just like. everybody else did you know the premise is the only industry specifically mentioned in the constitution and. that's because a free and open press is critical to our democracy albus. role. in fact the single biggest threat facing our nation today is the corporate takeover of our government and our press simak we've been a hydrogen lying handful of transnational corporations that will profit by destroying what our founding fathers once told that's my job market and on this show we reveal the big picture of what's actually going on in the world we go beyond identifying the problem try rational debate in a real discussion of critical issues facing and there are no ready to join the

movement then welcome to the big picture. of. what's going on folks i'm adding martin and this is breaking the set so you know the u.s. is among the top countries in the world in terms of state executions at least we can rest assured knowing that these people deserved to die or not see back in two thousand and twelve the f.b.i. open an investigation into thousands of convictions including forty five death row cases this after the washington post reported the flawed for running that evidence might have been responsible for hundreds of wrongful convictions well it turns out that the results of the investigation are far worse than even the washington post originally written. horded in fact nearly every case reviewed by the f.b.i.

included flawed forensic testimony why won't because agents positively identify defendants using a hair samples something that the bureau specifically prohibits because of its unreliability of the findings were so worrisome the f.b.i. halted the entire investigation last year into the d.o.j. ordered it to reopen the probe just a side note to the f.b.i. since the word investigation is in your name you should probably know this isn't how investigations of work you don't just stop them because you don't like where they're going but at the fact that forty five death row inmates may have been wrongfully convicted isn't disturbing enough consider that this story comes on the heels of an arizona death row inmate joseph would taking nearly two hours to die and yet another botched execution according to witnesses would spend one hundred seventeen minutes choking on gasping for air although the arizona department of corrections still maintains he didn't suffer listen there's no doubt that members

of our society including the would commit heinous and reprehensible crimes but at the end of the day do we really want to live in a country that kills and tortures potentially innocent human beings all name of a draconian version of justice it's practice that. the league was a little very hard to take that lead to. do that or act like that hurt their little. league. a little.

league. mcdonald's is known for many things for us that neon arches super creepy crown mascots expired meat sold in restaurants across china and of course crushing workers' rights see earlier this month the fast food workers committee filed allegations with the national labor relations board or an l.d.r. against mickey d's for firing nine employees for trying to unionize according to workers the incidents took place in several locations across new york city over the last year and a half but terman nation is just the tip of the iceberg along with the nine fired employees the finally also claims that other workers were suspended or had their hours slashed for organizing so the national labor relations act of nine hundred thirty five which created the l.d.r. guarantees workers the right to organize i mean that if these allegations prove

true mcdonald's can be a ton of legal hot grease now since the initial filing mcdonald's was done everything possible to distance itself from the case claiming that it can't control the actions of its individual franchises and therefore should be absolved of any responsibility well turns out. and i'll be our wasn't too convinced that a major victory yesterday for the four million fast food workers across the u.s. the organization ruled that mcdonald's as a whole can be held liable for what happens at individual franchises see it like all major fast food brands the corporate structure of mcdonald's and set up so that the company does not directly own and operate franchise locations franchise owners are still subject to strict rules regarding everything from employee uniforms to menus as part of their ownership agreement catherine ruckelshaus an attorney for national employment law project even went as far as telling bloomberg that quote technological advances allow mcdonald's to watch over its franchisees operations

like a hawk and ways that go well beyond simply protecting its brand a decision and this should leave no doubt the mcdonald's is an employer and put an end to it self-serving charade that it's not but it's really no wonder why mcdonald's is doing everything in its power to prevent workers from organizing because if the company's workers did they might just start demanding ridiculous things like decent working conditions adequate health care and a living wage to the fight for fifteen dollars an hour minimum wage is gaining momentum all across the country and a large part spurred by seattle's decision to raise the base wage to fifteen an hour over the course of the next seven years but despite this growing pressure fast food workers continued to be grossly grossly underpaid earning just over eighteen thousand dollars a year on average or eight dollars and ninety three cents an hour now some of you

