Wendell Potter and the "Justice Department"
Kathleen
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Subject: Wendell Potter and the "Justice Department"
Date: Jan 1, 2011 9:26 AM
ARTICLE BELOW ABOUT WENDELL POTTER
CONSISTENTLY GIVING THE USDOJ LEADS
ABOUT THEIR CRIMINAL ANTICS --
----------------------------------------
They ("USDOJ") have large amygdalas.
Or else they're plain old regular
girls, like Sarah Palin, who are
more interested in a popularity contest
than the Truth. All "prosecutors" are
like this. For them, it's not about
securing the Truth, but slamming *SOMEBODY!*
like a cowboy carves a nick in his
pistol.
We even see their attitude on the
stupid-cop TV shows.
Mental midgets with amygdala issues.
Sarah Palins. Brainless rah-rahs who
let the likes of Bill Kristol do their
thinking.
The USDOJ don't care if nothing ever
gets done, and the FDA is even worse.
The FDA wrote me a letter referring to
their DISCLAIMER PAGE which says they
"aren't obligated to actually *look* at
the data BigPharma sends them."
So: the DHHS isn't obligated to do
what they falsely claim to Uncle
Sam that they're doing for pay, and
the DOJ is more worried about hairstyles,
fancy suits, and being invited to
cocktail parties at "courthouses," like
the CT DCF hoes do routinely, which was
how this last one got a DUI.
Among the DCF sluts who were partying
at the "courthouse" with the Chief DCF
ho (all of them prosecutors, now), only
one got nailed for driving home
intoxicated - Chief Hamilton.
Meanwhile, the crazy chick who
wrote the bogus "stupid person letter"
to the CT ETHICS COMMISSION - of all things -
pretending to be a parking lot attendant
[Maureen Regula (Duggan)] was *promoted*
to the head of the DCF's New Haven Division
as as reward for this typical criminal antic.
You see the big picture.
USDOJ O'Connor who lived next door
to Party-And-Screw-for-the-Pediatric
Jails-Enterprise (DCF-Rowlandgate),
http://www.actionlyme.org/RAGAGLIA_GRANDJURY_DETAILS.htm
Rowland on Bantam Hot-Tub Lake? His
wife worked for Rowland in his "legal
office." Therefore O'Connor was
promoted to CT USDOJ. Now Kevin
O'Connor works for the-Corporate Criminal-
Protecting Rudy Guiliani lawfirm.
"Connecticut only shrugs."
See?
See what lawyers are all about?
They're every bit as whorey and
debauched as psychiatrists. They'll
say anything and they'll do anything
they can get away with.
White Collar Criminals with a Dot
Guv badge.
KMDickson
http://www.actionlyme.org
http://www.relapsingfever.org
===============================================
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/12/31-5
Published on Friday, December 31, 2010 by CommonDreams.org
The Media's Failure to Challenge Corporate Spin and Lies
by Rose Aguilar
MSNBC’s Chris Matthews had a good laugh during a recent segment about
the five biggest political lies of 2010. PolitiFact gave the top prize
to Republicans and pundits who repeatedly lied—and got away with it—by
calling the healthcare bill a “government takeover.”
After showing multiple clips of Republicans repeating the same lie
over and over again, Matthews could barely contain his laughter. “Are
we watching a Woody Allen movie here?” he asked his guests. “Do they
get all their talking points from Frank Luntz? Some guy down on the
beach in Santa Monica is knocking out the terminology. The lingo in
these people. Don’t they know they sound like parrots?”
Former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown replied by saying that
Republicans get away with the lies because they are never challenged
during interviews or asked to define the word ‘takeover.’ Matthews
ignored the comment, but did say the healthcare bill is an insurance
company takeover. He later wondered if the Heritage Foundation wrote
the talking points.
They actually came from Wendell Potter and his health insurance
colleagues. Potter is former head of corporate communications for
CIGNA, one of the largest for-profit health insurance companies in the
United States. Potter, who spent 20 years working for CIGNA and
Humana, was the main media contact for top-level executives. If a
journalist wanted an interview, they had to go through Potter; if he
thought the interview would be “friendly,” he would approve it. He
always sat in on the interview and says journalists rarely challenged
executives or asked difficult questions.
In 2008, his conscience got the best of him after visiting the Remote
Area Medical's healthcare fair in Wise County, Virginia and saw people
standing and sitting in long lines, waiting for free care. "They were
treating people in animal stalls and barns. It looked like it might
have been a war torn country. I could not believe this was the United
States of America."
Shortly after leaving his six-figure job, he decided to expose and
speak out against the very practices he once defended.
