well the british summer it's time to. go. to. the markets why no. one knows what's really happening to the global economy is really the largest storage. as the economic skies darken and the political winds blow around the debt ceiling debate is the u.s. preparing itself for the perfect financial storm. and that's the way the whistle blows here what happened to informants willing to stand up and stead of fall in line with the government. plus if it bleeds it leads so will obama kill murdoch and sell the political score with news corps once and for all.

good afternoon it's friday july fifteenth four pm fear in washington d.c. i'm sure in the store and you're watching our t.v. well we have a country weeks away from just faulting on its debt standard and poor reports it may cut the u.s. is aaa credit rating even if i debt deal is reached by lawmakers one of the biggest media giants in the country and world is the an investigative by the f.b.i. for journalistic wrongdoing a former government employee faces sentencing in one of a series of criminal cases that's helping obama outdo every previous president for going after whistleblowers the pentagon says it suffered one of its largest ever losses of sensitive data to a cyber attack from a foreign government at the same time it avails a new cyber warfare strategy and all average folks are still sweating an economy that has taken their jobs their home equity their pensions consumer confidence to the lowest level in two years a rich in a league group that includes presidents and. this leaders are heading to

a party at a secret retreat in california what can i say happy friday we'll have more on all of what i just talked about in our shows today but first why are the elite sitting so pretty could it be because they were some of the only winners of policies meant to spur a global economic recovery so my next guest believes charlie mcgrath he's founder of wide awake news dot com hi charlie thanks for being with us so let's talk about first kind of the latest news out today we have core inflation gaining manufacturing is one thing consumer confidence is the slowest level in two years because people are pessimistic about jobs up one reason why is the economy headed up or down if you're on main street. main street it never even started to turn into any kind of recovery even though in the last two and a half years we've been this propaganda the green shoots and prosperity but the reality of it is we know main street has not even recovered one job that's been

lost since the two thousand and seven recession the so-called great recession allegedly ended in two thousand and nine who is again who is winning what do you as anybody coming out on top here you think that some of you that you got there are you know that the corporate interests who are the same ones. demanding we have a debt ceiling increase these are the ones jamie dimon to the world telling us that if we don't do it it's going to be catastrophic but it's going to be catastrophic if we do do it it's already catastrophic because of the fact that from two thousand and seven to now we went from nine trillion to fourteen point three trillion but if these power elite in these corporate interests get their way there they want this it is in their agenda to get this done because it guarantees profits for i guess a few examples just five corp exxon had thirty point four six billion dollars in profit in the year two thousand and ten they paid zero in taxes yet they were able to contribute seven million dollars to campaign but i will go down the whole list

with their profit line but between exxon deal way general electric chevron and boeing they managed to amass seventy seven point one six billion dollars in profit paid zero in a corporate tax and they managed to contribute forty three point one million to campaign contributions so that should tell you exactly who benefits from raising the debt ceiling debacle of the country. the agenda is let the people of the country have all the burden for running the government pretend that we have this thirty five percent corporate tax rate but in reality these too big to fail corporations they absolutely nothing and their profits are guaranteed and they can fail unlike main street who continue to has failed primarily since two thousand and seven and continues to fail as we speak today charlie does raising the debt ceiling for the average people that our social security tax. well you know the so security funds two point six trillion dollars in

a lockbox right that's what we've been told since time immemorial the fact of the matter is that the people we take in over two trillion dollars a year we pay that much in income taxes right now we take in enough money to make our social security payments we don't take in enough money to keep funding special interest plain and simple and we don't take in enough money to keep this projection of empire america alive and well five military engagements around the planet you know corruption has run amok you know primarily since two thousand and eight it's been you know pedal to the floor so the idea that our president comes out and uses this calculated tactical fear tactic in order to scare one of the weakest segments of our population is an absolute and utter insult at least to anybody who's a critical thinker not just the president right and they just say that they're going to there are the u.s. credit rating and that attaching also do not care about what the credit rating agencies said no no i do not absolutely not care because they've been they've been

