Civitas

UNC School of Journalism professor Phil Meyer wrote a book years ago called Precision Journalism. Among other things, it examined how news organizations should and shouldn't use polling data to supplement their stories. Apparently, the cracker-jack political reporting staff at the News and Observer missed a few classes.

It's bad enough that the N&O's Rob Christensen consistently relies on Art Pope's Puppets as sources to bolster his stories. But today, Pope's "multi-million-dollar opinion-manufacturing machine" grabs the golden ring in a trashy little piece of reporting that should be embarrassing. If he were in class with Professor Meyer today, Christensen's lame excuse for news would have received an automatic F.

When the Stagemanager at the John Locke Foundation isn't running his "multi-million-dollar opinion-manufacturing machine," he sometimes dabbles on other stages like this one where he tries to make the case that neocon pundits don't pay any attention to their patrons.

These pundits, he argues, are intellectually honest and would NEVER be bought or paid for by big donors.

At issue is a New York Times article that took rightwing opinionators to task for failing to disclose financial relationships with big-time contributors like WalMart. Hood's piece doesn't make much sense on its face, but on second reading, it's clear as a bell.

People who are actively involved in North Carolina politics often find themselves in the Twilight Zone of wacko mailing lists. My significant other, who used to be chair of the faculty at UNC-Chapel Hill, is one such person. Which might explain why she’s lucky enough to receive her very own copy of Conservative Citizen, published several times a year by the John William Pope Civitas Institute.

I have long held the belief that conservatives are especially ill-suited for the important work of government. Which makes it all the more comical to watch as they trip over themselves, scrambling to take charge of government programs they want to eliminate, spending their hard-earned corporate profits to win the White House, Congress or the NC state legislature.

This month's American Prospect has an excellent article on the subject that is well worth your time and attention. Though it focuses on the decline of competence at the federal level, there are valuable insights for those of us working on state and local government. I've pulled out a few choice paragraphs to give you a flavor for the piece . . . with some commentary to follow.

One of the newest acts in the Puppetshow is hiring! The gory details below:

The North Carolina Republican Party is between a rock and a hard place these days, caught in a conundrum between its conservative roots and the free-market (aka Libertarian) extremists, who are staging a full-fledged takeover. Under the guiding hands of Art "The Puppetmaster" Pope, the party is sliding over the edge of sanity into the abyss of personal greed and social irresponsibility.


Nowhere is the train wreck between responsible conservatism and free-market mania more clear than in the broad area of planning. Two "reports" featured in Art Pope's privately owned Libertarian think tank tell the sad story for all to see. The first is a shallow piece of short-sighted drivel with a name only Pope's puppets could embrace. Planning Penalties in North Carolina is an ideological free market diatribe against nothing less than than the wisdom of zoning.

If there's a god, she's reserving a special place in hell for @$$holes like Nathan Tabor, who's just the latest theocrat to find himself with a bit role in Art Pope's Puppetshow.

To hear liberals tell it, George W. Bush doesn’t have a prayer of succeeding. What with the war in Iraq, soaring gasoline prices, and the high cost of medical care, the President’s critics dismiss him on good days as ineffectual…on bad days as a dunce. Yet, the President, with his cockeyed optimism and can-do American spirit, seems to believe he can and will succeed. And he believes that much of the credit can be attributed to prayer.

You have to admire Art 'The Puppetmaster' Pope. He hedges his bets like crazy, always working to spin more plates in his circus just in case his ego starts flailing. One of his recent start-ups is the Civitas Institute, headed by his old buddy Jack Hawke. According to their 2005 filings, Civitas is running on chump change from the Puppetmaster, a mere $308,000 in annual contributions - which accounts for pretty much the entire Civitas operating budget. (See attachment.)

I won't embarrass Mr. Hawke and his Sideshow sidekick, Thomas Stith, by posting the piddling salaries they get for doing the Puppetmaster's dirty work. It's sad, though, to see grown men selling their souls for next to nothing to do nothing worth doing.

Today's installment of Know Your Enemies focuses on a creepy little extension of the Puppetshow called The John William Pope Civitas Institute, Inc. The cast of characters is a veritable Who's Who in North Carolina Wackoland, and the boss man is non other than Jack Hawke, Art Pope's poor twin and occasional water-carrier.

There's more . . .