so who is the master of puppets here in their so-called balanced budget about and with great power comes great responsibility especially in media so in light of the murdoch hacking scandal should we be more wary of media monopolies. the last night house republicans passed their crash slash and burn excuse me cut cap and balance plan out of the house despite the fact that has no chance of being passed by the senators signed by the president is right with time running out and so our nation defaults on its debts republicans are playing games included in this absurd package is a balanced budget amendment that returns government spending to nine hundred sixty six levels back when america had one hundred million fewer people playing could also require a twenty five percent cut to every single government program from social security to medicare to veterans' benefits just to meet the new radically lower spending

threshold but here's the part republicans love the most moving forward under the balanced budget amendment at two thirds majority will be needed for any new tax increases as we've learned over the last two years two thirds is hard to come by dollars so this bill will essentially enshrined the bush tax cuts into law indefinitely so who or what is behind this new push by republicans for a balanced budget amendment that makes it impossible to raise taxes on millionaires and billionaires to meet the american legislative exchange council a corporate funded right wing organization in charge of writing custom made legislation and spread to republican lawmakers across the country to push in their respective state legislatures or in congress itself want to alex hottest items amendments that require super majorities to pass any new tax increases already sixteen states around the country have fallen victim to this super majority rule.

including arizona california and colorado and are now and. they're trying to close their respective budgets yeah. so what is it that alec is trying to do in congress the liver of death blow to our federal government's finances here to talk more about alec is lisa graves executive director of the center for media democracy and one of the creators of the website alex exposed or lisa welcome thanks tom happy to be here thank you great to have you with us here first of all just an overview what does our how does it work sure alec is it describes itself as one of the largest groups of bipartisan legislators in the country at state legislators but in fact almost its entire budget is funded by everything but legislative dues it's funded primarily by big corporations these corporations pay a fee to be a member and they pay a fee to be on alec cast forces on alec task force including these tax forces on taxes and budgets corporations have an equal vote with politicians they vote behind closed doors with politicians on bills to radically change the law in the u.s.

state by state and many of these provisions have also been introduced in congress including the sorts of what are called super majority requirements that are really super minority super majority requirements in essence a small minority of people can stop a majority of americans from getting the tax increases they need to pay for basic government services all at the service of the alec agenda you know where i live in oregon where the victim of one of these things and they and they came in to sell this modify the constitution says in an initiative with incredibly slick advertising and you know you you know do you want to protect your state and you are people people thought it was the right thing to do it's just it's amazing that they were. was one of the founders of he once he was the founder the primary founder of let me just share with you and with if you haven't seen it with our viewers a little clip of paul weyrich this is from the one nine hundred eighty s. he was very very big in ronald reagan's campaign claimed a lot of credit for ronald reagan becoming president and this is him speak. in

a church to a group of republican religious leaders and republican activists all the way right . now many of our christian have what i call for. good government they want everybody to vote. i don't want everybody to vote elections are not won by a majority of people they never have been probably going to go for our country they are not now no matter about cooperation in the elections why can't i go out go bowling populist go go are leveraging the elections goes up as the voting populace goes down and i've noticed a bunch of states passing voter id laws this is coming out it certainly is the voter id bills we've seen in some states identical to the voter id model legislation that we've posted on our site i'll expose dot org we've analyzed those bills the bills would disenfranchise millions of americans americans who are older who don't have the required state id but who have federal identification or are that information they've been using for years even to poll workers know that even

if their neighbor it would also disenfranchise millions of college students if their id didn't go to their college address even though they were residents of that city they would be part from voting and so this is nothing short of an effort to disenfranchise millions of american voters including primarily voters who tend to vote democratic this is the fulfillment of all way worse in one thousand nine hundred if if mr wayward were alive i suppose that he would be applauding these voter i.d. bills right now. how much is a cost to buy a legislation you know i'm a small business man and i own the show and the radio show if i wanted to without the corporate checkbook what would it cost for me to sit in a room with the legislators and say i vote in favor of this you know and whatever the majority is wins right sure. both so for if you were a legislator it cost you fifty bucks a year to be a member although some legislators are so cheap they have the taxpayers pay that bill for them the fact that i'm not a businessman so that's going to cost me as a businessman you can pay between seven thousand and twenty five thousand dollars

