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The N&O and the Puppetshow
Submitted by James on Mon, 11/30/2009 - 9:03am
Updated with new map!
There must have been a time when the Raleigh News and Observer didn't operate under the thumb of Art Pope's Puppetshow, but it's fading as a distant memory. These days, the newspaper reports Mr. Pope's manufactured opinions week in and week out, a practice referred to by journalism professors as "subsidized news." To my eye, it looks more like good old fashioned prostitution, but that would be a misnomer too. You have to get something of value in exchange to qualify as a whore.
Today's transgression is a seedy story featuring one of Pope's many little sideshows. This one called the North Carolina Free Enterprise Foundation. The board of directors, which includes Pope himself, of course, is a list of who's who among North Carolina greeders, from a Time Warner executive, a member of the spectacularly incompetent Electricities organization, on down to polluters, pavers, and worse.
The story features rankings by the so-called "non-partisan" sideshow, purporting to assess the business friendliness of North Carolina elected officials. I'll spare you the predictable findings, the only reason they're relevant at all is because the News and Observer chose to highlight them.
Subsidized news indeed.
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Fortunately
There are some excellent alternatives for political news. Bookmark these: Mark Binker and Laura Leslie.
Even more to this upside-down story
Check out the "NC Free Enterprise Foundation" votes they used to make these rankings.
Why would a "free enterprise" group oppose the repeal of a waiting period for private clubs (an ABC law)? Link to H1228
So a "free enterprise" group wants to keep a waiting period of up to 30 days for an establishment to accept customers? Sounds pretty un-free market to me.
More hypocrisy from flaming hypocrites.
By the by, the Foundation's new Executive Director is John Rustin -- longtime lobbyist for the NC
TalibanFamily Policy Council.I wonder what's next for the "free enterprise" rankings. Wives submit to your husbands? Death to the gays?
Death to gays
unless they stay in the GOP closet and marry a member of the opposite sex to showcase their manliness!
NCSU Public Administration Program
My ethics prof at NCSU's Publi Administration Program, who is also the chair of the department, was talking about in class the other day about how the department is considering taking some money from a conservative organization. I can't remember if he was referring to only to our public admin department, the larger School of Public and International Affairs, or the humanities college (CHASS) as a whole. Maybe he said something about a chair endowment too. While I don't remember the specifics, it was interesting to be studying in a class about how to make ethics a part of public administration, how to make sure our actions pass the "smell test", and how public servants should remain apolitical... at the same time that we're looking to get conservative cash with supposedly no strings attached. He didn't give the name of the conservative cash wielding org, I wonder how I could find out?
Pope money
It's hard to say why he's being secretive. It's the Pope Foundation, which has been steadily buying influence all across NCSU. That's why State is listed as the official university of the Puppetshow on my map.
More on Pope's largesse here.
When Pope tried to give big bucks to UNC-CH, the faculty rejected the funding, so he later gave it to the football program. Kind of sad to be carrying around bags of cash you can't even give away.
The NSCU Economics Department is especially tainted by PopeCo. His funding stream has ensured a reliable cadre of vocal supporters for his particular brand of free-market extremism.
Yet again! N&O quotes Mike Walden multiple times in article
Damn
Are there no other economists in the rolodex of McClatchy-NC?
This Art Pope/NCSU hack gets quoted more than any economist by The N&O. The author virtually hands the article over to him.
We've written about Mike Walden already here. The wholesale ownership of The N&O by Pope Inc. just doesn't end.
Guess what -- he says we shouldn't raise taxes! Take my breath away.
And this "no taxes" mantra is for debt already incurred, much less any new needs (um...future unemployment).
This is straight from the starve-the-government and force-a-fiscal-mess playbook of ultra reactionaries.
See Krugman's plain language short analysis of the recent history of their strategy here.
Point:
But a North Carolinian need not read Krugman's blog to see their strategy for our state.
Pope should just go ahead and buy the paper
Oh wait, he already has.