proven to be not only failures because they missed the whole entire housing boom or the housing bust rather they're proven to be rating the products that there was street financier's you know the ones that the products that they create they re aaa and others using these rating agencies as a sledgehammer or an anvil rather to convince not only people approaching the nation look at greece look at italy the threat of a downgrade is causing all these austerity measures to be implemented these rating agencies have proven to fail time and time again so then under that logic if the u.s. credit rating was downgraded without them resulting austerity measures in the last that hurt average. yes if you put that really don't want you don't want average people to be hurt. well you will let me clarify let me let me make it perfectly clear is as far as my opinion goes suffering is coming you know all we can do if we

raise the debt limit we might kick the can down the road we might continue to paper over this fictitious fantasy recovery this wall street recovery that could happen for another six months a year two years three years maybe even but in reality at some point we've got to pay the piper and i think average americans at least the ones that i thought they want me they understand the tough times are coming and we were ok with that maybe we have been living as a nation beyond our means maybe we should be consuming twenty five percent of the world's energy and maybe we do have to experience austerity and in fact i think a lot of people are willing to take that is long as we're not sitting here watching these corporations just rake in massive profits have to pay shoulder none of the burden and are able to actually influence with their you know with their financing of washington d.c. influence legislation that make sure they never touch when it comes to shouldering the burden of this must have austerity because let's hear what the president said about the sacrifices people may have to make let's play with the senate conference earlier today. that would require would be some shared sacrifice and

a balanced approach that says we're going to make significant cuts in domestic spending and i have already said i am willing to take down domestic spending to the lowest percentage of our overall economy since dwight eisenhower so that's not the case the money comes out of medicare social security programs that average people depend on you say that's ok nothing. they don't like that but they're saying that you'll accept because everybody needs to need to pay them have to sacrifice is now . the of starting in two thousand and eleven we have the baby boomer generation starting to retire if we want to base our decisions on reality we have to understand that these spirity measures in some form or another are come i don't think anybody argues and we can look around the world and understand what i'm getting at is i think the. lion's share of this burden is trying to be forced on to

the three hundred million people who are primarily not responsible for imploding this economy the social security everything is going to have to be looked at government spending what i will say this you know two point two point four trillion dollars is what that agreement right now even in the midst of this so-called you know recovery we're in so we get a lot of money i think we need start looking at things that are draining our country like trying to start an empire america trying to impose on these military engagements all of the as a whole other topic of renate how do you want to discuss it is such a big part of this that was running a graph ound are a vital break news dot com now today thomas drake a former national security agency employee is scheduled to face sentencing and one of the series of criminal cases the obama administration has pursued against government whistleblowers helping him to outdo every previous president and pursuing russell blowers and prosecuting them this fight has pledged to have the

most open and transparent administration in history so joining me in studio to talk more about obama's crackdown on whistleblowers is david kay cullen pinto i have been saying wrong general counsel for the national whistleblowers whistleblowers center thanks so much for being here with us at the college and to college and ok so with this rate case and it's a employee who helped newspaper writer write a story about some waste fraud abuse at the n.s.a. and was prosecuted for it is the obama administration trying to send a message with drake is a case in point that the obama administration is sending him a. it out with a part that is the the great question what is the purpose of this prosecution and it's clear the prosecution was not because he leaked classified information to reporters but to send a message to other employees within the intelligence community don't you dare do the same thing where you're going to face what happened to mr drake what evidence

do you have that you talk to people and within government you have more evidence that people are less likely to come toward the obama administration than other administrations well and level with well it obviously has a chilling effect on other employees and that is been what has occurred generally with whistleblower law in the federal government the irony here is that the obama administration has supported in congress hasn't acted numerous whistleblower laws that strengthen protections for people who work in the private sector but when it comes to whistleblowers who actually work within the bureaucracy that the obama administration controls there is a crackdown particularly in the area of national security so there is a natural chilling effect on employees when spacey one of their colleagues or former colleagues get prosecuted how is this happened under this administration obama pledged that he was going to have the most open and transparent administration why has it gotten worth during his tenure that's a big surprise it is they really a breaking of