a year to be a member and then you can pay an additional premium of twenty five hundred ten thousand dollars a year to be a member of an ally cast forth if you share their agenda if you are one of their task forces you get to vote as equals in what alec calls a synergistic synergistic partnership i. unique private public partnership in which both politicians and corporations both behind closed doors on legislation that's then approved by alec and then it's introduced in your state legislature to benefit your business without any disclosure the corporations voted on it what an extraordinary opportunity you know the oil industry gets three billion dollars a year in interest you know checks written from the government corporate welfare i don't know if the start of alec approach to it will insure lobbying for it but i could go into an alley meeting and i can say ok let's have a let's pass a bill this is the talk show hosts get a you know million dollar subsidy at all if you could get other corporations to scratch you can scratch their back they can scratch your back and the oil companies are one of the biggest long time funders of alec spent millions on alec exxon is a major morality as i put it back of companies and lo and behold one of alex

resolutions is against any tax on windfall profits of oil companies because of course the right people are clamoring for no taxes on oil companies right alec legislators have signed on to alec provisions pushed by alec corporations and voted on by alec. shouldn't it's not been realistic you know maybe i could get some of the right wing talk show hosts along with me and then we could all agree that well at least they will talk about how wonderful the welcome trees are the tobacco companies i'd rather not but and then we'll get a subsidy as. possible of our companies actually buying legislation is what i mean it sounds like for under one hundred thousand bucks i can participate in alec in a very significant for under fifty i can participate in a very significant way and actually get was passed that might return to me hundreds of thousands millions tens of millions in the case of the oil and back companies hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars this is like the best investment ever well the american coalition is one of the standing members of alec and it has

extolled publicly how their members are now alec has turned the world around for them in terms of legislation to privatized the bailed out industry certainly corrections corporation of america and other big companies that also benefited in the tune to the tune of millions of private prison the private prison that have been a lot. for a was that keep people in jail longer and heavier penalties for small crimes so that they get more customers that's right and also the public schools that have public school counselors that alec is co-chaired by an online school a school company and so the resolutions are privatized public education would give huge tax dollar tax here handouts to private companies that don't have the same expenses as public schools like athletic athletic programs school buses bricks mortar at an online and online school company co-chairs that task force and so this is a way to take a profit out of the taxpayer dollar and give it give the money to go to school and only twice before you're going to show up and get all this morning it's incredible you know benito mussolini in the early thirties dissolved parliament replaced it

with the committee would if. it was the chamber of fascist corporations instead of an elected official from a from a region being a member of parliament now the largest corporation in each region something or representative or the person that they chose as their representative how is this different and i think that's an excellent question the fact is that americans have a lot of questions they should be asking about alec and about what alec is doing in the states we know that alec has private co-chairs for every state in the country but we don't know who those co-chairs are so those in secret those private co-chairs work with the state chairmen of alec to raise money for so-called scholarships which are really nothing more nothing less than gifts to legislators to attend fancy conferences might be going coming up in new orleans on august third and so these private sector co-chairs these corporate co-chairs work with alec chairman state chairman elected representatives to basically ensure that this legislation is introduced in the state and ensure that there is money to basically fund legislators to travel to resorts to attend alec meetings and we have

