and i don't i don't trust everything you see on t.v. or read in the newspaper these days it seems corporate interests are driving the news well put a face to the people and companies behind the camera. team minus ninety days in a few hours before the twenty twelve election gets underway and this is shaping up to be possibly one of the most boring elections in recent history so why are americans so disenchanted when it comes to the heart of the country. and presidential candidates aren't the only ones gearing up for the election so is congress in all its gridlocked glory republicans blaming democrats for a debt an economy democrats accusing their counterparts for blocking progress so

get ready for it and of that whole few months because policy is being put on hold we'll show you why. we began today by and zeroing in on the media which increasingly is becoming controlled by just a handful of players these days there is more information than ever before news hounds can sort through making it more difficult for the public to figure out what's really important with such a twenty four seven overload most people rely on mass media to act as gatekeepers pointing us in the direction of accurate information but there are more than twenty five thousand media entities in the us but most of them are owned by a very concentrated group of corporations the relationship between the government media outlets and the corporations who fund them is complicated turns out many

media directors are former u.s. lawmakers some examples here william cohen from viacom and former after the sea board members such as william kennard of the new york times. and then it's fitzsimmons of the tribune company that makes a perfect example of the revolving door between mainstream media and the us government why would anyone wonder why alternative news channels like ours he would pick apart the quality of programming in search of bias how could the r.t.e. motto be questioned more if we didn't ask out the board of disney who owns a.b.c. and might react to critical news coverage on how the bird and boeing companies who have executives on the the disney board of directors consider that the us air force alone publishes a hundred forty newspapers and other media every week other government related institutions produce public information similarly the tremendous amount of information created by the state and government related corporations provide the

mainstream media with news stories and how lines on a silver platter easy to access and inexpensive to produce well as americans we take pride in the idea that citizens are the ultimate boss and that the representatives we elect exist to serve us the public we think it's critical to shine a light on the dangers of a mass media that succumbs to pressure of corporate bias. poll action season is in full swing and we are now ninety days away and counting until the general election and as a plays out we're seeing repeats of the same partisan talking points attack ads are the norm with one party criticizing the other but it seems what we aren't seeing are real proposals for changes in policy and americans are taking notice or at least just disillusioned by it all here's a recent poll from the pew research center as you can see six in ten americans say the two thousand and twelve election has been too long and too dull other words to

describe the campaign include exhausting and annoying but this is a sharp contrast with a presidential candidate a reality show. it was playing out five months ago who can forget the is a memorable moments that have to america glued to their t.v. screens i'm ready for the gotcha questions and they already started to come and when they ask me who is the president of you beki beki beki beki stan stan i'm going to say you know i don't know do you know and one thing i would say is when you take the nine nine nine plan and you turn it upside down i think the devil's in the details i think it's a catchy phrase in fact i thought it was a price of the pizza when i first read. what about global warming there is no such thing as global warming we were the first permanent on the moon and it will be american. so for the next three months will see the announcement for the very public and vice president presidential candidate made both the republican and

democratic national conventions the base and t.v.'s korean's as specially and battleground states cluttered with political ads are the correspondent christine for that was at the white house briefing today and has more live this is indeed the time when things are really start to heat up as you know members of congress have now taken their long summer recess is when it comes to media attention and jobs by the candidates and of course money spent now is the time now of course a lot of that money is spent on each candidate trying to get his message to the masses and that often involves attacking his opponent now today's press briefing here at the white house a lot of discussion about an ad released by the romney campaign here's part of that ad on july twelfth president obama quietly announced a plan to welfare reform by dropping work requirements under obama's plan you wouldn't have to work and wouldn't have to train for a job they just send you your welfare check and welfare to work goes back to being

