well coming up on our t.v. obama's second term seems to be plagued with scandal after scandal. one tom obey hunger strikes to the justice department's tracking of the eighty's phone records things are looking to good will look deeper into the scandals concerns over the safety and nutrition of the nation's food can ten used to grow now a pure food movement takes its first steps while a child investigates his own school's bad food choices a look at the power of people's food coming up. rumors of the koch brothers buying the tribune company has been met with protests by unions and legislators leaders alike a potential buyout would include the chicago tribune and the los angeles times fueling fears of a buyout drastically changing the news coverage in favor of one particular political

leaning now for more on the protests in the streets of los angeles later in the show. it's wednesday may fifteenth eight pm in washington d.c. i'm margaret how you're watching our t.v. and on monday the associated press announced the department of justice secretly obtain those phone records of its reporters and editors during a two month period of the a.p.c. zero called the actions a quote massive and unprecedented intrusion in the company's news gathering methods the b.o.j. they just didn't collect phone records from the a.p. newsroom and also tracked personal cell call logs and records from the white house representatives press gallery now today r.t. correspondent liz wahl went to capitol hill and brings us more of the story. the controversy between the government and a major media organization continues i have to say that this is among if not the

most serious it is within the top two or three most serious leaks never see attorney general eric holder justifying the department of justice spying on reporters from the associated press since holder has recused himself to avoid a conflict of interest he points his finger at the deputy attorney general what appears to be contrary to the law and standard procedure. well again there are exceptions to some of the rules that you pointed out and i. i have faith in the people who actually were responsible for this case that they were aware of the rules and that the followed and a letter to the associated press the deputy attorney general james cole and says that obtaining b.a.p.'s phone records was a last resort cole says quote in this case the department undertook a comprehensive investigation including among other investigative steps conducting

over five hundred fifty interviews and reviewing tens of thousands of documents before seeking the toll records at issue but a.p.c. gary pruitt says the justice department's response does not address their concerns he tells the d.o.j. quote the scope of the subpoena was overbroad under the law given that it involves seizing records from a broad range of telephones across a.p.'s news gathering operation more than one hundred journalists work in the locations served by those telephones how can we consider this inquiry to be narrowly drawn the justice department of records incoming and outgoing calls of at least twenty eight lines used by reporters at least one of those lines right here at the capitol and house line paid for by the associated press and the house of representatives press where the media is not permitted to film inside that press gallery the associated press believes the justice department snooping is a result of this story reported in may of two thousand and twelve about with the

word terror attack in yemen the government has expressed concern over who leaked classified information to the media organization to make the story possible now the a.p. worries about other anonymous sources they were in contact with during the time in question and example this story about tighten rules in the secret service amid a prostitution scandal citing an anonymous a.p. source meanwhile the obama administration reiterate its dedication to freedom of the press you believe strongly in the need for the press to be on. editor in its pursuit of investigative journalism but this has been put media organizations at ease and a letter to the justice department dozens of media organizations are demanding answers and expressing quote displeasure with how this incident was handled and demand that any similar actions in the future be handled with greater consideration of the news media's first amendment rights all signs of growing concern in the

media and its right to report the news and protect its sources and washington liz wall our team what how exactly been the easiest week for the obama administration the president here rare on those issues of transparency now finds his administration looming under major scandal after scandal after scandal here he is on the campaign trail the way to make government responsible is to hold it accountable and the way to make government accountable is make it transparent so the american people can know exactly what decisions are being made how they're being made and whether their interests are being well served by the old rules said that if there was a defensible argument for not disclosing something to the american people that it should not be disclosed that era is now over but now that his administration is being questioned on its own accountability it seems to come up short on answers. i would choose myself from this matter so i can't comment on the stats but i cannot

comment on that now i'm not familiar with all that went into the formulation of the speedos recused from that matter but we simply can't comment on the specific investigation so i don't know all that went into the simulation of the subpoena i can't respond to this in a specific well the administration is not only faced with the controversy over the department of justice monitoring those associated press phone records but now it's come to life that the internal revenue service has been targeting conservative groups like the tea party examining them with excessive audits and delaying the group's applications for tax exempt status now this evening the president said that the acting head of the i.r.s. has resigned and called for a bipartisan investigation into the matter and then there's the inquiry into the administration's response to that deadly attack in benghazi libya and resolved and still at the forefront a political debate let's not forget about guantanamo bay no working news there so

far but the one hundredth day of the hunger strikes are tomorrow and it's a cold reminder of this president's seemingly empty promise to close that detention facility but it just adds to the laundry list of controversy that this administration is up against now to discuss i was too early or by just one ray to with the government accountability project and i asked her where the transparency is within this administration. well there has been none but the fact of that has been lost upon many for years that this has been one of the most secretive presidential administrations ever it took the bush secrecy regime and expanded it by an order of magnitude including over classifying far more mini documents than bush did during his entire time in office having super secret interpretations of laws having decisions about who we assassinate being made completely in secret

