Between The Lines - Jeff Cohen: Enron Billionaire Funds PBS "News" Series, Parroting His Opposition to Public Employee Pensions (Week Ending March 14, 2014)

Award-winning Investigative Journalist Robert Parry (1949-2018)

Award-winning investigative journalist and founder/editor of ConsortiumNews.com, Robert Parry has passed away. His ground-breaking work uncovering Reagan-era dirty wars in Central America and many other illegal and immoral policies conducted by successive administrations and U.S. intelligence agencies, stands as an inspiration to all in journalists working in the public interest.

Robert had been a regular guest on our Between The Lines and Counterpoint radio shows -- and many other progressive outlets across the U.S. over four decades.

His penetrating analysis of U.S. foreign policy and international conflicts will be sorely missed, and not easily replaced. His son Nat Parry writes a tribute to his father: Robert Parry’s Legacy and the Future of Consortiumnews.

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The Resistance Starts Now!

Between The Lines' coverage and resource compilation of the Resistance Movement

"The man who predicted Trump presidential win now says Trump impeachment could happen," AM Joy with Joy Reid, MSNBC, Jan. 21, 2018
"Sketchy Kazakh money finds its way into Trump dealings," The Rachel Maddow Show, MSNBC, Jan. 15, 2018
"Red flags seen in many Trump real estate deals," The Rachel Maddow Show, MSNBC, Jan. 15, 2018
"Secret Money: How Trump Made Millions Selling Condos To Unknown Buyers," BuzzFeed, Jan. 12, 2018
"The Scandals of Donald Trump: Presidential Edition," The Atlantic, May 15, 2017
"Here's what we know so far about Team Trump's ties to Russian interests," Washington Post's ongoing compilation
"What Comey Was Investigating, Explained," The Moscow Project, Center for American Progress

"Donald Trump's Financial Ties to Russian Oligarchs and Mobsters Detailed In Explosive New Documentary from the Netherlands," Dutch TV documentary, Alternet.org, May 12, 2017
Ongoing compilation of Trump's creeping authoritarianism," MotherJones.com
Full resource list ...

SPECIAL REPORT: "The Resistance - Women's March 2018 - Hartford, Connecticut" Jan. 20, 2018

Selected speeches from the Women's March in Hartford, Connecticut 2018, recorded and produced by Scott Harris

SPECIAL REPORT: "No Fracking Waste in CT!" Jan. 14, 2018

Jen Siskind Jennifer Siskind, local coordinator for Food and Water Watch, describes the campaign to stop fracking waste in Connecticut, which so far has led to fracking waste bans in 34 towns around the state. Interviewed by Richard Hill on Mic Check, WPKN Radio, Bridgeport, CT

SPECIAL REPORT: "Resistance Round Table: The Unraveling Continues..." Jan. 13, 2018

Lindsay Kanaly The panel discusses Trump's long history of racism and the Republican voter suppression juggernaut confronting Democrats leading up to the 2018 elections. Special guest: Lindsay Kanaly, a lead organizer of the Women's Marches planned for Jan. 20, 2018. Panel: Scott Harris, Ruthanne Baumgartner and Richard Hill on Resistance Roundtable, WPKN Radio, Bridgeport, CT.

SPECIAL REPORT: "Capitalism to the ash heap?" Richard Wolff, Jan. 2, 2018

Richard Wolff, Economics professor Richard Wolff declares U.S. capitalism to be beyond repair and suggests the need for a radical alternative. Interviewed by Richard Hill

SPECIAL REPORT: Maryn McKenna, author of "Big Chicken", Dec. 7, 2017

Maryn McKenna, investigative journalist and author of Big Chicken, talks about the widespread use and dangers of antibiotics in commercial poultry, beef and fruit production. Interview by Bill Duesing, Richard Hill and Guy Beardsly on WPKN's Organic Farm Stand.

SPECIAL REPORT: Nina Turner's address, Working Families Party Awards Banquet, Dec. 14, 2017

Nina Turner, president of Our Revolution, talks about the fight ahead for progressives as she receives the Working Families Organization Award for Exceptional Leadership Towards Advancing Progress. The event was held in Meriden, CT. Produced by Richard Hill.

SPECIAL REPORT: Mic Check, Dec. 12, 2017

Working Families Party of CT talks strategy and issues for 2018.
Lindsay Farrell, executive director of the Working Families Party of Connecticut, discusses the state's electoral landscape and lays out the issues and strategies that could lead to progressive victories in 2018. Interviewed by Richard Hill.

SPECIAL REPORT: Resistance Roundtable, Dec. 9, 2017

Disturbing developments in the Trump/Republican Agenda
Focus on the tax bill, destruction of our public lands, North Korea and Trump's private CIA. Panel: Scott Harris, Ruthanne Baumgartner and Richard Hill. Special guest: Jo Macallero of Rise and Resist.