may be thinking that working in the fast food industry is just a summer job or a stepping stone but the reality is that two thirds of fast food workers are between twenty and fifty four years old according to center for economic and policy research and for those that think an individual let alone a family can live off those paltry amount of money just take a look at meg. donal's helpful employee budget advice according to the website the mcdonald's launched in partnership with a visa and individual working full time at the donald's earns eleven hundred dollars a month so naturally they would have to get a second full time job to even have the beginnings of a legitimate salary the sample budget then goes on to dole out a miniscule twenty dollars a month for health care no money for food no money for heating although although the company was forced to change the heating figure to fifty dollars a month after a backlash against the absurdist numbers but thanks to the and l.b. yars decision workers now have

a much greater chance of banding together in order to manned a living wage and finally hold the golden arches accountable because you know it's bad when even the evil geniuses in mcdonald's own corporate offices can't even figure out a way to make the companies pathetic salary structure work. it's been over one hundred years since the adoption of the seventeenth amendment to the constitution as a solution to the threat money posed against the purity of american democracy and giving the public more direct control over the election of their representatives at a century later that the right is more dire than ever the notion of corporate personhood and money as speech and legalized bribery but the fight against corporate influence over politics is a battle as old as the republic itself tommy break down this history am drawn by

tom hartman bestselling author and host of our tease the big picture amazing to have you back on tom so you're its head talk on this was absolutely mind blowing i highly recommend it for anyone who wants to learn more about kind of how this all happened i want to start by breaking down what you found through thomas jefferson's writing that really triggered the american revolution well there had been this the gilded age in the mid seventy's hundreds in the eighteenth century where the east india company just exploded i mean the surpassed the dutch trading companies from a century earlier and and then there was this crash that happened around seventeen seventy that led right to the american revolution but the thing was when the crash happened the east india company was in such financial trouble that the king of england passed and so did seventy three of the tax act that the you know taxed t. and the the columnist the tax act is widely

thought to have raised the tax and what it actually did is it lowered the tax on tea for the british east india company the biggest corporate tax cut or break in history arguably certainly up to that point and so they call this no because the east india company was going to undersell the local tea shop so it was like this wal-mart thing was going on and that started the american revolution american revolution was a revolt against a giant corporate tax cuts and saying something that you never hear. it's so amazing is that you found that you kind of found these writings that no yells for the eyes access while it's out i mean you know in one thousand and nine they collected all of jefferson's writings as the hundred year anniversary of his leaving the white house and it was published wants twenty volumes we bought an old house in vermont and there they were and i spent two years reading it's amazing what a great tree just specially for you and you broke down how the revolution ended the first gilded age how did individual states respond to the second gilded age during

the industrial revolution the second gilded age happened after the american civil war and it you we saw the rise in large part because lincoln had thrown what in today's money would be probably hundreds of billions to a trillion dollars into five or six large railroad companies to get war materials around for the civil war and the consequence of this was that these guys got really really powerful and and then along with that you know the steel barons and the coal barons and the oil barons and everybody else and they were screwing workers it was a terrible time they were killing people they were strike strike breaking and the beginning of the progressive and populist movements was happening but really during that era american politics was so corrupt that grover cleveland seven hundred eighty seven in his state of the union address said corporations which should be the carefully constrained servants of the people have become their masters the iron heel of the corporate boot is upon the neck of the american people this was you

know the president of the united states the state of the union address in one thousand nine hundred seven so things were pretty bad things were pretty bad and led to a great crash in one thousand nine hundred eight which then led to you know after he was assassinated one thousand one hundred to teddy roosevelt's president and boom we're off to the races with trust busting and really really reforming the american the american government has so it's so fascinating that tell me that i mean the old wisconsin law that actually made it not only like you can. do this you can accept corporate money but you could go to jail right straight out to one and also i mean you know the texas version of that is what they were prosecuted to the lay on or tom de lay under an unbelievable i mean it's just so entrenched now i mean it's clear that right now we're living under what more closely resembles an oligarch he in a democracy you say that we've entered a third gilded age and we're actually in a crisis of democracy now of course i mean. this was brought on years before the citizens united ruling as well you know well the citizens united ruling has has

