The Duluth News Tribune has big undisclosed conflicts of interest in its coverage of Enbridge’s Line 3 pipeline.
Media
New York Times runs Michael Hayden pro-drone op-ed; fails to disclose ties to drone manufacturers
In its Sunday Review section on February 21, 2016, the New York Times ran a column titled “To Keep America Safe, Embrace Drone Warfare.” The article’s thesis is summarized in its second-last sentence: “Civilians have died, but in my firm opinion, the death toll from terrorist attacks would have been much higher if we had …
Senators speak out for LNG exports, bring in big bucks from oil and gas industry
As the west scrambles for a geopolitical response to Russia’s play for the Crimean peninsula, advocates for the oil and gas industry have used the situation to redouble the push to export liquefied natural gas (LNG). Framing the issue as a matter of protecting a fledgling democracy and ensuring security for United States allies, oil- …
For Tomahawk missiles, image is everything
Last week PAI released a new report detailing the defense industry ties of analysts and think tanks who commented on military intervention in Syria. The report profiled 22 commentators and seven think tanks, paying special attention to Stephen Hadley, former national security adviser to George W. Bush, who now serves as a director for Raytheon, …
Bay Area Research Project News Clips
I’m going to start posting a locality-specific version of the NameWire (let’s call it SFNewsWire) in order to shed light on recent activity and happenings affecting the Bay Area organizations we’re researching with Spot.us. AAA Northern California, Nevada & Utah partners with IBM for Green Data Center (Routers.com) Lloyd Dean, CEO of Catholic Healthcare West, …
Sen. Carl Levin Issues Subpoena to Goldman Sachs
After an extended period of blog lethargy, I’m making my debut on Eyes on the Ties today in order to announce a LittleSis research project: we’re working to develop a comprehensive list of all the connections between Goldman Sachs executives and influential government officials and lobbyists. Serendipitously (or perhaps not), Senator Carl Levin has also …
Where’s PPIP?
For several weeks beginning in late March, Tim Geithner and others on the Rubin wing of the White House expended significant political capital convincing the listless business press and the broader electorate that PPIP, the taxpayer-subsidized toxic asset removal program, was the only way forward. Two months later, and without any PPIP toxic transfers, Geithner …
Beltway buzz
LittleSis for Washington insiders, in this week’s National Journal: The biggest value LittleSis offers is not so much the details it provides but the ties it highlights. “In a city like Washington that functions off of connections … having an online Rolodexing system to figure out these connections is a valuable tool,” said Scott Goodstein, …
“Le facebook inversé”
LittleSis has crossed the pond: Le Monde’s blog Bonne Nouvelle plugged the site today, and France’s first couple showed up soon after. Bonne Nouvelle is big into optimism, and we’re happy the site was presented in that context; LittleSis is all about political hope for our ailing democracy. An excerpt from the post (translation thanks …
The buzz is building…
All done with being cooped up in alpha land, LittleSis has been making appearances all over the internet today. We’ve been thrilled with the response. It all started with Sunlight’s post, followed by OpenCongress’s piece yesterday. Today Craig Newmark gave the site a shout out on his blog (cross-posted at Huffington Post). The Institute for …