In his new book, Deadly Spin: An Insurance Company Insider Speaks Out
on How Corporate PR Is Killing Health Care And Deceiving Americans, he
writes, “If you are among those who believe that the U.S. has the best
healthcare system in the world--despite overwhelming evidence to the
contrary-- it’s because my fellow spinmeisters and I succeeded
brilliantly at what we were paid very well to do with your premium
dollars.”
“And if you were persuaded that the health care bill President Barack
Obama signed into law in March 2010 was a ‘government takeover of the
health care system,’ my former colleagues and I earned every penny of
our handsome salaries.”
The talking points are designed to be simple, catchy, and memorable.
Think government takeover of healthcare, death panels, and socialism.
“And you have to say them over and over and over again. And if you
hear them often enough, you think it’s true,” says Potter. “That’s why
people, even today, think that the legislation created death panels.
Obviously it never had anything approaching that kind of provision.
People think this legislation is a government takeover of the
healthcare system. In reality, it props up our private healthcare
system. It guarantees that these private insurance companies are going
to be profitable for years and years to come. It will require us to
buy their products and it doesn’t include a public option, which we
needed to have.”
Potter says once the talking points are written, they are distributed
on Capitol Hill. The process is simple, but it’s done discreetly. “You
don’t hand them to a member of Congress, but you develop very good
relationships with staff members. That’s key.”
He says he also cultivated relationships with television producers and
reporters, who, in turn, handed them to pundits and the talking heads
on cable shows. As we now know, the lies worked brilliantly.
Potter says he wrote Deadly Spin to show how a huge share of
healthcare premiums bankroll relentless propaganda and lobbying
efforts focused on protecting profits. The book is as much about
public relations and spin as it is about healthcare.
“Without basic knowledge of PR tactics and the ability to distinguish
between fact and distortion, Americans--and that includes journalists,
both professional and citizen--are at the mercy of spin doctors and
the public relations practitioners whose loyalty to their clients
outweighs the public’s right to the truth,” he writes.
One of the many incidents that pushed Potter to speak out happened
shortly after the March 5, 2009 White House Health Care Summit at
which Karen Ignagni, president of the insurance lobby America’s Health
Insurance Plans (AHIP), told President Obmaa he could count on her and
the insurance industry. “We want to work with the members of Congress
on a bipartisan basis here. You have our commitment. We hear the
American people about what’s not working. We’ve taken that seriously,”
she said. “You have our commitment to play, to contribute, and to help
pass health care reform this year.”
Potter says it was one of her best performances to date. President
Obama responded by saying, “Good. Thank you, Karen. That’s good news.
That’s America’s Health Insurance Plans.” Potter said the President
was played like a “Stradivarius by one of the best lobbyists to ever
hit Washington.”
According to Potter, Ignagni is one of Washington’s most effective
communicators and—with a salary and bonuses of $1.94 million in 2008—
one of the highest-paid special interest advocates in Washington.
According to a recent Bloomberg report, AHIP, whose members include
CIGNA and Humana, gave $86 million to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to
oppose the healthcare bill. "By funneling the money through the
Chamber," says the report, "insurers were able to remain at the table
negotiating with Democrats while still getting the bill criticized."
On March 9, 2009, MSNBC’s Chris Matthews interviewed Mike Tuffin,
AHIP’s executive vice president of strategic communications. In the
introduction, Matthews said, “The same people who helped kill the
Clinton’s efforts back in the ‘90s are on the other side now. Times
have changed. The worm has turned. The cosmos have shifted. Some of
the bad guys are becoming perhaps the good guys.”
“There was no doubt about it: Tuffin was on the show as part of AHIP’s
charm offensive,” writes Potter. “And just like Obama, Matthews seemed
to be falling for it.”
Potter also writes about Health Care America, a “non-partisan, non-
profit healthcare” front group formed to discredit Michael Moore and
his healthcare documentary Sicko. A quick search would show that there
was nothing non-partisan about Health Care America. It was set up by
APCO Worldwide, one of the country’s largest and most powerful public
relations firms.
Not only did APCO succeed in getting their talking points into most of
the stories that appeared about the film, writes Potter, but “not a
single reporter had done enough investigative work to find out that
insurers had provided the lion’s share of funding to set up Health
Care America.”
Potter says even though the health insurance bill has passed, the spin
continues. The health insurance industry, banks, weapons
manufacturers, and oil companies won’t lose their power until their
lies are challenged and the public understands how spin and
manipulation works. “We will never be free of spin, but we can be wise
to it, and we can push back against it. There is too much at stake not
to try.”
Listen to Your Call's interview with Wendell Potter.
Video interview with Wendell Potter, Part I
Video interview with Wendell Potter, Part II
Rose Aguilar is the host of the daily call-in show Your Call, which
airs from 10-11am PST.
KMDickson