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11 May 2011 23:28

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Biz: Blatant evidence the FCC is in bed with big corporate entities

  • January After a long year of hand-wringing, including much complaining by consumer groups, the FCC approved the merger of NBC Universal and Comcast by 4-1. There was much teeth-grinding.
  • May One of the four commissioners who voted for the merger, Meredith Attwell Baker, has a new job. Wanna guess where? It rhymes with “bombast.” Or, perhaps, “total conflict of interest.”  source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

04 May 2011 15:01

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Biz: Warner Bros. buys up Rotten Tomatoes, Flixster

  • A conflict of interest on the side? One of the internet’s most popular movie review websites will now be owned by one of America’s major movie and entertainment studios. The acquisition has less to do with Rotten Tomatoes, however, than it does Flixster, a movie review/streaming company that counted RT as one of its subsidiaries — Warner Bros. wanted Flixster to push a competitive advantage against Netflix, and their new ownership of the widely-known review aggregator is a byproduct of that. So, if Warner Bros. makes a piece of utter dreck, hopefully you’ll still be able to see that not-so-fresh “tomatometer” rating. source
Posted by Chris Tognotti • 0 Comments • Permalink

20 Jan 2011 23:03

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Politics: SCOTUS: Should Scalia & Thomas have skipped campaign finance?

Liberal group Common Cause argues that the justices should’ve recused themselves from last year’s campaign finance decision for ties to Koch Industries and advocacy groups. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

26 Jun 2010 10:34

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U.S.: That judge in the drilling moratorium case just sold Exxon stock

  • $15,000 worth of stock sold source
  • » Why did he sell it? Simple. Because he realized Exxon owned one of the wells he was ruling on, and that it was a blatant conflict of interest.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

04 Jun 2010 14:19

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World: Did the World Health Organization overhype swine flu?

  • Two new reports suggest they did. Last year, swine flu, or H1N1, was treated as the second coming of the black plague. A couple of new reports suggest the people making the recommendations to WHO had ties to the drug industry, and those recommendations led to governments wasting millions of dollars on H1N1 vaccines that would never actually get used. “We are left wondering whether major public health organizations are able to effectively manage the conflicts of interest that are inherent in medical science,” one report says. So, who’s the swine now? source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

03 Feb 2010 22:26

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Tech, World: Italy’s trying to screw over YouTube for some stupid reason

  • The background In 2006, a video of a child with Down’s syndrome getting attacked showed up on YouTube. Italy has gone after Google for the video big time, suing major executives and arguing that they should screen their content. Google argues this is a bad idea because it’s impossible.
  • The changes Now, Italy is considering taking the policy a step further. They want to force user-generated content sites like YouTube to be liable for what it posts by screening all the content that goes through and getting licenses to distribute the content online. Gah. What a bad idea.
  • The motives? Who’s the Prime Minister? Oh yeah, Silvio Berlusconi. Anyway, some suggest the government’s putting the hammer down due to Berlusconi trying to protect the content of his total-conflict-of-interest media and entertainment companies. Tinfoil hat time. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

05 Jan 2009 04:05

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U.S.: He’s not even getting in the Oval Office on coattails

  • Given the gravity of the economic situation the nation is facing, I could not in good conscience ask the President-elect and his Administration to delay for one day the important work that needs to be done.
  • Bill Richardson • New Mexico governor, 2008 presidential candidate, and to-be U.S. Secretary of Commerce, who withdrew his name from consideration due to a pending federal investigation • source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 
 
 
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