{"id":2787,"date":"2008-06-27T14:38:43","date_gmt":"2008-06-27T19:38:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=2787"},"modified":"2009-12-23T13:44:43","modified_gmt":"2009-12-23T18:44:43","slug":"three-questions-for-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=2787","title":{"rendered":"Three Questions For You"},"content":{"rendered":"

Question One<\/strong><\/p>\n

So after all my writing yesterday about the Heller <\/em>decision (I’m supportive), what would you think if it were divulged by someone other than myself that I were getting payments from, say, the National Rifle Association to plug news releases from the Institute for Legislative Action (an NRA subsidiary), and not divulging that organizational or financial link?<\/p>\n

Better example; what if, say, the Strib<\/em> (owned by Avista Capital Partners) ran an uncritical, even fawning, report about the surpassing excellence of Frontier Drilling’s offshore exploration technology – and did it without disclosing that they are owned by the same company<\/a>?<\/p>\n

Woudl you consider that an ethical lapse on the Strib’s part?\u00a0 Well, duh; pretty shady – right?\u00a0 Pretty dubious ethics, perhaps?<\/p>\n

Well, have no fear; both cases are supremely hypothetical.<\/p>\n

Hold that thought as we proceed.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Question Two<\/strong><\/p>\n

So how about if the Minnesoros “Independent”<\/em> ran a piece<\/a> uncritically fawning over a study put out by a political pressure group-cum<\/em>-economics think tank that is a financial first-cousin of theirs, without disclosing the link?<\/p>\n

Well, yeah, of course they did it<\/a>, publishing a report by the Center for Economic Policy Research (about declining home values and, naturally, the wisdom of an interventionist approach to the housing crisis.<\/p>\n

Learned Foot looks at the CEPR’s funders…:<\/p>\n

Foundation support in 2008 includes:<\/p>\n

The Annie E. Casey Foundation
\n<\/em>
\nThe Nathan Cummings Foundation
\n<\/em>
\nThe Ford Foundation
\n<\/em>
\nThe Meyer Foundation
\n<\/em>
\nThe Moriah Fund, Inc.
\n<\/em>
\n***The Open Society Institute***<\/font><\/strong>
\n<\/span><\/em>
\n<\/font>The Retirement Research Foundation
\n<\/em>
\nThe Russell Sage Foundation
\n<\/em>
\nThe Alfred P. Sloan Foundation
\n<\/em>
\nThe Streisand Foundation
\n<\/em>
\nWashington Area Women’s Foundation<\/em><\/p>\n

There’s that “Open Society Institute” again! That name just keeps popping up like a bad Soros huffing Viagras.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And who else does the “Open Society Foundation” support?<\/p>\n

MorOn.org<\/strong> – Your one-stop shop for hatchet-jobbery done on behalf of (but not in coordination with – oh no, that’d be wrong) the Democratic Party.<\/p>\n

Media Matters<\/strong> – Media watchdog group that specializes in combating “conservative misinformation in the media.” As such on that site, “the media” tends to consist almost entirely of Fox News and Rush Limbaugh.<\/p>\n

The Center for “Independent” Media<\/font><\/a><\/strong> – Runs several “non-partisan” (battleground) state-based “media outlets” that spew forth all manner of leftist drivel \/ character assassinations.<\/p>\n

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington<\/font><\/a><\/strong>: A “non-partisan” ethics watchdog that specializes in suing Republicans, and making endless FOIA requests regarding Republicans.<\/p>\n

Approdeh<\/font><\/strong><\/a> – An outfit that lobbies on behalf of South American terrorist organizations.<\/p>\n

And now…<\/p>\n

The Center for Economic Policy and Research<\/strong> – Issues bogus reports that can be cited by all of the above as authoritative. Kind of like money laundering.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Or like working for a\u00a0law firm with one client.\u00a0 In the “construction” business.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Question Three<\/strong><\/p>\n

Does the Minnesoros “Independent’s” <\/em>“code of ethics” actually impel them to behave ethically, or does it merely give them a framework under which to rationalize their unethical behavior?<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Question One So after all my writing yesterday about the Heller decision (I’m supportive), what would you think if it were divulged by someone other than myself that I were getting payments from, say, the National Rifle Association to plug news releases from the Institute for Legislative Action (an NRA subsidiary), and not divulging that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31,82],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2787","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blogs","category-scotus"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2787","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2787"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2787\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7427,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2787\/revisions\/7427"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2787"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2787"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2787"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}