SPECIAL REPORT: On Tyranny - one year later, Nov. 28, 2017

Professor Timothy Snyder, author of the highly acclaimed resistance manual On Tyranny, discusses his book and offers a fresh assessment of the state of our beleaguered republic. Timothy Snyder, history professor at Yale, is introduced by Stanley Heller, administrator of Promoting Enduring Peace, a Connecticut-based organization that sponsored this event at the United Church Parish House in New Haven on Nov. 28. A brief interview with Snyder conducted by WPKN radio producer, Richard Hill, follows his talk.

SPECIAL REPORT: Mic Check, Nov. 12, 2017

Lynne Ide, director of program and policy with the Universal Health Care Foundation of Connecticut, talks about the current state of health care coverage in Connecticut. Interviewed by Richard Hill, WPKN radio producer

SPECIAL REPORT: Resistance Roundtable, Nov. 11, 2017

Focus on the Republican tax plan, the just-released autopsy on the Democratic Party, and Internet censorship by Google, Facebook and Youtube. Including an interview with Hilary Grant, a lead organizer with Action Together Connecticut, who discusses the local results of the recent election, with hosts Richard Hill, Scott Harris and Ruth Baumgartner WPKN producers

SPECIAL REPORT: Rainy Day Radio, Nov. 7, 2017

Two leaders from Redneck Revolt, an anti-racist, anti-capitalist movement, talk about their work organizing with white working class people in Suffolk County, New York. Interviewed by Richard Hill, WPKN radio producer

SPECIAL REPORT: Rainy Day Radio, Nov. 7, 2017

Bruce Gagnon, coordinator for the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space, describes the extent of -- and motives underlying -- the vast US network of military bases around the globe. Interviewed by Richard Hill, WPKN radio producer

SPECIAL REPORT: Resisting U.S. JeJu Island military base in South Korea, Oct. 24, 2017

Joyakol, South Korean peace activist and singer, discusses the crisis on the Korean peninsula and focuses on the resistance to the U.S. huge military base being constructed on Jeju Island. The event was sponsored by the Greater New Haven Peace Council and this audio was recorded by Richard Hill, WPKN producer.
Joyakol discusses Americans' biggest misconceptions about the conflict between North and South Korea and the U.S., Interview by Richard Hill, WPKN producer.

SPECIAL REPORT: John Allen, Out in New Haven

John Allen, founding director of the New Haven Pride Center, Connecticut, talks about his new LGBTQ television show, Out in New Haven, which presents a range of political and cultural issues to the community. Interviewed by Richard Hill on WPKN's Rainy Day Tuesday, Jan. 2, 2018.

2017 Gandhi Peace Awards

Promoting Enduring Peace presented its Gandhi Peace Award jointly to renowned consumer advocate Ralph Nader and BDS founder Omar Barghouti on April 23, 2017.

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THANK YOU TO EVERYONE...

who helped make our 25th anniversary with Jeremy Scahill a success!

For those who missed the event, or were there and really wanted to fully absorb its import, here it is in video

Jeremy Scahill keynote speech, part 1 from PROUDEYEMEDIA on Vimeo.

Jeremy Scahill keynote speech, part 2 from PROUDEYEMEDIA on Vimeo.

Between The Lines on Stitcher

Between The Lines Presentation at the Left Forum 2016

"How Do We Build A Mass Movement to Reverse Runaway Inequality?" with Les Leopold, author of "Runaway Inequality: An Activist's Guide to Economic Justice,"May 22, 2016, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, The City University of New York, 860 11th Ave. (Between 58th and 59th), New York City. Between The Lines' Scott Harris and Richard Hill moderated this workshop. Listen to the audio/slideshows and more from this workshop.

Listen to audio of the plenary sessions from the weekend.

JEREMY SCAHILL: Oscar-nominated documentary filmmaker "Dirty Wars"

Listen to the full interview (30:33) with Jeremy Scahill, an award-winning investigative journalist with the Nation Magazine, correspondent for Democracy Now! and author of the bestselling book, "Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army," about America's outsourcing of its military. In an exclusive interview with Counterpoint's Scott Harris on Sept. 16, 2013, Scahill talks about his latest book, "Dirty Wars, The World is a Battlefield," also made into a documentary film under the same title, and was nominated Dec. 5, 2013 for an Academy Award in the Best Documentary Feature category.

Listen to Scott Harris Live on WPKN Radio

Between The Lines' Executive Producer Scott Harris hosts a live, weekly talk show, Counterpoint, from which some of Between The Lines' interviews are excerpted. Listen every Monday evening from 8 to 10 p.m. EDT at www.WPKN.org (Follows the 5-7 minute White Rose Calendar.)

Counterpoint in its entirety is archived after midnight ET Monday nights, and is available for at least a year following broadcast in WPKN Radio's Archives.

You can also listen to full unedited interview segments from Counterpoint, which are generally available some time the day following broadcast.

Subscribe to Counterpoint bulletins via our subscriptions page.