with no accountability so the lack of transparency has been there in the form of most i would say ninety five percent of the presidency yet he got reelected. i think this bad week though is kind of the perfect storm of a number of different issues all coming to a head it certainly seems to be you know what i want to ask you want to talk about these scandals with you i want to know why hasn't obama gotten out in front of these scandals you know it seems to me he's letting jay carney his press secretary or d.o.j. had eric holder even hillary clinton who took the fall for benghazi what you know not not too far out long ago you know why what's his reasoning for this why isn't he getting out front and defending it that's a very good question because a lot of the scandals did not happen over night. the boston bombing was a sudden event and bengazi was an unexpected event but certainly the military

sexual assaults and i are as doing what it's been doing and monitoring the a.p. these these have been going on for a long time and i'm not sure why he didn't try to get out in front of them but certainly trying to have his minions explain them away has been equally painful and problematic for him particularly with the a.p. scandal because obviously he has had a war on whistleblowers. which has been emblematic of his lack of transparency and no commitment to government accountability and that by going after the reporters really crossed the rubicon into new territory i've been saying for years that the war on whistleblowers is really a backdoor way of going after journalists journalists appearing every single one of these espionage indictment yet they've been is willing to burn their sources ok

just and so even talk to me i want to take you back to the scandals used do you think that his fear could be impeachment at this point is that is that in the back of his brain which is why he's letting his minions as you say get out in front of him and defend these actions i don't think he's worried about that because if george w. bush didn't get impeached i don't think there's any way a sitting president could ever get impeached i think he does have a serious issue with holder whose response to the a.p. scandal has been bizarre i think holder could. we could see him resigning or getting fired i mean it's incredulous to think that you would recuse yourself from an investigation of this magnitude but not remember when you were to use yourself and not put it in writing which is one of the most important parts of recusing yourself is explaining what your conflict of interest is and having a record of it that he would do cuts us closer ok do you think that this

administration thinks that they're about the law i mean that's one interpretation because of these serious violations of civil liberties that we're seeing do you think that could be their interpretation and do you think they believe they're above the law or that the law is what they say it is i think it's more likely the latter are they are telling themselves that the law is however they interpret it or what they say but yes under both bush and. obama they both have been acting outside legal constraints and unfortunately so many of these bad a bit events have been politicized which i think takes away the legitimacy i am going to cut you off so much great information we have to leave it there we're out of time that was just one great act with the government accountability project well you are richie we so goes the old adage however if you if you exactly know what's in the food you're eating well the documentary g m a o m g sets out to investigate just that. when it comes to one

industry anything that's too big to see what's to be told to stay there's nothing to. support you are you thinking that he might be i was doing earlier today by executive producer of g m a o m g elizabeth senate who filled us in on genetically modified foods and food safety. just exactly do you see i'm a jay which is a documentary that premiered at the been an international film festival at the advice here and hopefully will be set to take america by storm later they see it. when you wrote that article for mother's day calling for mothers of pure food how was a rebirth movement explain to me what that is and what you meant by it ok so back at the turn of the last century actually sort of the late eighteenth hundreds of women got together they understood that food was really being polluted by some of

the processes that people's health was being compromised and that something needed to be done this was a time when there wasn't any labeling there wasn't any ingredients labeling on products and basically companies to put whatever they wanted to do include into their products so after about a hundred years. well now is one hundred years but then it took about seventy years for the piece of legislation to pass which is called the fuel food and drug addict and pos in one thousand nine hundred six and my thing my blog that i wrote the other day is really looking at the fact that was nineteen zero six now we're in twenty thirteen and we've still got these problems with labeling we don't really know what's in our food we've got compromised food all over the place we don't know if t m o's are in there we're not sure of the source of the food so we need to be reinvigorating this movement and i was calling mothers on mother's day to really join the pro food movement again and read it do you think that they are uniquely qualified in this area i think mothers really care you know i have been blessed

with children but i feel like maybe i'm a mother more of ideas but i really feel that you know a mother understands that nurturing of a child and that responsibility of another life is something that we need to understand and some others to embrace and take their voices and their concerns more into the political field well elizabeth let's talk about this elementary school or zachary maxwell from the public school system now he released his own documentary called the yacc a fourth grader short documentary about school lunch got a clip of this trailer for you. the department of education said that it's committed to providing delicious and nutritious meals to their futurist through. the munch being served at my school was nothing like what they were advertising on their watch. so exactly maxwell seems to be getting it right you