plain old welfare mitt romney will restore the work requirement because it works now this is a common tactic used by those who want to paint the president as too liberal as someone who supports free handouts for lazy people courtesy of middle class taxpayers and is an argument that's been tested and does tend to fire up the conservative base now this is in regard to some changes that were made last month in which the department of health and human services gave states the opportunity to apply for waivers for some of the rules of welfare to try to think outside the box in order to find new ways to get people who receive welfare off welfare and into a job now that again has been the goal of the new program it's obviously still too new to talk about the results the obama administration is saying as governor romney himself asked for more leeway and even broader welfare waivers a point obama spokesman jay carney hammered home today this advertisement. it's categorically false and it is blatantly dishonest this administration's policy will

strengthen the program by giving states the opportunity to employ more effective ways to help people get off welfare and into a job under this policy governors must commit that their proposals will move at least twenty percent more people more people from welfare to work so again liz this is simply politics as usual we should also mention super pac for the obama campaign also released an ad today this one tying mitt romney and bain capital to the death of the steelworkers wife because they lost their health care and the beat goes on of course so for those of you at home who have been watching the olympics for the last week and a half enjoy them while they last because i think they're going to change once they're over it's going to turn into a different kind of competition a two man competition one that could more resemble a boxing match so again with all this money flowing in for the next ninety days this could get ugly reporting at the white house christine for zero r.t.

well joining us now to discuss this and more is brian doherty a senior editor of reason magazine he's also the author of the book you see there on your screen gun control on trial frying welcome to the show so i mean it's interesting last election there seemed to be this is of hope and change that was president obama's slogan back then but you know now many people are disenchanted with the things have actually the way things have actually played out why haven't the main candidates been able to garner this kind of response. i think the american people are kind of weird about major party politics they recognize you just said that obama didn't deliver what they wanted out of him even many republicans sense that mitt romney is going to deliver what they want out of him and yet they also are strangely afraid of ever grasping for any other options if you hold them generically you can get well over fifty percent of americans say they want an independent choice they want

a third party choice but they never actually seem to vote for the however this year i think we have a better playing field for third party for work in than ever before for the theory that we've been talking about that the economy has been in the tank for four years obama has romney's delusions don't sound to most conservatives especially any more exciting than obama seems like a real me to thing and so there are other options out there for progressive democrats there's the green party for serious conservatives who actually want to see government shrink there is the libertarian party with gary johnson they are out there they're probably going to be on the ballot in nearly all of the states we just need to see if americans put their money where their mouth is on the vote or are you going along with that we've seen a president like presidential candidate ron paul and the very passionate loyal following that they always stick by hand you don't mention gary johnson. so

but they are of course the alternative to the mainstream do you think that it is time now for a third party candidate yeah i mean in my judgment you know i come from the libertarian world it's always been and the american people do say that they want to i would like to think that the economic situation the political situation is so grim so many people right now that they will be willing to go third party but i also want to point out the other option that many americans that we don't talk about much which is the opposite of not voting at all which forty to fifty per se. americans do it almost every election year and i would be surprised to see that number this year as well as the people there and any of the politicians to solve the problems i want so certainly we don't see the kind of passion behind either of these candidates that we've seen in the past so do you think people are just sick of hearing the same all the same old divisive partisan talking points play out

you know time and time again it's funny i think that to the extent that there is any passion from the democrats or republicans it is strictly a passion of hating the other guy it's not about oh gosh i love obama i think he's going to be straight we've had obama for four years we already know we've got to be great but you can still get the democratic base to go to god i think mitt romney needs richie's fire people he returned the same for the republicans they may not be excited about romney but they can go out for a walk obama needs a socialist or whatever so that sort of divisiveness is almost the only thing the major parties have if you actually want interesting ideas and if you think the leash and whether you're a super liberal democrat or a super conservative republican you really should consider looking third party because they're the ones with ideas that are both russian and actually might be effective in a way that i think obama and romney on the campaign for over proven they want by and i would just say that the libertarian party is

