welcome back to the big picture i'm tom hartman coming up in this half hour sorry the plan to upgrade your status to the biggest wireless provider in the united states going to have to wait indefinitely. and earlier this week i called paul of political facts about their annual y. of the year list and you won't believe what they picked as the winner today and in tonight's daily take i'll tell you why we all have the right to caught foul on the big banks. borrow as consumers one big yesterday is eighty and he officially dropped its bid to buy t. mobile and dominate the world was market despite spending millions on advertising

and lobbying antitrust officials at the department of justice and the f.c.c. a locked purchase saying that it would hurt consumers and lead to less competition had the merger gone through then a do awfully of two companies verizon would own eighty percent of the national wireless market so what does this victory for consumers mean and might it trigger a new wave of trust busting even break up the transnational corporate giants that have come to dominate our markets joining me now is jennifer posner media critic founder and executive director of women in media news and author of the book reality bites back jennifer welcome thank you it's nice to be here thanks for joining us isn't to try awfully almost as bad as a do up away we have now three big companies controlling eighty percent of the wireless market. well you know at this point we need every big major media justice victory we can take so while it is absolutely true that we have a very monopolistic media market that doesn't serve the people very well today we

need to be cheering for the fact that instead of a do awfully we have you know a few companies instead of just two but i don't think we should take this victory lightly maybe there's no such word as a try up i just pulled. it in a case where the facts of this case this particular case why you know why why what led to this decision why didn't the lobby didn't advertise it work. well you know it's true that since one thousand nine hundred eighteen t. and t. mobile have have donated more than forty seven million dollars to various aspects of our government in order to lobby for quid pro quo for whatever they wanted so when they announced this merger initially there was this real air of inevitability about it they were extremely arrogant as eighteen's he has been a corporate in their corporate practice for years they made it sound like it was a done deal from the beginning but also from the beginning they pretty much lie

about what the merger would do they said it would create jobs we know it would actually have reduced jobs they said it would keep the wireless market competitive when in fact the reason the department of justice blocked the bid was because it was an anti-competitive practice they. brought them up on around antitrust violations so this merger the reason that it didn't go through where many others have gone through. as a matter of course is because nobody at these major media corporations counted on public outrage at the lies in the fraudulent practices of these big media companies they didn't count on the pushback from our communities and our communities in the media justice movement pushed back hard and i find it if you'll let me wax metaphoric for just a minute you know it is the first night of hanukkah is the first night of hanukkah right and i don't think we can have a better hanukkah present or a better christmas present for that matter then the death of this merger deal.

metaphorically is the story of a small group of people triumphing over a large force trying to devastate their community and that is sort of what happened with this merger our communities band together and push back and it was the power of the people raising their voices about the the way that this would impact especially communities of color and low income communities for. higher costs of their cell phones and for creating a digital divide because most communities who access the internet primarily on their cell phones are people of color and low income people and to give eighteen see which is has been extremely shady and their practices that much power over how we can get online and what we can see online and how we can tell our stories online or not was hugely damaging and that was another reason why the merger failed

jennifer that was that was wonderful and elegant and a great way of you know pulling this holy night together with does that does that mean though you know what you just said you know both metaphorically and literally does that mean that if the bush administration were still in power and we still had the bush f.c.c. in the bush justice department that they also would have blown this thing off or does the current administration play some role in that and if so are we seeing a change in tone from past. attitudes toward. mergers. well you know i think that it's really important to be thankful to adam and respectful of the justice department and the current administration's role in helping defeat this merger but we we shouldn't make this seem as if it's a democratic or republican issue we need to recognize that a media consolidation has been increasingly damaging over our news industry over

entertainment industry over wireless communications it cetera since especially the telecommunications act in one thousand nine hundred six or it was signed by who was it bill clinton and democratic presidents so you know we're not safe what we need to do is really focus on the bipartisan nonpartisan nature of the threat that media consolidation poses to freedom of speech to our ability to access information and protect our stories and organize for social justice within our communities and for the basic right to communicate you know jennifer in in the minute or so we have left it's been it was two years of service around eighty two as i recall that but reagan functionally instructed his justice department to stop enforcing the sherman act which led to this explosion of mergers and acquisition activity in fact it created a term m. and a artist which didn't even exist before you know the michael milken all these

