Alan Grayson v. the Insurance Industry Hack
Greg Sargent reports the totally unsurprising fact that Alex Castellanos, one of CNN’s talking heads, is sucking at the insurance industry teat.
CNN has acknowledged in a statement to me that a high-profile Republican commentator who frequently discusses health care on the air is also the media buyer for one of the ad campaigns bankrolled by America’s Health Insurance Plans, the major industry trade group currently waging war against the White House and Dem reform proposals.
CNN tells me his ties to the industry will be disclosed in the future.
The CNN contributor, well-known GOP consultant Alex Castellanos, is best known for producing the racially-charged “Hands” ad, has repeatedly appeared on the network attacking Dem health care plans and the public option, which is strongly opposed by AHIP.
Castellanos’s consulting firm, National Media, also recently placed over $1 million of TV advertising for AHIP, according to info obtained by Media Matters. AHIP’s most recent $1 million ad buy attacks the health care plan as a threat to Medicare.
Given that news, take a close look at Alan Grayson’s appearance on the Situation Room a few weeks ago. Castellanos keeps claiming there’s a Republican plan. But, as Grayson points out, the plan Castellanos describes is simply a bunch of policies the insurance industry supports.
Seems to me CNN–in its newfound spirit of transparency–ought to give Grayson another opportunity to point out how Castellanos used a “news” show to pimp the industry’s policies.
In today’s WaPo0, Dana Milbank’s column is on Grayson, titled Congressman Die Quickly.
Dana is such a dweeb. He should go back to making home movies and leave reporting to grown-ups. Pity is, he and his peers think they are grown-ups and that gaming the system so successfully shows how grown up they are. Only peasants stand in line or expect fair treatment from the guy they tip their hat to.
This puts Grayson as an even bigger hero. He stood up to a mouth piece of the industry.
“Republicans” look responsible? I do not think so. A paid hack represented them and the industry. Nice affair there GOP.
“What the Republicans have done is insulting to America,” said Grayson.
Grayson has it correct. There is no thoughtful opposition.
Now Grayson has this information to keep in his pocket when challenged.
That’s tragic but funny in a transformational way.
They didn’t show the most egregious example of Alex’s style in this clip. He called Grayson a ‘kook’ right before this begins.
The fact that CNN doesn’t appear to have know about Castellanos’s ties to AHIP makes you wonder what they ask their commentators to disclose. They should consider replacing Castellanos with a different Republican commentator that is not tarnished by ties to the Health Insurance industry.
CNN should also find someone to replace Lou Dobbs.
Dobbs is one of the most popular shows CNN has, sadly. And I’d bet that CNN did know about his ties to AHIP, he was their major advertising buyer for goodness sakes.
The insurers are calling in ALL their favors to stop reform. With their buddy Rahm in the Whitehouse, all they need is a way to hide the democrats who actually kill the public option.
For the record, I bet they DO double their premiums and blame it on the government. They just need a public option weak enough to let them do it.
Boxturtle (Obama’s support of a decent public option seems to be lip service)
CNN is just being true to form. They have danced around admitting their continuing practice of hiring Pentagon propagandists as “military experts”, so why should this be any different?
Thanks for making this connection, since I had the exact same thought when reading this. The corruption is very wide-spread. In psychiatry and medicine in general, we have the influence of the pharmaceutical companies bending research results on drugs.
Some years ago, in my own field, I wrote a letter to the American Psychological Association magazine, APA Monitor, concerning racist aspects of the book The Bell Curve. To my surprise, the Monitor published my letter. However, they deleted a section that related to the influence of testing companies — a big advertiser in APA publications — might have upon the psychological research community and the field as a whole, when it came to research upon concepts such as intelligence and personality.
Of course an editor has the right to edit a letter for brevity, but I thought the elision telling. And in fact, to this day, there has been zero examination of the influence of testing companies upon the research done on psychological assessment. This takes my comment quite to the edge of OT, but thought you’d be interested.
Does anyone else think Rep. Grayson should run for President in 2012?
I’d vote for him.