a growing party i mean obviously with ron paul we see. it's almost become a he has a huge young following it's almost been seems like it's becoming cool to become liver darian the only see this as a growing party the libertarian ideas are definitely growing and ron paul has been the key to that but for ron paul as they were running as a republican the republican party i think it's not been as welcoming of ron paul libertarian stance as they should so i think what you're going to see in november is the ron paul people who are almost fifty percent of the republican the left. right in the primaries are not going to be voting for mitt romney many of them are just going to sit it out they believe it's wrong all and no one but many of them are going to go to the libertarian party with gary johnson the former republican governor of new mexico as their standard bearer and i think you're going to november will tell the tale but i think you will see the libertarian party get the best results it's probably nine hundred eighty where they've actually got one point

one percent and i think gary johnson has a possibility of doing about it and maybe even better if you can stretch successfully sure all of those ron paul people say do you think that this is kind of a setting a precedent or an indicator of the way things are going and you know perhaps well if we see the influence of the libertarian party have this time around that you know in twenty sixteen that maybe they could really pull it off yeah you know americans are i don't think we're ever going to vote for a third party in numbers enough to actually party and they thought that the way third party candidates succeed is by turning the major parties in their direction and i think it romney loses what you very well might for we in the end is just terrible on actually limiting government as the libertarians think it will be that will leave an opening within the republican party for another ron paul like your very possibly his own son senator rand paul to take that libertarian energy into

the republican party and win with it but the libertarian party still has to be there to sort of keep the republican party honest even if they can't win by reminding them hey if you fail to satisfy the libertarian wing of your party they can come to us and they will and you will leave and you know despite the. mess that popularity or the lack of popularity a gas among both of the candidates what they do behind have behind them is money a lot of money and this this is the election of a record. again campaign spending we're seeing the aftermath you know of citizens united allowing corporations the pump limited spending if the campaigns we see a graph there a lot of money pumped into two thousand and eight and that's just expected to rise and that's not even taking into account a lot of money that's being pumped in from independent organizations you know post citizens united so brian and how is that playing into everything you know i've

never been one to think the american voter is sort of. why when you talk about money in politics all you're talking about is money spent to spread a message but the message cost to sink in to some of them on a day to influence their vote if you actually look at the correlation of money spent in voting money does not guarantee winning in the electorate all that matters is that the ideas get out there and especially internet age you don't need a twenty seven million dollar ad to get your message across the american people are going to vote for what they believe not just for what they're told to by. will be interesting to see how it all plays out hopefully it gets more exciting because apparently americans are finding it thus far boring the words that this poll here has brian thank you for coming on the show that was brian dorothy senior editor of reason magazine. also had on our tastes are some call it congressional gridlock others good politics fact is that the people you and i lack the office are being

paid to argue without any results but i need normal employee with this little to show would be fired so why isn't congress that story that. r t is the state run english speaking russian channel it's kind of like. russia today has an extremely confrontational stance when it comes to us. what drives the world the fear mongering used by politicians who makes decisions to break through it's already been made can you trust no one. is your view with that noble mission in the region where we had a state controlled capitalism and score fascism when nobody dares to

ask we do our tea question more. while the political world fixates on polishing their campaign strategies put on the back burner until the campaign dust settles is the work they were elected to do and that's creating policies and passing legislation that address the pressing issues facing the u.s. today the latest example of the cyber security act of two thousand and twelve had the full backing of the white house and appeared to have bipartisan support it's referred to by lawmakers as critical to america's national security and it appeared to have struck a balance between cybersecurity ad protecting people's privacy but that bill is now one hold after complaints by the u.s. chamber of commerce and other corporate lobbying groups but that's not all legislation and student loans transportation corporate tax reform it doesn't look

like anything will happen until the election is a done deal so as long as campaigning remains top priority what does this mean for the american people to discuss this max pompous vice president of the public policy and government affairs at freedom works joins us now welcome there so i mean it seems politics is paralyzing policy or at least during an election year but shouldn't it be the opposite we're going to see the good policy is good politics so they will we're having here is the problem where's some of the people in congress don't like the current policy mix that would also be good politics if you look around at who's winning it tends to be the more limited government people you've got ted cruz in texas recently when they got richard murdock in indiana recently winning there showing that candidates who are running on bold platforms of serious cuts are winning a lot of people in congress who don't want to pass legislation that would be of the