basically legalized you know bribery of politicians not only by billionaires but also by corporations and you know it follows on the foot on the back of back in one thousand nine hundred six the thing that provoked grover cleveland was the santa clara county versus the pacific railroad decision which sort of actually a decision didn't say it but the clerk of the court said yeah corporations are people fast forward one hundred seventy six in the buckley versus well a hokies was on the supreme court finally ordered finally. discovered in the first amendment that spend morning yeah spending money is somehow protected by the first of many you know never before decided so here we have legalized bribery in the united states and and you know it's time for us to have another revolution like teddy roosevelt did in the tillman act to take because it's going to get ugly if they don't matter and really we have to get out of this this this age that we're in and it is different than other ones as you said it's been building out for the last

hundred years i mean what kind of country will be living in if we don't guard or garner the political will to restore democracy here about forty five seconds we will be in our knowledge i mean that's just flat out we largely are right now. if these supreme court decisions are not rolled back which have never been supported by any legislature or any president if they're not rolled back it's not going to be good for this country right you're absolutely you're looking at something like italy in the thirty's everyone tried i heard ted talk and right i mean the supreme court has just basically had them on our. i mean we need to really break through it's amazing that we've never voted on probably the most egregious law that's been passed not even law it's just. it's just a put it about a bit but court the court unbelievable thank you so much tom harkin it really appreciate it coming up you guys will talk about i want you organization is embracing it was the blowers.

it will be. sunny and so technology innovation all the lives developments from around russia we've gone to the future covered. this was one washington well it's a missile that is being suggested in the latest numbers of the media candidates for the prophecy of war and issues actually back to you and doesn't do too much for ad revenue my own tech agriculture giant teeth on a seventy six year old american farmer based in india fallout do you think this is going to create for the cia do you think this is what's triggering a race america's the largest economy in the world it's also the largest debtor nation in the history of the world breaking the set is mostly about alternatives to the status quo but want to get real alternatives of points on the working poor the american dream the next they were just trying to survive it's time for americans

and lawmakers are forced to wake up and start talking about the real causes a problem. today is national whistleblower appreciation day and with so much backlash against the brave individuals willing to expose government and corporate corruption it's never been more than the highlight the difficulties faced by whistleblowers which is exactly what making happen and projects centered are doing this week and washington while attending the annual whistleblower summit they joined me earlier and i first asked them what they thought about the u.s. senate commemorating the bravery of whistleblowers on the exact same day chelsea manning was convicted for blowing the whistle on war crimes. very interesting

series of developments insofar as the government has a double standard surrounding whistleblowing we have a whistleblower protection act that's twenty five years old it is in the process of purportedly being strengthened particularly by senator patrick leahy who announced yesterday a new proposal that would help protect made data collection and so forth particularly addressing the problems of section two fifteen of the usa patriot act which is one of the most problematic critically for civil liberties groups and so that's very that's a positive development but we're also again here as you say for the whistleblower summit which highlights a lot of a lot of the problems that people have had over the years who have blown the whistle on corruption in government corruption in the corporate sector and of course we know the obama administration in particular has been particularly harsh on whistleblowers and people that are trying to get the truth to the public so that's definitely a divided message it is a double standard forked tongue so to speak but we're here in town to support again the whistleblowers and people can learn more summit dot com and we've been working

with some other great organizations like the government accountability project and so on and they like to highlight a lot of the positive developments that are that are coming out of this week's proceedings. you know a lot of other media organizations kind of take the on by. because you could say perspective where they say you know they're treading this careful line where they don't want to go out and support or or blankly demonize them which is kind of you see a lot of the latter but why does part of center take a different route where you guys say you know one bracing whistleblowers well i think there's several steps to that answer but if you just start with the idea of government secrecy government secrecy is harmful to national interests it's harmful to government accountability as mickey was just mentioning it's harmful to the public's right to know in a democracy about what's being done in our name so whistleblowers by contrast are combat in secrecy there they're speaking out against the silencing effect in

a way that allows the public to know and hopefully in the case of governmental whistleblowers holds the government to account and similar things could be said in terms of corporate whistleblowers and corporate whistleblower and so this is i think quite naturally to just as a matter of course these are important stories that the corporate media by and large are doing a poor to nonexistent job of covering and that's exactly our mandate at project since it is to to draw attention to those stories in the independent press in the work of independent journalists to bring forward those stories and to and to give perspective that's not available in the corporate media this shows actually been blankly demonized in all the content that i broach on the show because it happens to be hosted on this never do you think the extra focus scrutiny on our t.v. is warranted considering the utter abysmal failure and state of all media and broadcast well you know as someone both as director of project censored and someone

