Pay-To-Report News Brainwashing : The Effect Of Endless Political TV Ads

It is only through a full debate of ideas that all sides can come to an appreciation for one another, an informed participation by voters, and the hope of an agreement on issues.

But that's not what's happening now.

From True News From Change NYC :

Pay to Report Local TV News Control. Spending on advertising has fueled the increase in TV lobbying costs. Well-funded special interests funnel millions to lobbyists for public campaigns to sway lawmakers on hot-button issues. (TU) Local News which is mainly weather, traffic, cooking and dog segments is making millions in lobbyists spending. Union and business interest like the pro fracking interest are also spending millions on ads to local stations. All this money is coming in as local news dumbs down.

Pols and Interests Groups Use Local News By Pushing Their Paid Ads To Win Support For Their Issues

News Brainwashing. The only real news on dumb down local TV are in the paid ads which are not news but bias views of the pol or interests group who paid for the ads to gain public support. Local TV stations stand to profit from boom in super-PAC spending (The Hill) * CSNY’s budget blitz: $3.9 million (updated) (TU) * Save NY airing tax cap ad (TU) * Budget opponents up their ads and mailers (TU) * Bloomberg Blames Negative Ads For Poor Showing In Education (Politico) * Save NY now airs ad on school money (TU) * NYC's Bloomberg Pays for TV Ads Backing Cuomo's Pension (Bloomberg News) * Bloomberg Defends His Administration With TV Ad (NY1) * Local TV News For $ale: How Special Interests Control News Content and Public Opinion (True News)

What Has Happen to the Watchdog Groups of Government or Politics ? An explosion of online news sources in recent years has not produced a corresponding increase in reporting, particularly quality local reporting, a federal study of the media has found.Coverage of state governments and municipalities has receded at such an alarming pace that it has left government with more power than ever to set the agenda and have assertions unchallenged, concluded the study. “In many communities, we now face a shortage of local, professional, accountability reporting,” said the study, which was ordered by the Federal Communications Commission and written by Steven Waldman, a former journalist for Newsweek and U.S. News and World Report. “The independent watchdog function that the Founding Fathers envisioned for journalism — going so far as to call it crucial to a healthy democracy — is in some cases at risk at the local level.

Because newspapers have always served as tip sheets for local television reporters and for reporters on the national level, newspapers cutbacks because of the loss of readership to the Internet have had “ripple effects throughout the whole media system." With fewer reporters available to tackle in-depth topics, news releases from politicians and policy makers end up having more influence in some cases, he said, contributing to a kind of power shift toward institutions and away from citizens. * Local News : The Dumbing Down of Journalism (True News)

Election Big Loser Kathy Wylde, reports True News

Kathy Wylde had one job, and she blew it ! How long will she remain as head of the Partnership For New York City ?

(Revised : Thursday 7 Nov 2013 1:05 p.m.)

Beaten By The Working Families Party, The Flack For The 1% Kathryn Wylde Fights To Keep Her Job

CYA Statement from Wylde : “I keep telling my members that the Bloomberg era was an aberration,” said Kathryn S. Wylde, president of the Partnership for New York City, a leading business group. “Bill captured the disconnect for many New Yorkers between the fact of the city’s prosperity and the reality of their lives in this increasingly unaffordable city.”

The election of Bill de Blasio and the take over by the Working Families Party has more to do with the city's corrupt election system and an elite media, which most New Yorkers no longer follow. In the past, the 1% made it possible with great schools, hospitals for the poor, and good jobs for the 99% of New Yorkers to move themselves and their children up the social and economic ladder. Most New Yorkers today face an economic crisis as big as the crime crisis of the 70's and 80's.

The change voters were looking for in the exit polls was good jobs, good educations for their children, and an affordable place to live. The job of the Partnership For New York City, which Kathryn Wylde has run for the last decade, was to keep that social contract the rich always had with the other New Yorkers. Wylde sat there in her fancy office and collected her fat pay check while her real estate partners pushed the city's poor and middle class out of New York. Wylde lunched with her rich partners at the city's best, trendy restaurants in Manhattan, while record high numbers of New Yorkers went without jobs. Wylde visited her friends penthouses on Park Avenue, where their children pay $50,000 for private schools, while most New Yorkers parents send their kids to failing schools, destroying their children's future. Wylde sold her rich and media partners that the way to keep her fellow looters in power was through Bloomberg's puppet, Speaker Christine Quinn. It's not so much that the Working Families Party grew powerful and took over, so much as that the clueless Partnership-backed Joe Lhota did not even put up a fight. Wylde and her elite partners in government and the media allowed the protectors of the poor and middle class to be run by a bunch of bottom feeders. Elected officials and party leaders, who only care about growing rich and getting jobs for their friends. A media who tries to control New Yorkers rather than further their Bill of Rights mission to inform to protect. If Wylde stays in power and the Partnership does not end it class war in NYC, then so will the Working Families Party and Bertha Lewis.