same sort of policy mix and talk about more i mean it seems like what has defined this congress is just. partisan bickering and just i guess a lack of getting anything accomplished. is this something that you see changing anytime soon i actually don't think that that's what's happened if you take a look at the breakdown of the legislation as it's come out of each chamber the republicans control the house and the democrats control the senate the house and the with the republican control has passed a long list of legislation and centered over the senate what happened over the senate is that the democrats are just saying no when they're sitting on everything that the republicans send over their senate bill after bill they've sent budgets over there said reform proposals over and harry reid of the democrats in the senate just wind up sitting on them spending more time saying that the republicans are the party of no which just doesn't jive with the actual volume of legislation that's come out of the two different chambers over in the senate one of the primary

responsibilities for either house of congress is to pass a budget the house has passed budgets each of the last couple of years the democrats who control the senate haven't passed a budget over a thousand days filling their core responsibility and people are becoming frustrated i mean this is has a this congress as one of the lowest approval ratings i think ever. interesting fact here one hundred fifty one laws have been enacted by the one hundred twelfth congress. but within that a lot of this is just kind of like a lightweight legislation you know like renaming courthouses and post offices but a lot of the really important stuff they haven't touched upon i mean we had mentioned in the enter there are these cyber security bill this appears to have bipartisan support the backing of the white house that doesn't look like it's going anywhere other important high profile legislation such as you know twenty first

century national security emigration corporate tax reform cyber legislation all this stuff i mean does this kind of say something about their priority as well if you look at will. each of the chambers has passed you have something the great called the rains that came out of the house but this would do is really put the reigns on the regulation that comes out of the executive branch this is something that's gotten carried away over the last couple of years and that doesn't really get a whole lot of attention you've got regulation have to regulation coming out and you have you have it being passed by unelected bureaucrats in the executive branch the reins acts as already executives if you're going to pass major regulations and regulations have a major impact on economic growth and right now that's the biggest problem is they don't have a whole lot of economic growth they're saying if you pass anything that's the major regulation which is the more than a hundred billion dollar impact hundred million dollar impact on the economy you need to come to congress to get it approved so it's the legislature reasserting its authority this would be a real game changer in washington this is

a major major reform and it went through the house and again the senate just went and sat on it just like it said on the appropriations bills in the budget in the health care reform bills that the house has passed and sent over to the senate so i think really the blame needs to be laid on the democrats to control the senate ok you know where this is this is kind of i thing we have there are the republicans let me the democrats the democrats are blaming the republicans but at the end of the day why can't both sides you know both houses come together and i mean and work on these pieces of legislation you're saying that i mean the economy right now should be the top priority but i mean and is it not or what's happening well this is sort of a little bit of insight into how policy moves in washington d.c. brought up cyber security multiple times that's not going to have that big of an impact on the overall economy yet these bills that are pushed heavily by corporate lobbyists you saw over in the in the senate the predecessor to cybersecurity was in

the simple bills and that was largely pushed by the former senator chris dodd who's lobbying for the movie industry that's not that shouldn't be the top priority right now when you've got so many millions of americans on him. lloyd you've got major economic problems going on right now and what they should be doing is passing things like the reins act to slow down regulation they should be saying all right we're going to ease the capital punishment on capital investment by putting in place permanently lower corporate taxes and other sorts of taxes that harm business development but then you've got the left talking about raising taxes on small businesses they hide it in the language of raising taxes on the rich but most of the people that wind up paying taxes above two hundred fifty thousand dollars on the income tax scale are actually yes corp small businesses not really wealthy individuals guys like mitt romney they're not making money that's subject to the income tax these guys are people who have well established wealth they can draw money that is largely subject to other types of taxes so it's really