a right to know where it has given birth to abuse this is incredible lisa thanks so much for being with us and for the grain what you're doing and once again the website is alec exposed not about alec baldwin about alec the american legislative exchange. thank you be on the lookout. for more alex legislation heading your state and ask your local republican lawmakers why they're outsourcing their jobs to corporate funded right wing think tanks. it was a bizarre day in the u.k. yesterday media mogul rupert murdoch and son james murdoch appeared before the u.k. parliament to answer questions about what they knew about the phone hacking scandal that sweeping britain and the elder murdoch wasn't interested in taking any responsibility for the fiasco. to some of the overly. political figures for those. but who is shortly after that answer is shaving cream pie was thrown at murdoch proving that no matter what murdoch is involved in it matter how big the story is it always devolves into infotainment and spectacle then today more

allegations were leveled at news corp from the u.k. parliament the house of commons report alleges that news international blocked the first investigation into the phone hacking scandal the report reads we deplore the response of news international to the original investigation into hacking is almost impossible to escape the conclusion that they were deliberately trying to thwart a criminal investigation and prime minister david cameron squared off against detractors in parliament as we desperately tries to save face and sever ties to murdoch's media empire cameron had this to say about what russets were these politicians need to learn from the scandal. i think we all need to be clear particular the two main points is that the level of contact has been very great that we did spend too much time frankly trying to get it get get on with media companies to get our message across and as a result we put on the back burner too often the last government the last opposition we put on the back burner too often the issues of how to regulate the

media that's the mistake that we made we've got to be honest about it so with the u.k. poised to start regulating the media again how long until the united states follows what lessons can we learn from murdoch on this side. we are running out of talk about this issue with her partner and strategic communications consultant at bullfight strategies and former president of media matters for america earth welcome thank you very they have you with us in recent weeks foxes launched an all out assault on the organization you are the c.e.o. of georgia matters the president of encouraging viewers to petition the i.r.s. and to pull the media matters tax exempt status is a sign of desperation ok tell me about well i mean look. folks would be better is obviously very very careful what i spent five years i mean there's three years as president we know exactly what the rules are what their arms are and there's no question that you know fact checking the lies that come out of fox news or that

come out of innocence you see where they come out of the new york times which media matters they quite a bit of is educational it it c three permissible and it's something that we obviously spend a lot of gear be concerned about paper seriously so of course it's absolutely a scare tactic is fox at risk of losing their legitimacy in the end what legitimacy they have with their viewers in the united states as a consequence of what's going on in the u.k. or is has that fight is that you know they're working hard to hold that or will you think it will they are you know that they are i look i think we we and others may have made a little a lot of difference and really educating informing you know other journalists mainstream media folks about the fact that fox is not a news organization their political their political operation have been acting as such for the past two years now what does it take to get their viewership to the really they're watching every day well now we're seeing news corp emerge as a major criminal enterprise you know that is engaged in bribing police officers wiretapping you know thousands and thousands of stars and politicians and and our

last minutes as well possibly even here in the united states we think that you know i think it's the guardian is reporting that it's not just possibly isolated to the news of the world paper in the u.k. but also to the. sun which is the largest daily in london and yet sean hannity has yet to discuss this on fox so and bill o'reilly is defending them first time in april and of course you know james can say he had no knowledge and can say he had no knowledge but you are dark yes to what extent is this. is the murdoch me empire structured as a kingdom rather than a corporation they were talking about you know the hereditary. whatever the word it i know it well you tell it to me it's almost feudal in nature you know that you have all these different division heads that report directly to rupert murdoch and you know i have heard many many times that those that are running a major publication of his or hearing from him once a week and he has you know really absolute control you know obviously there's

a board but there is a board so he has an enormous amount of control he built he built that empire himself and in fact you know over the last year and a half in the press we've seen a lot of fighting between his kids about who's going to take over but it's not will roger ailes get a big job you know we'll go to someone else it's which of rupert skewers or rupert murdoch's kids are going to take over the empire sort of very much as it came to it's interesting because any it's possible at all that the news of the world was hacking we know that they were they were hacking things about the same time that east anglia universities scientists got their emails act and some of the lead before yeah and some of their disparaging remarks about colleagues and just kind of backbiting normal stuff human stuff and then fox turn because i mean it just trumpeted this constantly and talk oh absolutely you know climate gate tried to destroy the entire the entire climate change movement right in every every significant investigation of the scientists says it has come up clean i mean you