that is a professor and teaches critical thinking and social science i think it's really important to focus on the arguments in the facts that are presented if we were going to sit back and attack a particular news organization. carte blanche that would mean that we're somehow saying that everything that happens on that network is exactly the same and that's simply not true when we criticize the new york times and we criticize n.p.r. and we criticize fox news and so forth we also admit in our publications and we acknowledge when people at those organizations do good work whether it's james arise in the new york times who is under assault right for his first minute press rights and protecting sources you know but that in a sense we could say that the new york times has had abysmal reporting on on issues of israel and so forth and leading up to the iraq war so i think it's interesting that your show in particular has been singled out because i find that it happens to be one of the more accurately sourced programs on on the network. then we

could get into other critiques of this network just like we could with any but i think focus on the story focus on the facts and get the personalities out of the news and out of the stories because that that's a distraction in a diversion from the issues that really matter to the public and what i love about project something that's kind of going what you're just saying is the kind of label for a conspiracy theorist when you don't want to dissect the actual facts and stories that you guys are really hitting upon and of course i was thrown in to the mix with a whole r t for as a conspiracy theory is that because i question official narratives i want to get your opinion on this and it tore us weapons of mass destruction liar straight up or propagandist david frum given a senior editor position at the atlantic claims that the photos of the gaza massacre are a hoax ultimately of course he was forced to give a half assed apology yes i am a conspiracy theorist he's the one who stole the plot from the mainstream media yeah well we call it the corporate media right and that certainly belies their bias the corporate media is in bed with the military industrial complex and the state in

the us and is very much a top down managed news type structure that supports us nato empire and expansion anything that questions or challenges that of course is cast aside any when the challenges and questions official narratives is. attacked and called names conspiracy theories is a favorite dating back to the sixty's when the cia originally hatched the term but there is a great again another double standard is that on the right it seems that conspiracy theories can run wild and get picked up by corporate media benghazi it's our internet but you know you can do those kind of things but whenever there's an actual series of questions about serious topics it just gets cast aside and over the new york times they'll just rewrite headlines if they don't want to talk about four dead children on the beach in gaza and so forth so i mean if there is a remarkable double standard and i think once again a way of cutting through that is through critical thinking and media literacy where you can ask questions look for transparent sources and come to your own conclusions and the job of the free press is to do that for the public absolutely not so you guys are doing so well and he's speaking out of gaza i want to play you guys an

outrageous clip from wolf blitzer on c.n.n. . from what you know what was the purpose of this. they want to thank. you. or me they want to go in attack kill israelis but also kidnap this because that was that was one of the rationals the israelis have suggested was one of the purposes of these tunnels yes i mean and here you have him literally leading the interview we say now are these tunnels used to kidnap children and kill israelis i mean we know of course sure horrible things may happen in those tunnels but also they are used to smuggle food bring k.f.c. fast food and also smuggle people out into egypt because the borders are closed why is agit prop against palestinians so prevalent across the corporate media well i mean i think we see this is you know this is a case in its own right but it's part of a larger pattern and what we see in the corporate media on a regular basis this is well documented not only of projects and been in almost all

the sociological studies of news and news production the corporate news relies on a narrow range of official sources for its information for its perspective and that spectrum is as i say quite narrow so. standing in the tunnel with the. representative of the idea for whoever that is that's one version of what's happening there of course the key is it's one version and you know the problem i think there is that when we have a later section with wolf blitzer where he's standing in you know. on the beach or even in a hospital yard among the shelling shelled rubble talking to the victims no by and large not their unofficial they don't have a status and mickey and i were getting coffee in a big go before the summit yesterday morning and we caught a little bit of the c.n.n. coverage. headline for the c.n.n.