guys they came with a whole brain title to work and you know the last big break up was eighty's which started in seventy four i think it was was of nixon or gerry ford's justice department that carter really crusaded it resolved itself during the early years of the reagan administration. is it possible that we could see a return to that pre reagan the suspension of the sherman act and actually start seeing things break up. we can if we have the public will we can absolutely be getting in touch with our congress people we can absolutely be lobbying for this from a citizens' point of view from a community up point of view we if we as communities across the country demands that our government republicans and democrats alike hold that media companies accountable to the public interest and break up antitrust violations violating media corporations and really we really push for this we can but it won't happen as

if it's you know just the weather it won't it won't just fly through we really need to make it happen in groups like the center for media justice like my our own organization women in media and news like the media action grassroots network a national network of organizations all across the country have many different options and resources and tool kits available for people who want to help get this media consolidation wave to subside and also last you know in the last second or two i just want to put a couple other issues on the table so the internet privacy act that's about to that's coming down the pike that could be hugely sense sorious there are spyware issues with our cell phones now there are a lot of media justice battles that we need to fight and what we need is community support to do that absolutely and you're doing a great job of jennifer thank you for sharing your evening with us happy hanukah

thanks for joining us thank you. so it's reagan there's been a mergers and acquisitions mania going on in the united states of transnational corporations growing bigger and bigger in only rarely being stopped by officials who are actually enforcing the sherman antitrust act we need more and forstmann of antitrust laws so that main streets across america can have character again and not be dominated by the same old transnational giants that pollute pay their workers less and ship jobs overseas. just. and that would be the good the bad and the very very ugly old. glee the good democratic congressman john yarmuth and republican congressman walter jones of the latest members of congress to hear the message of the occupy wall street movement and introduce legislation to overturn the supreme court's citizens united

decision and kick corporate money out of politics legislation amend the constitution to say that money is not speech and it also sets up a publicly financed election system as congressman yarmouth said about his bill till we get big money out of politics we will never be able to responsibly address the major issues facing american families and that starts by ensuring our elections and elected officials cannot be bought off by the well off and well connected well set go to move to amend dot org to find out what else you can do to buy to take back our democracy the bad new hampshire republicans six right wing lawmakers in the republican controlled state legislature are pushing legislation to display warning signs on the road for drivers about to enter nearby massachusetts the signs would read warning messages this border five hundred feet one republican co-sponsor

of the bills that it was intended to warn people that they were no longer in the live free or die state am sure prides itself on not having laws regarding seatbelts guns cell phones while driving or motorcycle helmets but massachusetts prides itself on having the best health care in the country to make you actually wonder which state needs the warning sign either way it's another bad idea by republicans who can't who don't seem to bother wasting money erecting street signs to bash their neighbors as one democratic party spoke. no wonder voters have self identified the republican legislature as one of the three most serious problems facing the truth. and the very very ugly rush limbaugh making this list for the second day in a row limp balls declaring that last year's b.p. oil spill was a non-story but the bees peak oil spill one year ago was. number one story of the year which of course in a not being a non-story. it was unreal the b.p.

oil spill was a non-story. killed eleven people it was the worst environmental disaster the united states has ever faced in its history gulf coast communities are still feeling the effects of it and likely will indefinitely is through our lifetimes but i guess if you're one job is to be a show on the radio for transnational corporations like b.p. like limbaugh as it is and see things a little differently and that's very. crazy alert the day t.v. jumped the shark when it comes to reality t.v. the dutch have just won the race to the bottom in the new reality show from the netherlands known as guinea pigs the two co-hosts agreed to dabble in animalism that's right what better way to get to know each other than to eat each other the two of us had tiny pieces of flesh surgically removed one man had taken from his

belly the other from his backside the flesh was then sauteed and exchanged and served up to be eat as one of the co-hosts said while chowing down nothing is really that special talking about the taste of meat but it is weird to look into the eyes of a friend when you're chewing on his belly i can't imagine let's hope that glint in donald trump's eyes when he looks at rick perry's scalp doesn't go any further. coming up in tonight's daily take i'll tell you why corporate c.e.o.'s are unwrapping a huge end of your bonuses this holiday season thanks to you and. what drives the world the fear mongering used by politicians who makes decisions to break through it through to be made who can you trust no one who is you know in view with the global machinery to see where we had

a state controlled capitalism is called sasha's when nobody dares to ask we do our t. question more. earlier this week i took on a little fact these so-called political fact checking website for their decision to name the democrats claim that paul ryan and the republicans voted and medicare as