He would run in very much the same opposition, doesn’t that even get through to you?
Sure its nice Congressman Grayson is saying alot of what we have all been saying for 20-25-30 years. The problem is, if his resolve is legit, we can’t clone him.
The House has the only Progressive/Liberal Majority in it. Even if the Blue Dogs fight it, its likely to pass. That’s it that’s fact…
The Senate on the other hand, the Progressive members of the party are much more narrow. This is why Obama made it a point for the most Conservative committee to shape Health Care.
This is where the baby is split;
What your going to have is a Progressive House bill watered down by mostly Conservative members of the Democratic Party + Mrs Snowe and they’ll hale VICTORY and you’ll have a law with erectile dysfunction.
This is why the calculation by the left is most puzzling, starting from a point of compromise, than starting from the strongest position you could start from – Single Payer
This is why when Slavoj Žižek speaks he makes even more sense and in many circles he’s labeled a Leftist Wingnut.
No he’s right, we fight from a position of what’s law, but the Right is constantly saying, if its legal what’s wrong with it? What they have done in fact is legalize torture, legalize “death panels”, limit access which they promote as “choice”, etc, etc.
That’s why hoping for any meaningful change is almost hopeless because the Right Wing controlled media is ignoring us mostly, so when we are given the mike to speak, the shock and awe of what we say doesn’t register to most Americans.
Its a complete reversal of what they’ve been sold.
So electing ONE man won’t solve the problem. Cleaning House in Congress MIGHT work. But it will take at least two election cycles to do, I’m not sure I can wait that long, I’m 39…
Shit, I’ll be 66 next month and I’m planning on working this grind until 2016 and beyond. 2016 because I think that’s the earliest we’re going to be able to change the makeup of Congress as a whole.
How about CNN cans Alex Castellanos’ ass for non-disclosure and unavoidable conflict of interest? He can’t possibly be objective or give alternate voices a real hearing.
As media buyer for a group and within an industry now spending more on political advocacy than almost any other, he has an unavoidable conflict of interest in working for CNN generally, not just as a commentator on health care reform. He’s buying CNN more than they’re buying him.
Interesting news..Shine the light.
Grayson “they have no plan”
When I saw this interaction live I kept wondering why Gloria Borger and Wolf Blitzer kept trying to compare Joe “you lie” Wilsons outburst to Graysons statements about Republicans and “no plan” on the floor.
Gloria Borger you insulted “every Republican”, You called Republicans “neanderthals”
What the fuck was her point? Is she really unable to see the difference between shouting out during a Presidents speech on health care and a congressmans efforts to stir up the debate on the floor.
Borger, Blitzer kept trying to keep the focus on his comments and not health care policy. Telling
“knuckle dragging neanderthals”
http://www.cartoonstock.com/directory/n/neanderthaLS.asp
Hi-Yo, Grayson! Away!
Holy shit!! Contrast to Olbermann’s reaction to Richard Wolffe’s possible conflict of interest. He didn’t let Wolffe on for months while they made sure his Public Strategies gig was benign!
Ah, standards …
What was that scoop on Richard Wolfe. His leanings are so apparent.
From KO’s diary over at DKos:
Richard Wolffe Returns
EDIT: I personally would have been happy to never have to see Wolffe on KO again…
Heh, that makes at least two of us.
See @23 above, we are making some infrastructure upgrades and adding a new blog “FDL News Desk”; bear with us.
If you can’t use the reply function, try closing and re-opening your browser, that worked here.
Thanks for your patience as we roll out some really cool new stuff.
Do any of them do tricks? No, not that kind of trick.
I almost left that comment on KO’s diary, but there were nearly 400 comments so I didn’t bother.
Now, lessee….Fineman next?
Been fun seeing Chris Hayes on deck more frequently when Wolffe was off.
With another Jay Rock, we can’t go wrong.
Whores.
DNC pounces on the news.
so now we know Castellano’s reasons for unbridled support for Insurance company profits. What the hell is Gloria Borger’s excuse for her focus on the distrations “you lie”, “you called the Republicans neanderthals” boo hoo.