True News's Biggest Loser of the 2013 Election : The Partnership's Kathy Wylde

From True News From Change NYC :

If you think the Giants are having a bad year check out the head of the Partnership. Wylede allowed the Working Families Party to take over the mayor's and Public Advocate's office. She now must count on Virginia resident Corrupt Queens' Boss Joe Crowley to line up enough councilmembers to elect Mark Weprin as Council Speaker. As long as Wyde is in power there will never be reform of the city's corrupt party leadership or Board of elections.

OFFICIAL DISPATCH from Lhota's closed-door meeting yesterday, via Kathy Wylde of the Partnership for NYC: "Joe Lhota met with about thirty members of the Partnership for New York City today to detail priorities he would focus on as mayor including support for job creation, making the city more affordable, and ensuring that it remains safe. the big question was whether there is a path to victory for a Republican in an increasingly Democratic town. Joe argued that most New Yorkers agree with him on big issues if he can get his name known and his message across. Those attending included CEOs from finance, real estate, media and law. The Partnership has met with all mayoral candidates, but does not make endorsements. Joe was introduced by Loews CEO Jim Tisch."

(Original : Friday 11 Oct 2013 3:10 p.m.)

True News Investigates Political Expenditures Dark Pool ; Conflicts of Interest ; Damaging Local Impact of Citizens United ; Near Media Silence

• Rolling Updates From : True News From Change NYC

Eight campaign consultants all but one are also lobbyists, have monopolized NYC elections system that only the Justice Department using the Sherman Antitrust Act can bust. (Organized Crime Politics * True News From Change)

True News Investigates Political Expenditures Dark Pool ; Conflicts of Interest ; Damaging Local Impact of Citizens United ; Near Media Silence

All the Media Silent On Local Impact on Citizens United. We have just gone though the first local election since the Citizen United ruling where two major IE groups Jobs4NY and NYClass has pumped money into almost every first time winning candidate or attacked their opponent. CrainsNY reporter Chris Bragg has done a good job showing that on of the big PAC groups headed by Advance's Scott Levenson was not following the election law and was in some elections working against the interests of his council clients. Only True News has asked where is the media on Citizens United effect on the city's elections. Mark Levine ran in a minority created district he did not even live in won with the help of Jobs4NY, NYClass and United for the Future.* Politicians for Sale (NYT Editorial) The Supreme Court should follow its own precedent and uphold overall campaign contribution limits.

Cuomo's Public Financing Way Out ? As Goo Goos Stand Up For Moreland Commission Independence. . . Cuomo Looks for Exit

Update : Moreland Commission. Cuomo’s Moreland Act Commission on Public Corruption is discussing the possibility of disbanding after recommending that a constitutional amendment be offered to voters for a public campaign finance system, The Times Union writes.

The state Legislature and the governor’s office have interfered with the Moreland Commission’s efforts to investigate corruption in Albany, and sources say that Gov. Andrew Cuomo is considering an exit strategy from the commission, The New York Times reports * The Times Union writes of the need for strong ethics rules and watchdog bodies, praising state Comptroller Tom DiNapoli and Attorney General Eric Schneiderman for their efforts in bringing integrity to government * The TU praises AG Eric Schneiderman and state Comptroller Tom DiNapoli for joining forces to try to restore some ethics to government.

Media Ignores : Large Ongoing Crimes Being Uncovered That Have Nothing to Do With Public Finance. “(A)ccording to people familiar with the commission’s work, the effort to investigate corruption in Albany is burdened by resistance from the Legislature, which has refused requests for information about lawmakers’ outside income, and by unexpected involvement by the governor’s office, which has leaned on the commission to limit the scope of its investigations.”* A Cuomo spokeswoman insisted the commission is “moving forward aggressively.”* The special Moreland Commission appointed by the governor in July will convene again, privately, today, amid a flurry of stories questioning its independence from the Cuomo administration. Recent reports say the commission held back subpoenas at the administration's request, and Capital reported yesterday that commissioners are in discussions with the administration to propose a public campaign finance system as a constitutional amendment. * It's the first step toward negotiating a truce that leaves the commission irrelevant, or, as Jim Odato suggests this morning, nonexistent.