coverage of the label for it is it's the it's the israel hamas conflict the palestinian people are literally written out of the very headline for the over the frame in which the story is being told when is c.n.n. going to announce wolf blitzer and his former connections to apac for example yet n.b.c.'s n.b.c. there is talk about taking reporters off of cases because they were actually reporting the slaughter that was taking place of children in gaza and somehow they were biased right for reporting reality and that's an incredible double standard that also ought to be pointed out certainly in the corporate media in the u.s. and i love what you said about framing and bias because i think when you look at media censorship the framing is taken out of that equation you say oh well i read about that the new york times i read about it or i saw it on c.n.n. it doesn't mean that you're getting the full story in the context of this conflict is completely missing and i mean even in israel you have already you have nine seven two mag way more realistic about what's going on the ground reality that's going on the ground why are americans present in such

a dumbed down simplistic narrative. compared to most of the world what he's doing to our societal evolution well. from what andy just said it's systemic it's a systemic slant it isn't just on the issue of israel it's on the whole her. it's on what's happening in the ukraine it's on us nato issues it's on g.m.a. it's on a lot of this on climate change and there's great bias and slant the comes about through framing and the dumbing down problem is problematic because this is top down manage news the zine to shape public opinion by narrowing the scope of perspective and of course the american public can't stand up to the fact that we're given over three billion dollars a year to israel because if we did. cause some changes there you want to but if the public i mean i think it's something to be very clear and projects inside our stances not that the american public is somehow inherently. incapable of grasping these ideas or handling the truth the idea is that most of the american public is

dependent on the media content of five or six major corporations depending on how you how you identify those entities and what they're fed is very poor so it would be criticizing me for being a slow runner when you feed me a diet of nothing but junk food you know i don't i'm not getting the nourishment i need in order to be the strong capable person that i am and i think that's the situation with the american public you guys are the definition of grassroots your ability organization from the bottom up you and compass so many different colleges to get these stories generated every year and of course you're doing things on a daily basis as well where do you see the corporate media structure in ten years and how can people get involved with such an amazing project that you guys are focused on part of what we try to do a project since it is say yes there is a lot more it can be overwhelming to process what is there but here are these validated independent news stories that have been researched and vetted and

documented by faculty and students at our two dozen affiliate campuses colleges and universities across the country where projects and says work has been done and we want to point people to that and we want to lift up and provide a platform. for the general public to say here are stories if you're concerned about the ukraine here are stories that aren't going to get prime time coverage but are valid and important and worth your knowing about that's what we pride ourselves is doing is highlighting the good work of intrepid journalist and truth tellers all over that speak truth to power and know that speaking truth is power and again we're honored to be doing that for thirty eight years and will unfortunately have to keep doing that until more and more media supplant and just entirely replace corporate media which is entirely irrelevant to the population at large complete on or have both of you on make you have. thank you so much about the propellant on thank you abbi. thanks so much for watching you guys be sure to follow me on

twitter at abby martin and if you missed any of today's show be sure to check us out on you tube youtube dot com. breaking this said everyone have a good night we'll see you back if. you like me to want your comedy news from t one to comedy news to be a bare no holds barred fight to the dead. like a vampire winding into the next of the corporate elite billionaire freaks while they're going. well that's what you get with my new show projected tonight.

or. little. list live. live live. live. live live. talk rules in effect that means you can jump

in anytime you want. to live. think. the really going to do it. did you know the price is the only industry specifically mention in the constitution. that's because a free and open press is critical to our democracy should correct all those. that are you know i'm sorry and on this show we reveal the picture of what's actually going on we go beyond identifying the truth rational debate and real discussion critical issues facing america by ready to join the movement then welcome to the big city. hall i'm john marburger washington d.c.

and here's what's coming up tonight on the big picture. just moments ago house republicans voted twenty five to two or one all be republican all the five to move forward john boehner is frivolous lawsuit against president obama this be enough to appease far writers who are still calling for the president's impeachment that and more in tonight's lone liberal rumble also fox so-called news is steve doocy host of the living under a rock for the past few weeks because he's way off about all the impeachment talk in washington and on his own show more on that in tonight's politically correct and new analysis by climate journalist sam khurana suggest the global sea levels could rise by almost eight feet by twenty forty but could a new plan put forward by a maryland congressman be enough to stave off this apocalyptic scenario before it's too late for more on that internets deal to take.