Go watch Borger again. Her focus and line of questioning is so odd
Not so odd. She’s evolved into a full fledged party hack over the last 10 years. Back in the day she was somewhat thoughtful in her stance as a conservative and this kinda stuff didn’t happen on whichever Sunday morning show she was on, can’t remember which one. When Shrub got selected in 2000 she started goin’ apeshit with the Kool-Aid.
She could at least try to be balanced. Her efforts to compare the “you lie” outburst during the President’s health care speech to Grayson’s the Republicans are knuckle dragging “neanderthals” was a pathetic comparison
Gloria gave up all pretense of balance with Shrubs coronation.
Whoa, icons now. Uh oh, we’re in for it now.
MR SCOTT!!!
Aye, Cap’n, ah lutle fine tunin’ to the thrusters is all.
Agree. She was pissed and showed her colors.
Weird. My comment disappeared, but the DNC is jumping on this news.
Probably just growing pains with today’s birth of the bouncing baby News Desk.
That must be it. Needs an epidural.
Yeah, we have had a couple of minor issues over the last couple of days as the bugs are sorted out of our new addition and a couple of things are tweaked for optimum efficiency in the future. If you see anything major, let us know in comments.
When I edit, it mooshes my edited comment with the original, no carriage returns. A refresh takes care of it — sometimes.
Well, I’d love to be able to do that but have been closed out of submitting for a good part of the morning….this is a test to see if it’s possible to get thru’ now.
Agree with msmolly @ 24 – the biggest irritation is that the “remember me” button on the sign-in is apparently dead in the water. Have to relog on every time I shut down computer.
Thanks for asking. *smooch*
It’s possible that’s unrelated. If you are on Firefox, it sometimes loses authenticated sessions. That can be remedied by searching for the file “cookies.sqlite” and deleting it. In Windows Explorer, you will need to enable searching of system files to find it. This happens to me if I use Firefox to clear my cache instead of using McAfee’s clean-up function.
Running Safari and have never had any problems with getting automatically logged off in the past…seems to be connected with the last major revisions at the Lake.
I thank you kindly for the feedback but, be forewarned, you are providing instructions to someone whose knowledge base pretty much stops at knowing how to get on-line.
Hey, there are enough folks here that we can teach you how to do anything on the intertoobz.
I know, darlin’, but unfortunately, I couldn’t even *understand* the instructions Jim provided. Being Mac-based will frequently result in not being able to follow instructions also. And I really hate hogging comments with stuff like this.
How’re ya doing these days?
We be fine but ah cain’t hep ya with yer Mac. :(
S’posed to get cooler this weekend. I don’t mind the heat but this gettin’ all sweaty standin’ in the shade is gettin’ old.
The site has been wonky for at least a week now.
this was the same crowd that brought us the fierce advocacy of Armstrong Wiliams
replying to #1 above:
the co-creator of Mousterpiece Theatre knows something about quick and merciful deaths
the reply feature is temporarily mia
Retired generals spouting pentagon talking points while masquerading as analysts, industry hacks masquerading as analysts, Lou Dobbs masquerading as a newsperson, CNN masquerading as a news channel.
goodness, I’m bordering on spammer now –
in light of the current twitches on the site, I recommend y’all get yourselves a RSS Feed (bottom of the page) I’m using Yahoo as it allows me to comment – some of the feeds/reads just show you the post. in the event you can’t get back in through your normal hook up, the feed allows you access and saves the newly addicted all kinds of stress
k,thx,bye
Do you know if that will work for those of us still in dial-up Dark Ages?
As opposed to us “oldly/ie.long addicted” pups? *G*
Does Castellanos get to pocket the normal cost of a commercial when he get on for free? Since it is more than a commercial, (he gets to respond) does he get to charge his clients a premium?
CNN ought to look into that since they are paying him and he may be charging someone else for the same time (i.e. should they be charging him?)
We need to get genetic material from Grayson and clone him…many, many times.