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Is Advance Group Gaming Public Fiance ?

Advance Group's Logo on Phony Group Makes Millions in Matching Funds, Main Stream Media Ignores. Several payments that a UUFT super PAC sent to a fictitious political consulting firm “Strategic Consultants” have the Advance Group logo on their invoices.

10.09.13 FOIL Docs-3 by Chris Bragg

Advance Group puts logo on phony firm's invoice( CrainsNY) Last week, The Insider broke the news that the United Federation of Teachers' super PAC had paid more than $370,000 to a fictitious political consulting firm "Strategic Consultants Inc.," which was actually the well-known Manhattan consulting firm the Advance Group. An open records request that came back on Tuesday from the City Campaign Finance Board (and is embedded below) offers fresh and somewhat amusing evidence of the connection between the two: Many of the invoices the agency received from Strategic Consultants have the Advance Group logo on them.* Supreme Court Again Weighs Spending Limits In Campaigns. This decision could = the death of democracy.

It is very clear that Wall Street has Dark Pools where traders operate beyond the regulators. What is not clear is that their are also Dark Pool where lobbyists, campaign consultants and elected officials make deals with each other undermining democracy hidden from public view.

Looking to create a Progressive political blogging network in New York City

Are you a -- or do you know any -- Progressive political bloggers interested in being a part of a network of online activists in New York City ?

The activist and blogger Louis Flores and the journalist Gary Tilzer are looking for bloggers to be a part of a collective of online activists. Members of this network will blog about citizen issues in New York City, while helping us to establish an online network of Progressive activists.

Description : Bloggers and online activists -- who care about Progressive issues, government transparency, and improving direct Democratic participation in our own governance -- can enhance their civic participation by forming an online network. Because of the 2013 mayoral election in New York City, our network can play an important role in voter education and mobilisation.

What We’re Looking For : We want someone with passion and expertise in an area of civic issues. If you have a perspective to share, we want you to join us !

Requirements :

• You should have experience with online writing
• You should have a unique interest in an area of New York City civic issues
• You are eager to engage with voters and can commit to blogging regularly
• You are eager to expand your online activism beyond blogging and into areas, such as producing original YouTube videos that educate and mobilise the public
• You have an Adsense-like account (but not limited to Google platform), so that you can monetize your own blogging and YouTube videos, if possible

What You're Looking For : As a blogger and an online activist, you want to stop the neoliberal political doctrine of standard flim-flam politicians in New York City.

• You will be an online activist in the resistance movement fighting the dangerous neoliberalism doctrines of New York City politicians
• You will be inspired to develop your online activism skills
• Our network will offer you an expanded platform to expand your online reach
• You will be making a difference

Get in touch with us today ! If you would like to join our network, please send us the following information via email to: stopchrisquinn (at) gmail (dot) com :

• A brief description about your background, your experience with writing for activism, and any special skills that you may have
• Link to your existing blog
• Describe your interests in activism (what issues do you care about most and why)

Thank you for all that you do.

Hurricane Sandy Bloomberg Nursing Home Evacuation Scandal

Rockaway Beach Nursing Homes Told Not To Evacuate Ahead Of Hurricane Sandy, Officials Say

Five nursing homes in floods zones in New York City were told by officials not to evacuate before Hurricane Sandy made landfall, The Huffington Post reported.

Residents of the nursing homes, which were located just blocks off the New York City coastline with the Atlantic Ocean, experienced the horror of Hurricane Sandy's destructive winds, rains, and storm surge.

"It was like Niagara Falls," said an employee, who asked to remain anonymous, about the four foot flooding on the first floor of Rockaway Care Center.

"The New York Office of Emergency Management did not return multiple calls or emails about the condition of the nursing homes, the status of the residents, or the decision not to evacuate prior to the storm," reported The Huffington Post.

While politicians, such as Mayor Michael Bloomberg, City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer, and Queens Borough President Helen Marshall tour some of the areas devastated by Hurricane Sandy, politicians are using the emergency with the subway system and the power outages to cover up for the hospital evacuation crisis, this nursing home crisis, and the upcoming Election Day voting crisis.