a promise that obama made on the campaign trail in two thousand and eight in which he supported legislation that was pending at the time that i actually would have given court access and jury trials for even intelligence employees employees that work for the n.s.a. or the cia to bring their cases of whistleblower retaliation into court and to seek damages before a jury the exact opposite has occurred while. it's the speculation is if you read jay neiers piece. for example in other articles that have been in the newspaper you look at the the obama administration's obsession with classified leaks the irony here is that this leak a so-called leak case against drake didn't even charge mr drake with leaking classified information they actually took a legal theory and used the espionage act and accused him basically of being

a spy is this uptick in concern over leaking classified documents possibly because there are great repercussions to national security as i'm sure folks from kind of memoir administrations and point would say or think that's you know what you have to wonder is what are they hiding. what are they really hiding if you look closely at mr drake celebrations in the allegations of others what he he and others in the in a say were objecting to was wide scale spying on american citizens invading people's privacy one of his allegations of fraud and waste was the establishment of a program that went too far to collecting too much information on american citizens without obtaining you know precautions to protect people's privacy do you think a bomb administration is afraid you have got out about that what is really going on i think the national security establishment is afraid of that it's not just this case but others where there is

a crackdown taking place they did not charge mr drake for actually disclosing classified information to a reporter so you have to wonder why are they going to such lengths to prosecute someone who really is a patriot i want to ask you some of the other cases because ag bureau of alcohol tobacco and firearms agents agent claimed he was fired for helping to expose what now everybody knows about the fast imperious program where a.t.f. with allowing illegally purchased weapons into mexico hoping that bennett would lead them to bigger criminals do you think that that's why he was fired you know i mean again there's a pattern here of people exposing these harebrained schemes on the part of law enforcement and intelligence agencies sending guns intentionally across the border knowing they're going to get into the hands of you know drug gangs and which ultimately did some of these weapons ultimately did kill people in mexico i mean

that is just crazy stuff i mean that's the sort of thing you see in the movies there's another case of jeffrey sterling who was an analyst at the cia who blew the whistle on harebrained scheme of actually giving the uranium its information to help them build. nuclear bomb has all of this made you disappointed in obama because he hasn't fulfilled this promise absolutely did you vote for him the first time around i did i supported him i openly supported him are you going to vote for him again that remains to be seen i mean the politics is a different thing and you know you never know what your choices are going to be at the time so you know i'm not i don't make this political i don't make these cases political ok that's interesting so do you think that this is more having to do with the direction it government is going when less about the president or do you think this is about this particular administration i think it's a continuation of a pattern that we've seen for many years and it's sort of since september eleventh

was a marking point in our nation's history where we saw a lot of authoritarian laws we saw the patriot act we saw many things infringements on civil liberties but as we're unwinding some of those wars or claiming to buy is are we not unwinding this trajectory that the country is on that you're talking about well it appears that there is a lot of invasion of public privacy or part or personal privacy that is still going on and there is infringement of civil liberties i think if the american people knew the true scope of what was really going on there would be calls for changes in this country so you think because there's not as much interest yes or no as much public awareness about that but maybe there is a little bit more understanding that we're at actual wars because there's more understanding of that those get wound down but there is not pressure to wind down the aspects that infringe on civil liberties the disturbing part is that we still