I’m hoping we have another one who is currently a state senator and is running against Bill Young (R, FL-10, forever). In a state legislature where Dems are heavily outnumbered by Rethugs thanks to gerrymandering he hasn’t been able to get a lot done but has been successful on some things. I’m thinking of working on his campaign but want to hear what he has to say on some things first. With Wexler’s resignation effective 1 Jan I expect the season to start a little early here. ‘Bout damn time.
Blue Texan’s regularly scheduled post is up and ready: “Private Consortium of Republicans and Billionaires Conspire to Deny Rush Limbaugh an NFL Franchise”
The upgrade to the software platorm took place this past weekend; if you have had problems since then, they may be due to changes in the platform and techies are still working on tweaks. As bmaz said, advise in comments. These things take a while to sort out, but in the big picture there will be more and better functionality because of the upgrade.
If you’ve been experiencing problems since before last Friday, you might want to double-check to see if there are any patches or updated versions for your browser of choice.
[edit: heh, looks like a full-court press with bmaz and egregious here to help! you EW folks are getting lots of attention.]
I noticed the issue with randomly being logged out about the time there were some upgrades to the platform (which were apparent if you do a view source and compare with prior files … oh wait, no normal person would hang on to old versions of pages just to check on stuff like that… never mind). Randomly being logged out is really a pain on mobile devices (oh wait, normal people don’t stay logged into ew.fdl on a laptop, a Blackberry, and an iPod Touch, do they?).
Things got pretty bad this morning, but [fingers crossed] it seems to be better now…
Sounds to me like CNN needs to fact check SNL again
That was just too fuckin’ funny.
Corporate “news” organization sre nothing more than pimps for their corporate masters. Everyone here knows that. The vast majority of the public, however, is still in the dark thinking the U.S. has a legitimate 4th Estate.
There is a deeper level of dark…….there’s all those who believe faux news *IS* the 4th estate.
Bets on whether Colbert and Stewart’s crews are working on this??
I’m thinkin’ SNL.
OK, I got that frownie face graphic (in preview) just a little while ago when I typed the three-stroke one and thought, “Way cool!” but then got hit with a “database connection error” so that the comment wouldn’t post…..may be that’s part of the super duper update thingies that’s causing the site wonkiness.
Test
Smile :)
Frown :(
On edit: Works for me
#2 hafta refresh after edit, for now. Aye, Cap’n, we’re workin’ on it.
test
*g*
Nope, that one’s not linked
Earth to CNN
People have stopped watching you because you sold out. Wouldn’t it be nice to get out of bed one morning and say “I am not a crook” and have people believe you?
Just spent the last six days in D.C. Spent hours with aides in the offices of Senator Voinovich, Senator Brown (on the I/P issue) and Congressman Wilson of Ohio. Also attended the Senate hearing on Tuesday. What a pleasure to watch the expressions of the Rethugs as Snowe took some of the wind out of their $ails. Thought one of the blood vessels in Senator Roberts face was going go burst when Senator Snowe referred to lack of health care progress as “decades of inaction”
The door to Senator Voinovich’s health care vote is not completely closed to the “public option” Am sure of this. Folks from Ohio and around the nation should be emailing, phone calling, visiting Voinovich on the “public option”
Welcome back to civilization!
Boxturtle (please remember to bathe after wallowing in slime!)
BT Let all of your friends in Ohio know that the door to Voinovich on the “public option” is open and the folks in Ohio should be walking through that door and hammering hard while being polite.
Voinovich’s door is open. He has “deep concerns” and our “deep concerns” should end up in his equation. He has a few months to jump on the “public option” bus and go down in the archives as supporting the American people’s needs.
I’ve felt all along that Voinovitch’s vote was available. Everybody give him a call, but you gotta talk like George. Don’t talk ideology or that it’s the “right thing to do”. Talk about how much cheaper the system will be, how it will help businesses and government budget more accurately, how it’s actually more efficient to pay up front for basic care then it is to have folks use overburdened emergency rooms as family doctors. And so on.
Voinovitch is an operations wonk. He sees no point in a poorly run ANYTHING. That’s the best approach.