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Enron Billionaire Funds Public TV "News" Series, Parroting his Opposition to Public Employee Pensions

Posted March 5, 2014

Interview with Jeff Cohen, director of the Park Center for Independent Media at Ithaca College, conducted by Scott Harris

In an investigative piece titled, “The Wolf of Sesame Street: Revealing the secret corruption inside PBS’s news division,” published on the news website Pando Daily, journalist David Sirota wrote about a Public Broadcasting Service news series titled, “The Pension Peril,” which advocated cuts to public employee pension benefits. The “Pension Peril” series, scheduled to be broadcast by PBS stations across the country over the course of two years, Sirota reveals, was secretly funded by former Enron company trader and billionaire, John Arnold.

Arnold, who had donated $3.5 million to PBS for the production of the Pension Peril series, is a passionate and longtime critic of public employee pensions. According to Sirota, Arnold has made large contributions through his foundation, to politicians, political action committees and thinktanks to advance his campaign “to slash public employee retirement benefits.” Disturbingly, the PBS series presented views critical of pension funds very similar to that of its funder, without revealing to the audience the source of its financial support.

However, just two days after Sirota’s investigative piece was published on Feb. 12, an embarrassed PBS management announced it would return the $3.5 million provided by John Arnold. Between The Lines’ Scott Harris spoke with Jeff Cohen, founder of the media watch group, Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, who now serves as the founding director of the Park Center for Independent Media at Ithaca College. Here he discusses the obvious conflicts of interest and ethical violations that occur when media outlets allow their funders to influence the content and political spin of their journalism.

JEFF COHEN: The funder of this, to the tune of $3.5 million, [was] a former Enron trader, a hedge fund manager named John Arnold. John Arnold has gone all over the country funding political efforts, ballot initiatives, think tanks, efficacy groups, that push toward the cutting of public workers’ pensions. He’s a monomaniac about it. Everyone in the world knows it. The great journalist, Matt Taibbi, referred to this guy as the next generation Koch brothers.

You know that there are many ways that you could balance state budgets — you could cut corporate subsidies, you could bring down the prison-industrial complex, you could raise taxes on the wealthy. But John Arnold and others have the ability to twist the debate so that the only idea that gets prominence in how to balance state budgets, is “cut the public workers’ pensions.” So John Arnold is famous for underwriting a whole social movement around that clause. And then public TV starts running a series of news segments called “The Pension Peril” and John Arnold has funded it for $3.5 million.

The money was ultimately returned, and the series has been put on hiatus because David Sirota exposed it! And it became a controversy. But I would argue that the funding of public affairs news, public affairs programs, documentaries, eight-part one-hour series, for years, for 15 years or so on public television, that corporations have underwritten programming that they have no business underwriting, and the results in the programming showed an unmistakable corporate bias — because the corporations paid for the programming.

BETWEEN THE LINES: Jeff, in theory, is there not supposed to be a firewall between the fund-raising arm of a public media outlet like PBS and the news producers and news directors who make decisions about content?

JEFF COHEN: There’s no doubt that public TV has rules, but they’ve never been abided by. And the rules say ‘not only should an interested funder not be allowed to fund programs, but someone who has the “perception of interest” — you know, it’s not just about the reality of bias, they’re supposed to protect public television against the bailoptic, but the reality is, there’s no longer any optics at all at public TV because the corporations have been underwriting the programming for so many years, you know, no one even sees it any more. That’s the problem; people are blind to it.

I could give you example after example. Last year, NOVA had a show called “The Rise of Drones.” One of the funders was Lockheed Martin, a major drone manufacturer. Another show, about the food industry — big funder? Dow Chemical — you know, a GMO corporate food company. About ten years ago, there was this multi-part series called “Commanding Heights” on public television, extolling multinational capitalism. It was so biased that the Wall Street Journal was raving about how great it was, with an article headlined “PBS likes capitalism more than the commercial networks do!” Who funded that? BP, Federal Express, and Enron — until Enron was exposed as a graft operation and the Enron money was returned, but not the money to all the other corporations.

You can go on and on and on and on, and it’s part of the reason that public television in this country is so timid, is so bland, and will not take on the most powerful forces in our society — which just happen to be large corporations which are their underwriters.

BETWEEN THE LINES: Given the fact that public broadcasting is taxpayer funded, is there a way that we as citizens could put pressure on PBS or Congress to put back in place a firewall between these corporate funders and the content that comes across on taxpayer broadcasts?

JEFF COHEN: I think it’s less a congressional issue. People who donate to PBS should confront their local PBS stations, and say, “How come we don’t have a labor show every week? How come we don’t have an environmental show every week? You know, the money that I donate to you, I want some of it to go to local programming. And I want that programming to be different from the corporate-type programming that’s coming out of PBS in Washington and New York. And if you don’t offer some of that programming, I’m not going to fund you.”

Jeff Cohen is the author of five books including, “Cable News Confidential: My Misadventures in Corporate Media.” For more information on the Park Center for Independent Media at Ithaca College, visit ithaca.edu/rhp/independentmedia. Read David Sirota’s investigative piece on PBS, "Wolf of Sesame Street".