have these domestic spying programs and crackdowns of civil liberties in the united states while we're in this rundown of what war is going to continue in peacetime we'll have to see what is the if we ever get to peacetime because we add a war every time we act like we're going to subtract one that was david collop into general counsel for the. national whistleblowers center now rupert murdoch's news of the world newspaper hacking scandal has taken over both american and british headlines could this type of thing happen in the u.s. well if you think not you might be living under a rock or not watching much news you have to i pay attention are investigating rupert murdoch's news corps about possibly hacking into the phones of victims of the nine eleven attacks and my colleague and a software turk and a new york found whole leonti of evidence that those scandalous u.k. tactics are already here sex drugs cheating and lies so many political scandals sloshing dirty laundry. celebrity gossip and crime

stories almost the odds human imagination. over this is served on a platter and sold for a couple of quarters by tabloids or listen to all those books or something. in the freezer. i was like i thought it they were a journalist michael musto is one of millions falling for the bait of catchy headlines even though he knows the business inside out in america we don't break the law per se but they do have sleazy tactics i mean they will a story they probably make up sources i mean when you read them a source an anonymous source said well who is that many times they can just make up the quote themselves and they state joe smith from queens said a lot of times they feel they're just inventing these quotes to back up the thesis of the story fascination with scandal is almost religiously observed in the u.s. and great britain we are both countries in both media environments where gossip sells and there's

a tremendous interest in celebrity who's countries are of course after rupert murdoch's news of the world newspaper phone hacking shocker broke in london his empire stretches far and wide across the u.s. as well let's not forget he owns the new york post the wall street journal and the daily at a protest outside rupert murdoch's big apple protesters demanded an investigation into this publication that we know what murdoch does in england because he was caught and we want congress to investigate what he's doing here in the united states we don't know if newspapers are other people in this country yet but i see no reason to put it past them to how far from potential public embarrassment to american newspaper stand the ones that are owned by rupert murdoch without question the new york post. is one of the most hideous deceitful. tools of criminals that there could be when it comes to getting scandal sold in the us counting on the readers short attention span is

a common publishing trick jennifer aniston brad pitt got together about forty two times so far this year and i haven't seen the photographs together since two thousand and six they were able to keep selling and repackaging the same story that isn't even a story no publication would admit to paying for it for me. but that's also often a technicality what a lot of mainstream news publications can get away with doing is even though they won't explicitly give someone money in exchange for an interview someone might set up a terrible organisation and then the news will happen to donate twenty thousand dollars to that terrible organisation the culture of sensationalism in the press is putting the future of journalism on the line the anglo-american style is trashy it's ribald there's just sort of this town is very american and you know we're a juvenile society where young society i don't really know what the brits excuses i mean they've been around a long time but. we blame it on them because we're their children while some will always remain fascinated by tabloids as brides continue to sell others have reached

a breaking point i don't have that great of a sense of what happens in britain but i know it's pretty bad here and there are a lot of people who are really upset about the culture of news in america and just how little information seems to get out in between all the gossip the press has to be vigilant and in the united states the press has fallen asleep and party new york and all of the centers around the empire of london and rupert murdoch considered by some on the potent just listen. and truly the media. the news room. couldn't agree more and whether you agree or disagree now here to talk about where this control is going and where media is going is jeff cohen his journalism professor at ithaca college kathy thanks so much for being with us so first i'm just i want to know is rupert murdoch in your eyes the most powerful man in the us media i'd say he's the most powerful individual or

man or woman in the us media yes and it is news corps the most powerful media company in the us. maybe maybe not many power like ample power companies time warner will be as powerful as. the sun the reds don't. use their. guns. big media conglomerate uses their conglomerates for their political and logical ends like murder ok well let's see ok that was murdoch is the most powerful man in the morning to you and news corps is one of the most powerful media corporations in the u.s. what does it say about the state of mainstream media that the most powerful man in charge of one of the most powerful corporations is falling apart and you a case for this hacking scandal in being investigated in the u.s.