Boxturtle (Known as “him again” to Voinovitch staffers, I suspect)
Box Turtle “Voinovitch is an operations wonk. He sees no point in a poorly run ANYTHING. That’s the best approach.”
Box Turtle “poorly run anything” He voted for the Bush administration twice.
he voted for the 2002 war resolution.
I disagree I think you hit him from wherever you stand. He is open. He knows that people are suffering and millions underserved.
Although I did hear his aide say “Voinovich supports capitalism” 8 times during our conversation. My question to her was what does “capitalism have to do with his oath to protect the constitution” and to represent his constituents?
His aide (Angela) describes his concerns as
1. Pharmaceutical company profits not addressed
2. Regulation and oversight of Insurance Industry
3. Cost on system after the first few years. Is the legislation sustainable
He’s a republican, he’s not perfect. Many democrats voted for that as well.
Your #3 is the big hitter, I think. And it’s tough to predict. For every pundit one side finds, the other side can find one as well.
Boxturtle (And does he mean guarenteeing profits or controlling them?)
PIMP IT OUT is an understatement!!!
Will some dem on the talking heads please remind us that the thugs watched this crisis go on for 8 years and looked the other way.
Where were there BIG PLANS when they had the congress and presidency?
Oh….wait they were busy with other things like governing with industry hacks.
During the Tuesday hearing Senator Snowe referred to the “Decades of inaction”
Yeah decades right the most recent 8 years is the pertinent issue.
Thanks I missed that but every time the thugs trot out that ‘we have a plan’ bullshit the dem should say ‘The american people know damn well your so called plan is a stall. If you cared at all about health care where was your plan the last eight years.
I spoke too soon. I’m still be logged out randomly when I refresh this page.
Grayson is just relentless in staying on message. But he’s right, its all about problem solving.
Judge has declared a mistrial for most of the Kevin Ring counts. Did Safavian ended up at bust after appeal? None of the Ring counts included, as best I could tell, anything related to the Abramoff email acknowledgements that Ashcroft’s COS was handing Abramoff the classified Mariannas report and acknowledging that Ashcroft and Ring were going to work on quashing it for Abramoff/Ring’s clients.
Oh, shoot! I just saw you had already linked to that, but I couldn’t erase mine @ 80. Will try again.
Good news on Voinovich. You think I can twist arms with McConnell and/or Bunning? *g*
Here’s how cynical I am getting – Schumer seems very out of character aggressive to me right now. I’ve begun to think that Dem internals show Reid is going to lose in his campaign and as such, he is the ez guy to pin the public option issue on. A few Dems can huff and puff about needing the Public Option and make noises about it being all up to Reid and how Reid needs to get the bill in shape; then when he doesn’t they can vote for the insurance boondoggle anyway and keep the lobbyist funding rolling in for the well bankrolled Dems who are going to have an easier time in their elections, but “the base” will be placated at Reid losing his seat. IOW, they are already converting his loss into an industry $$ gain for the Dem party – bolstering the creds of someone like Schumer whose constituency might not be thrilled with him these days – and keeping health care $$ in the fold; all while giving public option supporters a bogeyman who will end up seeming to have to “pay” for his evils on down the line.
I just can’t really bite on it. There was no reason for the Baucus bill to come out of committee in the form it took just for a vote from Snow.
You are far more informed about the minutia on health care and most issues. But my somewhat well informed peasant take is this. Our Reps are getting lots of calls,emails, group responses about health care reform. As I sat in Senator Browns office the phone never stopped ringing. In Voinvovich’s office not as much but the aide said they are getting an enormous amount of phone calls etc.
I believe what Senator Harkin said a while back there will be a health care bill with a public option on the President’s desk by December. During Pelosi’s press briefing today she repeated polls that reported 62% of the American people support a public option. Our job is to keep pushing hard no matter how “cynical” we (I) have become. I want to believe so I keep pushing. I placed (as well as many folks I know)many calls to Voinovich’s offices over the summer. The door is open so I keep encouraging folks to walk through and push hard
Well, and Schumer is probably already posturing to be the next Majority Leader if and when Reid loses.
