s. . let's not forget that we had an apartheid regime right. i think. beatable in one well. we have a government says they're very safe get ready because their freedom. you

know sometimes you see a story and it seems so you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else here sees some other part of it and realized everything you thought you knew you don't know i'm sorry is a big issue. it's

the good the bad of the very acrimonious way the ugly good the a.f.l. c.e.o. the nation's largest labor organization is putting the pressure on president obama to give consumer rights advocate elizabeth warren the job heading up a new consumer financial protection bureau if l. c.e.o. wrote a letter to president obama saying no matter who gets the recess appointment president obama republicans have made it clear they'll scream and holler this reflects the sorry state in our politics but it's also a historic opportunity to recess appoint a lizard with warren he's already shown as acting director of the c.f.p. b.

which is a true champion for working families the right war in the top job would be a huge victory for america's middle class let's make it happen. so bad senator joe lieberman the independent senator from connecticut has transformed his political career into being a thorn in the side of democrats and as he's taking a little vacation in august to attend gun bags rally in israel. also known as glenn beck's television televangelism career kickstart lieberman called the rally important and constructive. and once upon a time long long ago joe lieberman used to be a democrat now he's one of glenn beck's minions. and a very very ugly herman cain the republican presidential hopeful has tried out crazy the other nominees tough task considering the field and he's doing one heck of a job here and on the glenn beck show cain defended his comments from earlier in the week on his apprehension about appointing muslims to his administration i didn't

say i would appoint one because if they can prove to me that they have put in the constitution of the united states first bin that they would be a candidate just like everybody else my entire career of high here good people great people regardless of their religious or and so it are you saying that it is that muslims have to prove they're there there has to be some loyalty proof yes to the constitution of the united states of america would you do that to a catholic or would you do that no to a mormon no i wouldn't i wouldn't because there is a greater dangerous part of the muslim faith then there is you know these other religions i know while going on the clown packed show and making glenn beck look like the reasonable one that's very very ugly.

the entire republican party's platform is based on this single promise big government is public enemy number one and that promise has expanded to not only include the entity all over government but also average americans who work in government like mail carriers teachers food safety inspectors and see what i mean take a look at what caucus republican. grisman paul brown said just the other day in a radio interview. the cvo says well if we if we don't if we don't raise the debt limit it's going to put so many people out of work i don't remember the numbers i think is two hundred fifty thousand or something i will be put out of out of work but those could be government employees that are put out of work there are a lot of government employees just need to go find a real job get real jobs they used to be a time in america where if you talk that way about the government you can kiss your political career goodbye as republican president dwight eisenhower republican

president dwight eisenhower said about new deal government programs back in one thousand fifty four as a letter he wrote to his brother he said should any political party attempt to abolish social security unemployment insurance and eliminate labor laws and farm programs you would not hear of that party again in our political history there is a tiny splinter group a few texas milloy of millionaires and an occasional politician or businessman from other areas their number is negligible and they are stupid the reason why eisenhower felt that way was because franklin roosevelt restored the good name of government after it was dragged through the mud in the one nine hundred twenty s. by the republican party and their business interests you see today's government bashing is not new for republicans they played the same card ninety years ago we three republican presidents beginning with warren harding in one hundred twenty and ending with herbert hoover in one thousand nine hundred two when one one harding

one the presidency in one hundred twenty his campaign pledge was this is verbatim quote less government in business and more business in government. coolidge and hoover carried on that agenda relegating government to the sidelines as business created the largest economic bubble ever seen at that time it was called the roaring twenty's and then crashed our economy nine hundred twenty nine triggering a worldwide great depression but franklin delano roosevelt turned it all around and turned the economy around too thanks to government spending and government regulations f.d.r. showed us all what government is capable of winning as the trust of the people but today even though our country's in the same boat that it was in in one nine hundred thirty two or that close to it president obama and the democrats have been unsuccessful at restoring the good name of government and convincing the american

people the government can actually do something that it can be a good force it's a simple idea we do have a market economy dependent on private business but when those businesses get their it not down there but as they did in twenty nine as they did two thousand and eight then someone needs to step up and be the spender and employer of last resort and that's the government without the help of the government over the last three years a double dip recession recession is now a promise in fact a double dip is a misnomer the vast majority of us never recovered from the first recession to be able to go through a double dip it's more like the great depression for the working class and it's getting worse and worse and worse because our government that spender and employer of last resort has been handcuffed by the republican party. f.d.r. had a little bit easier in the anti-government zite guys that i nine hundred twenty only

lasted about a decade or f.d.r. came to power so he was able to right the ship a little easier unfortunately for president obama today's anti-government naima has been entrenched for over thirty years starting with great government is not the solution to our problem government is the problem. all of us need to be reminded that the federal government did not create the states or the states created the federal government the answer to a government which to be has to stop feeding its roots i need to chinese philosopher now to ted governor great nation as you would cook a small fish he would not overdo it even after i leave office i would never stop campaigning for the tools needed to limit the insatiable fiscal appetite of government and it was carried on ironically by bill clinton.

we have worked if you have the american people a smaller less bureaucratic government in washington and we have to give the american people one that lives within it's the thanks the era of big government is over. thank you. and then put on steroids that this message by george w. bush and since the message has been spread for more than thirty years frankly a lot of young voters can't even remember a time when government wasn't public enemy number one. i had american historian thomas frank on my show a few months ago and he made this astute observation about just how republicans use government bashing for political gain. cynicism pays massive dividends to

conservatives and what's creepy about this is that it's sort of self-fulfilling so conservatives tend to deal in very bad government the they govern very poorly there's one line from the wrecking crew that i always like to repeat because it can never get out there enough and it's from a it's from a guy who is the president of the u.s. chamber of commerce back in the one nine hundred twenty s. and he said in an interview that i found in a very popular magazine from the late one nine hundred twenty s. the best public servant is the worst one nobody's ever said it quite that bluntly since and you can find echoes and i do in the book i find echoes of this remark right up to the present day i mean conservatives say this sort of thing all the time you don't want competent people in government you don't want because if you if government works if you have smart people in government people that know what they're doing in government works that the public will trust government but you know you won't have the cynicism you won't you know things things will work and they don't you know if that's what the democrats will be elected you know it's it will be so let's speak on their terms for a moment let's speak like

a business man and not a government bureaucrat mr president who the c.e.o. of the united states government and if you don't start selling and promoting what your company is capable of and you'll be out of a job real soon and that company will be bankrupt and have to shut its doors as in total economic calamity this isn't about economics anymore it's about public relations p.r. restore the nerve the good name of government just like franklin roosevelt did in our country and your presidency will then have a chance to be successful. as the big picture from our friends from the stories we covered visit our website at tom hartman dot com and r t dot com check out our youtube page youtube dot com slash the big picture r.t. if you tube dot com slash and entire shows available for free podcast on i tunes and don't forget democracy begins with you sad your it will see them.

download the official policy obligation to i phone or i pod touch from the i choose option. one jonty life on the go. video on demand i'll tease my blog posts and r.s.s. feeds with the palm of your. on the dot com. please.