for it's an ethical or possible illegal tactics what does this say about the direction that media has been going i think or with the murdoch. u.s. culture is a retail. there's no doubt about it you know we have the jerry springer and we have cops which by the way is murder we had a current affair for years that was murder you know you have the national enquirer which is a huge circulation all those supermarket tabloids so we've always had a tabloid culture what i think murdoch has done in the u.s. is he's accomplished what he'd already accomplished in in england which is the the meshing of tabloid culture with political news but you know it can and one of the most powerful newspaper on fuel is murdoch's son it's the biggest newspaper it's two million twenty million three million circulation when you compare about good

research the british population to the u.s. it's the equivalent of having a newspaper in this country that's fifteen million people so but you know damn close to zero national enquirer political news but no one decides who to vote for president sort of a national enquirer in our country right but in england they do and not for publication that you can get your political news and your presidential your prime minister endorsement from murdoch's son which is a powerful voice and news publication that's the difference so how long until we see that cons here as the only way to make money in news because if the most powerful news organization is making money this way that would suggest af where you make money there's no doubt that with the new york post which murdoch owns which is one of the more powerful outlets in new york city there has been that marriage of

tabloid culture and news and right wing idiology boxing news channel the same thing you know fox news channel in one breath they talk about what decent americans and patriots should do and then they're the first to make it. he was all right you know so so nobody got kids brought this merger right wing ideology and tabloid culture to the us through fox news and the new york post and that has been well as other publications in outlets in this country as well so then how long until we see more of these tactics that are at best on africa all at worst illegal more pervasively used to get the stories that people want to see and that make money for newspapers or t.v. stations i would say that depends on how murdoch emerges from this scandal if murdoch and news corp are seriously weakened by this dandle then that would be

a good thing or quality journalism in the us if murdoch is able to get through this in a few months then that's not good for quality journalism remember we have something that doesn't which is a code of ethics that the society of professional journalists have put forward their. honor tabloid culture tends to be not news. in england has urged the two and that's the big difference that article or news media have a little bit more have shown so much more ethics then has shown certainly in england ok let me ask you this because i have to ask this if news corps is one of the most powerful companies murdoch one of the most powerful men and fox news is there for a very powerful news network in the united states and it is right leaning and it is critical of the obama administration in many cases when there be a vested interest by the current administration to take off new down

if the administration. had its head screwed on it would have dealt with fox news and right wing media as an outgrowth of the republican party in a much different way than it had so then do you think it's one one could argue that if there's politics over at the justice department and the f.b.i. it's in their interest. to take what house politics is influencing the f.b.i. to really find something here but innocent until proven guilty we don't just throw quickly yes or no do you think that has anything to do with this f.b.i. investigation of news corp i don't think it does at this point because remember congressman peter king a republican from new york has been the one pushing for this he was the longest so i mean time will tell that should be investigated here to see if they're doing what they were doing in england it's completely correct for the f.b.i. to do it by politics but

a roll down the way we don't know we will see we'll have you on to talk about it that was journalism professor jeff cohen thanks for being on and all american tabloid may be heading down to two depending of course on what all happens with this we are proud to announce that our sister channel our teeth dennis was recognized this week with the on the intermediate award for best commercial writing here's a snippet of the promo that won that. little t.v. . and for anguished speaking audience the video says love the news at first sight it's running a channel of introduction into hotels around the world including right here in the u.s. are key spanish just in case they want to background it launching it december of two thousand and nine and was also nominated for best channel launch for the

broadcast digital boards for two thousand and ten. and coming up right here on this network in thirty minutes on the news forget the build of our group could bear it in another secret society in our very own backyard here in the u.s. and they are doing some weird stuff look at this. all the time in the dark across a small wait. a minute black we're doing jumping behind the dark thirty shining for the redwood tree. so what exactly happened behind those california redwoods at the bohemian grove gathering well we will speak to the man who shot that video who snuck into the secretive retreat and tells us exactly why we should all care about what's going on is that all boys' club radio host alex jones he will be here and be sure to tune in to our team next week for an even deeper look into the union grove meeting straight from the backwoods with our own.