one of their nominees for lie of the year they look. under ryan's plan medicare is not medicare so voucher program all the while a political act actually admits that yes the republican plan would be a huge change the current program and both republicans and democrats would no doubt agree that ryan's plan for medicare is a dramatic change of course so why did they give the claim its lowest rating. and then paraded as one of the biggest lies of the year our nation right now is in the midst of one of the most radical assaults on our social safety net ever seen and for a so-called principled fact checking organization to ignore that reality and play a game of semantics to cover up the republican effort to destroy medicare is not only sloppy it's downright irresponsible. well since then political fact decided to

go all the way this morning the organization officially declared the democrats claim about republicans and medicare as the undisputed why of the year traces a lot more questions about the little fact of what their motives are than it does about medicare and what republicans are trying to do about wolski is a reporter and blogger for think progress he joins me now to talk more about this issue you are welcome thanks tom what is political facts main argument as to why this is not just a lie but a pants on fire lie and not just a pants on fire a lie but they are so are they air. well you know it's not on fire and it's really astounding you know they do a generally decent job by four of the past they've talked to me about certain faction it's their doing and so i was really surprised when as you point out how a was a finalist and b. now it's the year they're arguing because loophole ryan and paul ryan's

budget which you know as you point out it's now which are and buy insurance through an exchange of private plans they argue because paul ryan calls that exchange of private plans medicare therefore medicare still exists when of course in reality you are getting rid of the traditional government sponsored medicare program as seniors know it today in their daily take that we played a clip of i had a can of coke in a can of milk and i said if i pour this coke out fill this coke can with milk and then say hey look at here i've got a category that says so right on the label that's basically what political act was saying and just makes no sense at all you know lee atwater back in the day back in the seventy's or eighty's or whenever it was famously said that his who it was and was constantly supporting other be pretty sure was lee atwater so this but he was he was supporting other groups that were that were constantly screaming about

liberal bias in the media and any story basically that was favorable to democrats or unfavorable to republicans because of its inherent truth lee atwater would be out screaming about it when somebody asked about this what do you do and he said i work in the refs i'm working the refs political fact the last if i have this right if by the recollection is correct the last three years their big lies of the year have been republican liars so could it just be that they just you know said we gotta call the democrats liars or you know we're going to get all this crap from the republicans and so we might as well make it this one. very. that manufactured outrage at something the left is just now learning to do but when you have this onslaught of republicans in a very organized way hammering on you and you want to create kind of this so-called media balance that media organizations always strive for so they don't seem

partisan this is what they do although i have to tell you know somebody emailed them or fact i raised some of their rating and they said you know what we've been getting all these horrible e-mails people calling us liars so on and so forth so they are getting a lot of heat for this thankfully but i mean you do have a point there does seem to be the sense of trying to create a false balance to make. it's nonpartizan source of information it's just unfortunate they chose this it's a major policy argument moving forward it's going to be a very big deal and they're really polluting the war the waters and making it very difficult for the policy details to come out it's confusing a lot of people unfortunately rick perry and other republicans call social security a pause a ponzi scheme i mean this is such a transparent lie and yet it doesn't even make the list of the lie of the year or even the modern h.p.v. vaccine is that

a smaller my than this that is remarkable so. you know i think a lot of people are just scratching their head trying to figure this out that's why you know my theory was that you know the republicans have been working the refs and political fact is the is the referee and and they they got scammed they got they got hustled by the republicans is there any other possibility i mean is there a is there a fund in back door to pull it to political act that they think is in danger if they don't take on democrats from time to time or something like that so let's go through this a bit in terms of what the policy actually insects what are the fundamental changes that whole writing me you know either paul ryan or why didn't running was the plan that came out last week which kind of achieves the same man but i think slower and over time is it takes medicare which is currently a defined benefit it's not a curve then it has certain problems or holes which is why a lot of seniors get supplemental coverage but they know it's there it's

a defined benefit in ryan and ryan why didn't transform into defined contribution so now you get premium support or you get a voucher or whatever you want to call it is like going on from a pension to a four a one calles it precisely exactly and so the question is a how is that premium support are actually going to grow over time and what can buy and what all these plans are doing. is there teaching seniors that are fish and traditional medicare that is large and big in can use its market clout to get bargains with providers with hospitals and doctors and it's moving them to in a patient private insurers that have hired ministry of costs aren't as if eager you've completely convinced me that you know political act is wrong on this i mean i've been saying the same thing in the thirty seconds or so we have left is there any other possible reason why a political fact would basically lie about a lie other than the fact that they got scammed by the republicans it isn't the