know that we're serving the sub par food to our kids and often celebrity chefs like rachael ray i think she was the shaft that was featured in his school in charge of you know something designing these foods that was going on there do you think that that influence is just a money grab what do you make of that i you know i worked at quite a bit on the child nutrition reauthorization a few years ago when i was going through congress and a lot of people say well the other kids won't eat healthy food that's not what they'll do but actually my organization that i work with them which was the physicians committee for responsible medicine we would go into schools and the day before we'd put something wonderful new on the lunch line which generally would be very plant based so lots of vegetables in it we would give stickers to anybody who tried that food and of course everybody wants a sticker so everybody tries the food and then when that food is served in the lunch line guess which food is taken up by the children more than the others it's healthy stuff so it's really about reaching children and educating them and also

making sure that the food service directors really have the resources that they need to work for me to work with and have help with planning the menus because we can delicious healthy food to children that they will enjoy is actually a wonderful chef coat and cooper has down the colorado and he's done an extraordinary amount of work in this area and it completely transformed the food system that she's worked in to primarily sourcing from local produce is having a salad bar and freshly made options every single day for the children it's wonderful i sat in the in the canteen about a year ago with the children and we. a wonderful lunch together it sounds like you're taking the misconception that they will actually eat about a little ok talk to me about those roadblocks what have you found to be the roadblocks you know against getting this healthy food into our school systems. well some of the the things that jamie oliver maybe came up against when he did his work

was a resistance at the school level another resistance sometimes is that the schools that i see have kitchens anymore they can have to prepare those foods there's a lot of heat and serve which is you know plastic presses food that goes from a freezer into a microwave and then it's to the kids so we have to make sure that the schools really have the equipment that they need and that the people who are making the food trains to a degree that they can actually make it and really understand what children would like to eat some estimates so that the government funds these programs appropriately and we've got more children know who are claiming free and reduced lunches because they're coming from families who have been hit very hard by these economic times and many of the most so participating in the supplemental nutrition assistance program snap which has been cut a provision in the farm bill and so we need to be addressing food all around and make sure that we understand that a wealthy nation really is a very strong and healthy nation. well that was executive producer of g m o m g a

list of his senate but she's also the policy director at the center for food safety . charles and david koch ermine the richest people in the world and are known for their libertarian conservative causes now the rumor that these billionaires might buy the tribune newspaper group giving the cost of the coax potentially a direct outlet for their message is hitting a nerve now among the prized media outlets that are a part of the tribune company are the chicago tribune and the l a times newspapers archies remember linda shows us how some people are trying to keep the koch brothers from getting control of the l.a. times. union members and progressive groups are sending the koch brothers a very loud and clear message they are not welcome in l.a. and we will band together i tell we set this thing down and tell we stop this madness and the koch brothers coming to los angeles david and charles koch aren't

moving to southern california but they are reportedly preparing a bid to buy the los angeles times and the seven other dailies that make up the tribune company's newspaper division demonstrators are outside of oak tree capital one hopes of putting pressure on the major shareholders of the tribune company not to sell to the koch brothers they're worried that billionaires will put their political agenda on the front page of the paper sit tight labor antibiotic anti-union type shit you. do seems like me want to put everybody back on the plantation charles laird has worked at the l.a. times for decades and is concerned about a possible shake up if the coax can control we need this paper for really we don't need this paper represent another political boss the l.a. times has been decimated by massive staff cuts in recent years but the major daily in america's second largest city remains very influential the fear is that the influence of the times will be used for conservative causes close to the koch

brothers chosen david koch became household names or in the twenty two election when the brother spent millions of dollars in an attempt to prevent president obama from winning a second term as we do support having newspapers owned by local owners because we think that there is more of a commitment to keeping a robust investigative reporting staff other billionaires are also in the running to buy the paper news corp boss rupert murdoch has expressed interest and just recently bought a new home in los angeles l.a. brode a former real estate developer and democratic party donor is also interested no one knows yet which way the new owners will take the l.a. times. to the polls great to. be a growing number of people in liberal l.a. arsinoe. in los angeles moglen do archie we hear a lot about business lobbying groups driving government decisions but and the report from the food and watch water group says the tables may have turned out

after coming through leaked weiqi leaks documents they discovered that the state department has been wildly promoting biotech industry interests abroad and what's worse just may have been using the taxpayers' dime to do it larches mega lopez has more for years now americans have been concerned about the food in their refrigerators and more importantly the ingredients in those foods the debate over genetically modified crops that isn't only playing out in the fields it's being harvested in the courtrooms as well as within the walls of capitol hill and it turns out the u.s. government might have a bigger stake in the biotech industry than anyone could have imagined a report released by the food and water watch group shows that the u.s. state department played a major role in promoting g.m. foods and crops around the world the report examined diplomatic cables from two thousand and five to two thousand and nine to provide the first comprehensive analysis of u.s. foreign policy when it comes to the biotech industry the cables were released by

