Thursday, March 17, 2005
Buying Campaign Reform
The McCain- Feingold Campaign Reform Act was supposed to get the "Big Money" out of federal elections. But in 2004, more money was spent on both sides than ever before; and a great deal came from truly unaccountable ( and "Big Money") sources - just what the Reform Act was supposed to preclude! Now the Federal Elections Commission(FEC) is considering new regulations to control the speech of bloggers and other internet sources prior to an election, while leaving the door open to main stream media ( big news papers and broadcasters) and, perhaps also, to 527 organizations.
How Strange!? I always thought the essential goal of the First Ammendment was to protect the free political speech of the people. Now it seems that the law is being used to do exactly the opposite. How did this come to be?
For an answer backed up with a lot of facts, figures, and dates, check Ryan Sager's column in the New York Post , which asserts that :" CAMPAIGN-FINANCE reform has been an immense scam perpetrated on the American people by a cadre of left-wing foundations and disguised as a "mass movement."
But don't take my word for it. One of the chief scammers, Sean Treglia, a former program officer of the Pew Charitable Trusts, confesses it all in an astonishing videotape I obtained earlier this week.
The tape — of a conference held at USC's Annenberg School for Communication in March of 2004 — shows Treglia expounding to a gathering of academics, experts and journalists (none of whom, apparently, ever wrote about Treglia's remarks) on just how Pew and other left-wing foundations plotted to create a fake grassroots movement to hoodwink Congress.
"I'm going to tell you a story that I've never told any reporter," Treglia says on the tape. "Now that I'm several months away from Pew and we have campaign-finance reform, I can tell this story."'
Sager cites facts and numbers, all referenced to IRS reports as well as to the conference tape. It tells an amazing story of who and how much money went into making campaingn finance reform appear to be populist, while it was heavily funded by a few big money interests. How much money ? Over $140Million for lobbying and 88% of that, over $123Million," came from just eight liberal foundations". According to Sager :"These foundations were: the Pew Charitable Trusts ($40.1 million), the Schumann Center for Media and Democracy ($17.6 million), the Carnegie Corporation of New York ($14.1 million), the Joyce Foundation ($13.5 million), George Soros' Open Society Institute ($12.6 million), the Jerome Kohlberg Trust ($11.3 million), the Ford Foundation ($8.8 million) and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation ($5.2 million)."
So why would they do that? Well, it seems the Reform Act only shuts up some of us but allows others to spend unlimited amounts to get their political message out. Case in Point - Mr. Soros, who spent over $25Million to defeat Bush in 2004, also spent $12.6Million to get the campaign reform bill that would let him do so.
So how is it that we never heard of this before, say in 2004, when these events first became public? It seems that the story almost came to light but the media chose to ignore it; creating a short periopd of great concern for the lobby group. Sager qoutes the prime lobby coordinator at that 2004 conference: " "But you know what the good news is from my perspective?" Treglia says to the stunned crowd. "Journalists didn't care . . . So no one followed up on the story. And so there was a panic there for a couple of weeks because we thought the story was going to begin to gather steam, and no one picked it up."'
Sager concludes : "So shame on Pew for undertaking a sustained campaign to mislead the public and Congress. And shame on all of the journalists who let them slide.
Above all else, looking ahead: Shame on any news organization that lets the campaign-finance-reform lobby keep on portraying itself as a "movement" now that the facts have come out.
Now we'll see if sunlight is indeed the best disinfectant."
Indeed. Wonder what we will see.
How Strange!? I always thought the essential goal of the First Ammendment was to protect the free political speech of the people. Now it seems that the law is being used to do exactly the opposite. How did this come to be?
For an answer backed up with a lot of facts, figures, and dates, check Ryan Sager's column in the New York Post , which asserts that :" CAMPAIGN-FINANCE reform has been an immense scam perpetrated on the American people by a cadre of left-wing foundations and disguised as a "mass movement."
But don't take my word for it. One of the chief scammers, Sean Treglia, a former program officer of the Pew Charitable Trusts, confesses it all in an astonishing videotape I obtained earlier this week.
The tape — of a conference held at USC's Annenberg School for Communication in March of 2004 — shows Treglia expounding to a gathering of academics, experts and journalists (none of whom, apparently, ever wrote about Treglia's remarks) on just how Pew and other left-wing foundations plotted to create a fake grassroots movement to hoodwink Congress.
"I'm going to tell you a story that I've never told any reporter," Treglia says on the tape. "Now that I'm several months away from Pew and we have campaign-finance reform, I can tell this story."'
Sager cites facts and numbers, all referenced to IRS reports as well as to the conference tape. It tells an amazing story of who and how much money went into making campaingn finance reform appear to be populist, while it was heavily funded by a few big money interests. How much money ? Over $140Million for lobbying and 88% of that, over $123Million," came from just eight liberal foundations". According to Sager :"These foundations were: the Pew Charitable Trusts ($40.1 million), the Schumann Center for Media and Democracy ($17.6 million), the Carnegie Corporation of New York ($14.1 million), the Joyce Foundation ($13.5 million), George Soros' Open Society Institute ($12.6 million), the Jerome Kohlberg Trust ($11.3 million), the Ford Foundation ($8.8 million) and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation ($5.2 million)."
So why would they do that? Well, it seems the Reform Act only shuts up some of us but allows others to spend unlimited amounts to get their political message out. Case in Point - Mr. Soros, who spent over $25Million to defeat Bush in 2004, also spent $12.6Million to get the campaign reform bill that would let him do so.
So how is it that we never heard of this before, say in 2004, when these events first became public? It seems that the story almost came to light but the media chose to ignore it; creating a short periopd of great concern for the lobby group. Sager qoutes the prime lobby coordinator at that 2004 conference: " "But you know what the good news is from my perspective?" Treglia says to the stunned crowd. "Journalists didn't care . . . So no one followed up on the story. And so there was a panic there for a couple of weeks because we thought the story was going to begin to gather steam, and no one picked it up."'
Sager concludes : "So shame on Pew for undertaking a sustained campaign to mislead the public and Congress. And shame on all of the journalists who let them slide.
Above all else, looking ahead: Shame on any news organization that lets the campaign-finance-reform lobby keep on portraying itself as a "movement" now that the facts have come out.
Now we'll see if sunlight is indeed the best disinfectant."
Indeed. Wonder what we will see.