manufactured outrage from the right is it trying to create false balance i mean those could all be factors beyond that i find interesting or and like that ok well that's that's good to know that at least there's i mean you know they can be suckers but there's suckers with some integrity of respect at the eager thanks thank you thank you so much for being with us. looks like we need some one fact checking the fact checkers. i'll give you one point six million reasons why these banks toure's don't deserve a nickel in bonuses one region one reason for each child who is homeless in america one point six million according to a new study by the national center for family homelessness there are currently one

point six million children homeless in the united states of america that's one in forty five kids or roughly one student per school classroom who doesn't have a home to go back to after school that tragic number has soared since two thousand and seven since these guys these banks years wrecked our economy. you know it also soared alongside child homelessness these guys and their bonuses the organization the new bottom line is projecting that banks are bonuses at these seven banks will break a new record this year with fact cats raking in one hundred fifty six billion dollars in banks pay and bonuses one point six million children are living in the streets of course the only reason these banks can give themselves a lavish pay and bonuses is because we the taxpayers bailed them out three years ago remember that we gave citigroup twenty five billion bucks we gave j.p.

morgan chase twenty five billion dollars we gave wells fargo twenty five billion bucks we gave bank of america fifteen billion bucks we gave goldman sachs ten billion bucks a year more running of morgan stanley ten billion dollars and we gave u.s. banks six and a half billion bucks that's more than one hundred sixteen billion dollars we dished out to these banks rather than putting their executives in prison and we gave them all that money not so that they could turn around and give themselves one hundred sixty five billion dollars in pay and bonuses but instead so that they could save us and save our economy we gave them a rescue line on the promise that they would then lead despite lending to small businesses to help keep americans in a job basically so that they could help the homeowners who they conned into buying exploding mortgages and they could help renegotiate the terms of those mortgages to avoid foreclosures so that they could do it banks are supposed to do keep our money

safe but they didn't do any of that instead they just pocketed it they stashed it in swiss bank accounts they bought new yachts so they could watch from afar just how bad this great depression was screw the ninety nine percent of us who aren't c.e.o.'s on wall street. so they could watch millions of americans lose their jobs their homes and watch one point six million children who through no choice of their own are now living in a homeless shelter a car or just on the side of the street you know how much it cost these banks to renegotiate the terms of all the nation's underwater mortgages something that would instantly stop the foreclosure crisis it would cost us seventy one billion dollars less than half of the fat paychecks and bonuses that they plan to pay themselves this year less than half they could give every homeowner in america who's underwater a break of five hundred forty three dollars a month enough to keep their families in their homes and still have themselves

eighty five billion dollars in pay and bonuses far more than banks was made back before reaganomics brought us all this and as far as those one point six million kids who are homeless goes if the banks has decided to forego their bonuses this year and were paid like normal small town bankers if they said you know what we really screwed this economy up we took all of us taxpayer money there are people in the streets across america madam as we're going to hold off on the lavish pay and perks and bonuses this year if they did that that money could give each of those homeless kids a full ride to college a ticket off the streets and out of the slums and right into the university to become the next doctor scientist or engineer. this isn't just an economic crisis in america this is a moral crisis and this isn't about punishing success it's about calling out irresponsible excess it's about cracking down on gluttony in wall street and it's

about figuring out as a nation whether or not it's worth having multimillionaires and multibillionaires raking in that kind of pay for producing absolutely nothing and pain on average about half the income tax that normal workers pay when more than a million children in america don't even have a home. if we want to stop this injustice in america and we need to roll back reaganomics and full crackdown on wall street's high crimes and kick corporations out of our politics go to move to amend or to join the fight as the big picture for tonight for more information on the stories we covered visit our website to thom hartmann dot com free speech dot org and. also check out our two you tube channels or a link to town carbon dioxide and also on the and check out all the different ways you can send us your feedback and don't forget democracy begins with you get out there and get active tag you're it.

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russia demands an investigation into civilian deaths from nato bombings in libya while local say atrocities are still being committed in a country with former khadafi loyalists the target. of russia's newly elected parliament and bars on its work two weeks after the polls that sparked mass protest against alleged vote rigging and calls for recount. disagreements between the u.k. and the e.u. grow with the battlefront now being welfare rolls the blocking system britain pays billions to non-citizens something london says will spawn to benefit tourism.