Gary Tilzer, the political journalist, posted a blog post in which he asked, "Why Is the Media Silent On the Board of Elections Lack of A Plan to Allow People to Vote in the Black Out Areas ?"

Blogger Investigates Espada Corruption Case

The blog True News From Change published by Gary Tilzer is giving credit to Rafael Martinez Alequin for helping to investigate the corruption by Pedro Espada, Jr..

Watch this video by Mr. Alequin :

Commission Member Quits JCOPE ; Calls For Federal Investigation

Ravi Batra, a commissioner on the New York State Joint Commission on Public Ethics, has resigned due to reasons related to lax oversight by the JCOPE. Mr. Batra said he hoped that his resignation would force JCOPE to focus on "honest and independent ethics enforcement so as to actually restore public confidence in government and public service."
(True News From Change NYC)

Mr. Batra made a request for a federal investigation into wrongdoings at JCOPE. Because of strict confidentiality rules, which oppress whistleblowers, Mr. Batra said he could not provide details about his claims of shady dealings.

• RELATED : JCOPE Member Says “Au Revoir” And Resigns
• RELATED : Ravi Batra To JCOPE: Shape Up Or I Quit

Gary Tilzer Was Quoted In The NYTimes

The journalist and political consultant, Gary Tilzer, author of the mandatory-reading political blog True News From Change NYC, was quoted in yesterday's issue of The New York Times.

In the article, "Kingmaker of Little Russia," Mr. Tilzer was quoted about how the Democratic and Republican political machines take the Russian-American community for granted.

“This is a tragedy,” he said. “They work very hard and produce lots of votes, but the parties treat them like serfs.”

Crony Queens Community Newspapers

True News From Change NYC : "A Takeover Of Journalism by Lobbyist and Politicians"

Political reporter and blogger Gary Tilzer, the author of the blog True News From Change, published a scathing post about crony journalism in Queens community newspapers that have "not only turn their back on journalism," but have become "partners" with and "house organs" of U.S. Representative Joseph Crowley, who heads the Democratic Party in Queens. Mr. Tilzer refers to Rep. Crowley as "Boss Crowley."

Mr. Tilzer's blog post was in response to an article published by The New York Times that, in turn, drew the conclusion that one of the largest indicators of political machinery in Queens is the Surrogate's Court, the court which decides what to do with the assets of Queens residents, who die intestate. The Surrogate Court also appoints guardians, who profite from the court process to handle the assets of people, who die without wills. Intersecting with the Queens political machine article was a separate NYTimes feature questioning when a blogger becomes a journalist.

Quinn NYT Infomercial Fluff

To find out how real journalists assess City Council Speaker Christine Quinn's record, one needs to look no further than the sensibility expressed in this blog post on True News From Change : NYT Sets the Definition on How To Judge and Pick the Next Mayor and It Fits Quinn

In his blog post, the journalist Gary Tilzer makes many astute observations about David W. Chen's infomercial fluff piece about Speaker Quinn, and perhaps this is the most sharpest of Mr. Tilzer's criticisms : ''It was the publisher of the NYT, along with the NYP and Daily News, that used their papers to support changing the term limits law to allow Bloomberg and Quinn to run for a third term. Mr. Chen does not challenge Quinn when she brushes off her term limits and other critics as 'naïve' ideologues.''

It's already been documented how Christine Quinn bluffs her way through important social issues.

What Speaker Quinn is doing by making her ''unapologetic'' ''move to the middle'' is selling out the working class families of New York City. Her policies favour real estate developers -- and come to the detriment, suffering, and mass displacement of working class New Yorkers. Speaker Quinn's vision of New York City is a continuation of Mayor Michael Bloomberg's vision : more glass and steel luxury condos and less hospitals, firehouses, public schools, and senior centers. Speaker Quinn wants to make life so unbearable to the average wage-earning New Yorker that we all pick up and leave town.

How do we know that Christine Quinn has sold out her values and beliefs and still find herself to be in a place of denial about it, so much so that she accuses her critics of being “naïve” ideologues ?

Speaker Quinn's ideas about leadership in New York, by supporting the luxury condo conversion of St. Vincent's Hospital, which used to be the only full-service hospital with a Level 1 Trauma Center below 14th Street, is like GLAAD publicly supporting the proposed AT&T/T-Mobile merger. Not only would AT&T be in an even stronger position to undo net neutrality, but what is GLAAD doing by meddling in a telecom merger approval process with the FCC ? Likewise, why is a ''supposedly!! celebrated LGBT third-term politician like Christine Quinn rushing toward the ''middle'' of the political spectrum, if it means that she has to abandon her idealistic beginnings and instead now oppose paid sick leave and a living wage bill ?