a fallacy this warren buffett argument idea buff is not going to pay a higher tax rate if income tax rates are higher they realize income is through other means like capital gains and dividends well you know there are some members of congress that are becoming frustrated and kind of speaking out against this gridlock that's been going on wanted to play this clip from representative charles rangel. i think. we should be up to a mistake we should try to get the american people to understand that we paid to do it but not to be locked in concrete but a close look four years ago two republicans made up their mind that they were going to destroy the president and not to support any of his programs now we're reaching the end that a lot of things are supposed to happen before we conclude our business but you can bet your life the president the republicans are not going to do anything this president would do in providing jobs equity tax reform and there's going to wait

until after the election they just are not going to do anything except to make america in worse shape than we are economically and that is wrong. and well you know he's not the only one at max that is faster want to play this other class by senator bob corker. big area that we're going to pursue the country in the area financial the banking committee is going to be housing finance i think and obviously not much is going to happen this year nothing will happen this year. so here we go nothing's going to happen this year americans are like something needs to happen this year country i mean are not doing so well i mean you have representative charles rangle there saying you know seems like politics is becoming more important that especially in this election season that you know the well being or passing legislation that could help the economy he's making this accusation.

that republicans are going to do everything in their power to just make it seem like president obama is not accomplishing anything what do you think about that that's ridiculous political proposition that he's putting forward there if you take a more recent history you look at the one nine hundred ninety s. you had republicans controlling congress and a democratic president and bill clinton and what you found was the president being willing to work with the republicans on the legislation they put forward they passed welfare reform which was a bipartisan initiative that the democratic president signed which would you fast forward to now you have president obama gutting the welfare reform so i think really what you have is just a president who's so far left of the mainstream of the fiscal conservatism that's really at the root of the center of american politics that we might want to look at what the president's proposing what he's doing the health care proposal the dodd frank bills with regulation of the financial industries what is e.p.a.

is doing to regulate every source of energy out there to as he said in his own words necessarily make energy more expensive to taking apart the health of the bipartisan health care program where you have the most of these instances is the opposition where the rebel republicans have generally been on the opposite side of the president has been bipartisan remember the health care bill. passed on partisan lines only democrats supported it whereas republicans and democrats opposed it same with the health care repeal bill that was put forward recently i think there is certainly a lot of. liberals or or what would say that he is not so far left and has actually come i mean a lot of the things and provisions that he wanted within the health care bill it didn't quite go that far so what do you i mean i'm not going to say well he's actually not that far lacks but there is i'm going to take the roll call vote as a bipartisan opposition partisan passage all over doing a bit of

a i do you have got i think this is this is an interesting question that isn't very debatable and you have to question members of congress they are taking a five we summer break you know despite the fact that the u.s. is in this nation of crisis is it time for a vacation right now really i actually wish they would go away more often for longer periods of time but you only know that your liberty is free in the united states when the congress is not in session passing bills that generally take away our liberty the history of of how often they do things that are good while they're in washington is not so great and if you look back over time i think the founding fathers run to something when this sort of washington d.c. is the capital it's really hot it's august right now in washington and it's terribly hot walking around in a suit so they used to go away on vacation for a very long period of time back when government was much smaller if you actually put a graph of the timing of the invention of air conditioning which is where we might be able to lay all the blame for big government what you get the advent of air

conditioning congress sort of staying around longer president saying sort of staying around longer and the size of government just went through the roof so far i'm blaming your condition i guess it all comes down to air conditioning those are the ones who wants to work and hot and muggy condition makes it all make sense i said max we are at a time when you come into the studio that was mad. as he is the vice president of public policy and government affairs at freedom works well that's going to wrap it up for tonight but for more on the stories we covered you can check out our you tube channel we post all our interviews online and fall there that's you tube dot com slash artsy america you can also check out our website that's our t.v. dot com slash usa a lot of stories there where producers are busy working on we don't always have time to get to on the air and you can also follow me on twitter at liz wall for now have a great night.