wiki leaks in august of two thousand and eleven and food and water watch group actually researched some two hundred and sixty thousand cables to discover that no fewer than one hundred twenty six of them dealt directly with promoting the biotech industry abroad here's what they discovered state department officials actively promoted the commercialization of specific biotech seeds in more than one hundred countries it was a push that began during the bush administration and continued into the obama presidency and the c.f. issue is an experts claim the biotech industry will help increase farm productivity combat. global hunger and strengthen economic development opportunities all leading a lender environmental footprint the state department cables say this is science diplomacy their target audience spans from the scientific community to the media farmers to legislators in fact the state department actually invited experts to

participate in nearly one hundred sixty nine events in fifty two countries around the world this happened in between two thousand and five and two thousand and nine those department meetings they also invited individuals that may influence the national biotech policy to the u.s. to learn more now here are the four stated goals that food and water watch discovered in these cables the first one is to promote biotech interests abroad they try to facilitate trade and encourage cultivation of g.m. crops second up lobby foreign governments to weaken biotech rules you can't after all profit off these countries if you can't get your products into them along with lobbying the need to protect biotech exports by stopping trade barriers like terrorists all this to promote and protect an estimated twenty five billion dollar industry and biotech crop exports and in particular which was the biggest biotech seed company in two thousand and eleven and finally reach out to new markets by

pressuring the developing countries to adopt a biotech crops the main argument here is that these crops are stronger and can end soon in security around the world with a growing global population in the state department also lobbied against the labeling of these crops and genetically modified foods they don't want any type of labels on them countries from egypt to hungary argentina to mozambique were targeted in these efforts and many of them were very receptive some of them actually changed their regulations as a result you know this lobbying started happening around the same time that monsanto admin. it's a bing indonesian officials in an attempt to weaken environmental oversight of g.e. crops monsanto attempted to pay in division indonesian official fifty thousand dollars as an incentive but ended up coughing up more than one point five million dollars in fines to the u.s. government instead now in the wake of these cable releases it appears that monsanto

and other biotech firms don't need to bribe country officials anymore they have the government to do that using taxpayer money nonetheless it is the latest chapter in a dispute over your dinner plate in washington meghan lopez r t even though the rich are better off than most people you'd hope that everyone would get their fair share in certain situations as an example how about waiting in that line for an amusement park ride turns out there is a way to get in the front of the lie if you're rich enough the resident florrie harvest give her her two cents on the cutting a line. if

you had many people you despise how intitled and soulless some rich people can act then get a load of the. rich parents are paying disabled people to help them can't lie at disney world that yes horrible rich people are paying disabled people to act like family members so that they can jump to the front of the line i. according to one horrible woman you can hire is just tables for a guy through an organization called dream tours florida for one hundred thirty dollars an hour or one thousand and forty dollars for an eight hour day the horrible woman said that the disabled guide as toward her her husband their one year old son and their five year old daughter through the park in a motorized scooter with a handicap sign on it and at every attraction they went straight to the prime of

the line apparently disney allows each guest who needs a wheelchair or scooter to bring up to six guests to an entrance that is easier to access. the horrible woman who goes on to say quote my daughter waited one minute to get on it it's a small world the other kids had to wait two and a half hours you can't go to disney without a tour concierge this is how the one percent does disney. apparently this shady tour guides phone number gets passed around between the horrible parents among men have. private school network you need to give the name of who referred you when you make the call so basically this drug deal as a way of doing business reaffirms the old adage it's all in the you know. the whole disgusting stare is just another example of how many rich people like to

have ways to affirm to themselves that they are privileged insiders and special information that not everyone has access to it's another way to feel exclusive and better than that is so vitally important to some people that they will actually do warbled things like lie about having a disabled person in their family to magically got the lines at the magic kingdom. it's a stellar example of how the false god of greed and privilege is to face in america even in the happiest place on earth. i would say good for the disabled person for making a thousand bucks a day while going on ride to disney world but i can't even say that because they have to deal with the likes of go horrible woman all day long and no amount of money is worth that and no amount of money can make the horrible woman any less this a couple tonight let's talk about that by following me on twitter at the risk. hole

looks a bit like top gun for twenty thirteen the u.s. navy has launched an unmanned aircraft the size of a fighter jet the x. forty seven b. stealth throne which took off from the back of the u.s.s. george h.w. bush near the coast of virginia this is the first time a drone has ever launched off an aircraft carrier the drone later landed in nearby maryland as cannot yet land on a carrier now this aircraft has been designed to take off from other airfields and aircraft carriers. so the u.s. navy can launch drones from anywhere on the open sea is it raises further legal issues surrounding america's covert drone program that's going to do it for an l. or more in the stories we've covered go to youtube dot com slash r t america for now well have a great night. wealthy

british style. time right on. target around the. market why not. find out what's really happening to the global economy with mike's cancer for a no holds barred look at the global financial headlines tune in to kaiser report on our. mission. critique three months for charges three. major and three. three. two.