"AT&T was one of the companies whose local representatives sits on the board of directors of the Tennessee chamber of commerce," wrote John Aravosis at Americablog. "You remember them, the group that endorsed and actively lobbied for the measure repealing gay and trans rights ordinances in the state, mandating it so that no trans person can ever change their birth certificate gender in the future, and banning any future civil rights ordinances for anyone in the future. That AT&T."

What does the intersection of St. Vincent's Hospital/Rudin Family Luxury Condo Conversion and the GLAAD/AT&T T-Mobile mega deals have to do with Christine Quinn and New York City politics ?

In each case, you see the erosion of core values of fighting for an activist's central reason for being : serving their constituency. But once you get to be so big, you can blow off you constituency as “naïve” ideologues (or drop the F-bomb on them, the way that one of her administrative assistants did).

If, throughout our nation's history, our goal has been to distribute power and authority equally among voters, then the voters, who have less choices on election day, get their voices muffled. Who is going to challenge GLAAD to focus once again on its original intention ? Who is going to put pressure on Christine Quinn to deliver on the community’s demands to stop all the hospital closings that are happening across New York City ?

It is not too much to expect that the people, who you elect to City Council, start to deliver something tangible for New York City voters.

• If you disliked how City Council members extended term limits without a voter referendum, then let her know : quinn@council.nyc.ny.us
• If you agree, that Speaker Quinn needs to hear the voices of communities, who are demanding that hospitals stop closing all across the five boroughs, then let her know : quinn@council.nyc.ny.us
• If you can no longer accept a weekly threat by Mayor Bloomberg to layoff teachers and firefighters, and to close schools and firehouses, then let her know : quinn@council.nyc.ny.us
• If you want Speaker Quinn to shut down her $50 million slush fund, then let her know : quinn@council.nyc.ny.us
• If you refuse to settle for City Council members, who take tens of thousands of campaign donations from real estate developers in exchange for what seems like pay-to-play real estate development deal approvals, then let her know : quinn@council.nyc.ny.us
• If you believe that Speaker Quinn betrays the LGBT community, then let her know : quinn@council.nyc.ny.us
• If you have your own issue, that you'd like to bring to Speaker Quinn's attention, then let her know : quinn@council.nyc.ny.us

Speak now, or forever hold your peace.

True News From Change NYC Blog Has Been Restored

Breaking News ! Update on True News From Change NYC Blog

Gary Tilzer's blog, True News From Change NYC, about New York government corruption, political reporting, and other commentary about government transparency, has been restored. Earlier today, it had been discovered that the True News blog had been suspended by Google for inexplicable reasons overnight. The suspension of the blog had become a focal point of support today by many New York bloggers and activists. No reason for the suspension is yet known, but New York bloggers suspect political censorship might have been one motive behind the removal of the blog.

CENSORED : True News From Change NYC Blog

Update : True News From Change NYC Blog Has Been Restored

Google Blogspot Blog Has Been Removed For No Reason ; Blogger Community Suspects Political Censorship ; Call To Action

Please send an e-mail to press@google.com and copy Gary Tilzer, the owner of the censored blog, at Gtprinter@aol.com -- demanding that the True News blog be restored.

True News is a blog dedicated to reporting about government scandals, politics, and transparency. (Here is the cached version of the True News blog.)

This is not the first act of censorship against Mr. Tilzer. Before the 2010 election, a YouTube video that Mr. Tilzer produced was banned by NBC/YouTube and had to be replaced with an edited version. In the last couple of years, others have faced incidences of cyber censorship or retaliatory activity. One and a half months before the 2009 election, the YouTube channel owned by the artist and political commentator Suzannah B. Troy was likewise censored, until bloggers and a lawyer intervened on her behalf. In 2010, this blogger was attacked by computer viruses 3 or 4 times, including on the day this blogger reported to the New York Department of State Committee on Open Government an act of censorship committed by Brad Hoylman.

Flashback : Secretary of State Hillary Clinton hailed Internet freedom as tool to ‘spread truth and expose injustice’

We need your help to keep courageous bloggers, like Mr. Tilzer, doing what they do. If you are reading this, it is because you are turning to the Internet for reliable information. For it to be here, bloggers, like Mr. Tilzer, have to be able to do their work without fear of retribution or censorship.