know they've been vindicated but you wouldn't know that if you watch fox news or is it possible that it was the murdoch empire that hacked them because scotland yard was supposed to find the hackers and they never did now we know scotland yard was being bribed or blackmailed or whatever by the the by. murdoch empire and not to look into that and you know and news of the world was breaking the story to me i mean. i don't have the evidence here to say definitely that's the case i think it's why we need investigations here in the united states is that it's in the it's in the interest of every american here whether you're conservative or your. democrat or liberal you want to be able to trust that the news that you're getting is actually accurate that the people are engaging in criminal activity to deliver to you and we've already seen fox just fox and forgive the news corp aside we know what's going on with kind of this you know increasing pressure and in this you know picture of this sort of this large criminal enterprise a coordinated criminal enterprise i have a hard time believing it didn't work over fox which is really kind of the crown

jewel of the entire empire but if you even just look at the way fox has held stock in the last year or so aggressively courting candidates creating folks like mark rubio out of out of whole cloth and gave them a lack of u.s. senate all of the fundraisers that they were doing for republicans and their folks for doing this is very very similar activity to the very cozy and close relationship that david cameron was talking about in just a clip earlier in the segment in our general in our last minute here i'd like you to put on your now you're a political consultant hat. what are your thoughts on the gang of six and this this grand deal that obama seems to be going for but i think presents a tough place i mean this is a really really really serious issue a guy you know i spent years as an investment banker so i understand how you know truly how serious this is his face looks pained you know because it's a right to be a cuban missile crisis but it's a self-inflicted wound you know and so i'm very very concerned that we have

a bunch of folks in congress you know aren't really serious don't understand what they're dealing with donors and the ramifications and we've got to get a debt ceiling increase immediately it's the equivalent of basically charging up your credit cards and then saying you know what i'm not going to pay the bill. well every american knows well run your credit they bought the car they drove it off the lot now they don't want to pay for it we can't afford that after two thousand i read eric thanks for being here tonight they hear it see it. coming out ideally taken all the united states can take our politics back from big maybe. let's not forget that we had an apartheid regime right.

i think. even when the oil. whenever the government says to keep you safe get ready because their freedom. you know sometimes you see a story and it seems so silly you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else here so you saw the part of it and realized everything you thought you don't. charge is a big issue. yep

that would be the good the bad and the very her pick is her book. ok let's start this over hard packed aphasia silly the good. guy out ten days after nine eleven by and was shot in the face by

a white supremacist who went on a shooting rampage in a dallas gas station the aim of killing as many muslims as he could two of the muslim men were killed in a rampage a biologist barely survived what we now suffers from partial blindness as for the shooter mark anthony stroman he was scheduled to be executed for his crimes today in texas but there's a lawsuit here the last several months bayati has been petitioning the state to save strawman's life why because his muslim faith does not offer revenge is beyond told the new york times if they hurt you don't take revenge or give them move on it will bring something good to you and my islamic faith teaches. this well let's hope this story silences those who are trying to spread islamophobia around america the bat their allies a republican chairman of the house oversight committee and former small time criminal now wealthiest man in the house of representatives jumped on the bandwagon with other republicans to question the august second debt limit deadline in a radio interview on monday i said this. we should not be having

a discussion with the artificial deadline of august second that set by the president so the president could extort. a deal through his reelection period artificial deadline ice is basically echoing the words of fellow republican louie gohmert who argued the august second deadline is only in place to coincide with the president's birth thing the reality is we already hit our debt limit back in may and right now we're working on borrowed time and that borrowed time will run out on august second and as long as irresponsible republicans like their allies to keep downplaying the seriousness of the situation and we will indeed default and every single american will feel the effects of an economic calamity and a very very ugly congressman allen west this guy has one term written all over it republican congressman from florida wrote a piece for the right wing web site red country in which he labeled obama supporters as threats to the gene pool west wrote i believe we are headed toward

the ultimate ideological clash in america i must confess when i see anyone with obama trying to a bumper sticker i recognize them as a threat to the gene pool ideological clash threat to the gene pool is allen west suddenly taking notes from mine com on how to create a pure america that's very very. bright. it's dangerous monopoly there is a media monopoly today the u.k. is finding that lesson out the hard way and it's a lesson we here in america need to take note of because we're headed down the same road to start with italy though a place where the power of a medium and up only is on display for the entire world to see but prime minister silvio berlusconi berlusconi started out as a cruise ship lounge singer and small time hustler but then he bought

a newspaper then a small television station then of radio station then another t.v. station then another newspaper then another radio station then of a t.v. station then another newspaper going to radio network then a t.v. network and suddenly berlusconi ended up owning about ninety five percent of the media scene in italy and with control of the information in italy berlusconi jumped into politics and would you know it ended up being the prime minister of italy and despite the fact that berlusconi has since been accused of everything from tax fraud to false accounting to corruption to bribery to perjury to mafia collusion to eighteen terrorist organizations and most recently to participating in sex parties with underage prostitutes berlusconi is still in power as prime minister he's one of the most corrupt politicians in the world and he has overseen italy's freedom of the press downgraded from free like the rest of europe in the developed world to only partly free italy is one of only two nations in the western world that doesn't have a free press a perilous crony is still in power. because he owns the media and the main

difference between silvio berlusconi and rupert murdoch is that murdoch isn't interested in being a politician but the u.s. is. murdoch is interested in political power and when murdoch came to the u.k. in the one nine hundred sixty s. and bought the news of the world newspaper in sixty eight and then bought another newspaper the sun a year later in one thousand nine hundred nine and then bought the times. and the sunday times in one thousand nine hundred ninety and then got a share of the highly profitable satellite t.v. network b. sky b. in one nine hundred ninety murdoch finally had enough media holdings to sway u.k. politics to make prime ministers leap at his back and call up her doc had an open door invitation with former british prime minister gordon brown and current prime minister david cameron as long as he entered number ten downing street through the back door tony blair flew to australia to beg murdoch for his support and when it was all said and done as we're learning now the corrupt tentacles of rupert

murdoch's media empire wrapped around not just the british news media and the british government but even the british police force shooting off black ink of distrust around the very same institutions that are supposed to foster trust between citizens and their democratic government today that trust in the u.k. is broken so how long will it be before americans realize that the control of the british political system that sees is very similar to the power he has in america with his ownership of the wall street journal the new york post fox news and t.v. stations all around the country just like how every prime minister since margaret thatcher has had to kiss rupert murdoch's feet to get elected so too does pretty much every republican in the united states the fact is that no republican politician in america can rise to significant national office against the disapproval of murdoch and his very well paid it back drugs like sean hannity it would have a snowball's chance in hell of winning the white house if they can't win the fox news republican primary. that's not democracy that's corporatocracy no single man

or company should be allowed to have that much media power it's time to break up the media empires in america their corruption our democracy bring back the sherman act and bust up the media monopolies and require networks that call themselves news to actually be reporting the news only then can we once and for all pay no attention to that man behind the curtain destroying our news media and only then can we as a nation break free from this cancer of infotainment and murdoch's. news it's hiding what's really going on in america a corporate takeover of our democracy. as the big picture for tonight for more information on the stories we covered visit our website to tom harkin dot com free speech dot oregon r t dot com also check out to you tube channels or links to thom hartmann dot com this entire show is also available as a free video podcast on i tunes and we have a free tom hartman i phone or i pad app at the app store you send us feedback at twitter at tom underscore our live on facebook at tom underscore are in our blogs message boards and telephone comment why it's on our the dock and don't forget to

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