I’m with you Mary. The leadership sold out the po long ago, now they have to figure out their exit strategy. After Mukasey, I will never trust Schumer again (not that I actually trusted him before that…).
Jello Jay (sorry, he doesn’t get Rock back from me until a real po is passed in the Senate), Kerry, Wyden, etc. could have killed the Baucus bill in committee and they didn’t. Kerry conveniently was one of the signers of the pro-po letter. I’m sure he will come back to his constituents and try to tell us he tried. Bullshit.
“Try? There is no try. Only do. Or do not.” Kerry could have done. Instead he only tried.
Try?
Trying?
Trying “what”?
Perhaps it is all national security “stuff”. (Actually, it is about the security of the nation’s people, the security of individual human beings to know that their lives have value AND that their society agrees.)
Maybe we should ask our politicians just how much they think the lives of those human beings, as individuals are really “worth”. And one’s portfolio or “legacy” do NOT count. (This “valuation” is not about money, ultimately, even if the Political CLa$$ wants to reduce the right of the people to good health and well-being, to some odious little truism like, “Well, rendered down to your essential chemical components, you are each worth about seventy-five cents …” To add some insult to that “injury” these same politicians have not the slightest qualm about hitting up any of those three-bit folks (you and me, natch) for just as much money as the pols can get … “To change things for the better …”, meanwhile these same pols are pocketing the big lobbying bucks with the promise of keeping everything the same.)
Trying?
Yeah.
The politicians are trying “the people’s” patience, phred, rather sorely.
What is worse is that “they” think we are all stupid and can’t get along without “them”.
Maybe “they” need to have another “think” coming?
What a bunch of sleaze-buckets, the lot of “them”.
Actually, what the Political Cla$$ does, predictable as it is, does NOT matter.
What “the people” will DO (or lack the courage and conviction to “do”, henceforth), is of much greater import.
I wonder if the people are beginning to grasp that truth … yet?
DW
Well said, DW : ) Trying my patience is putting it mildly. We have got to find a way to rein in our out-of-control politicians. I don’t think they can put their pants on in the morning without a lobbyist telling them how to do it first.
Oh it helps the pollytishuns, phred, if the lobbyists say, “Put yer pants on, one leg at a time, don’t forget to close the barn door, and check in the pockets.”
That is the currently acceptable way to address the problem.
DW
LOL : )
And half the lobbyists used to be politicians, and are still exercising their privileges.
(I think Congress should remove floor privileges form any former member who has a job after leaving office. Assume they’re all lobbyists.)
You are correct, PJ, of course.
However, the main reason many become politicians is that that is the means of becoming a lobbyist with entree …
Why would Congress wish to change this wonderful thing?
Well, they might want to consider that it would lower the number of reasons for people with pitchforks and torches to show up on their doorsteps.
Now, PJ, in a rational and reasonable world, what you suggest would make sense. It would have a sobering effect.
However, I have it, on good authority, that even the dumbest, most low-down snake of a politician (no offense to snakes, mind you) has figured out that a gated, securely patrolled, “community” is the best location for the domicile of a god or goddess-like being like him or herself …
So, even if the rabble does get roused, before they are going to be able to present any “grievances” to their “representatives” at home, said rabble is going to have to go through the police lines, convincing the good officers (who, tasers and riot gear at the ready, likely will identify “their” interests as being WITH or in the “service” of the Political Cla$$) that everything is on the up and up …
Raising hell with the Political Cla$$ or their masters, the New American Ari$tocracy, has a tendency to strike the police as a challenge to AUTHORITY. And the police don’t like that. NOT one little bit and they are likely to see it as a challenge to themselves and their position in society, as well.
I don’t think “reason” enters into it.
Power is what it is all about now, money-power, political power, and, increasingly, raw, brute, physical police-power.
That is certainly the way it looked here, in Pittsburgh, not all that many days ago.
Or, perhaps, you imagine that “the people”, irate and vexed, will simply march down to Washington and demand of the House and Senate that they behave as if the rest of us, who are NOT corporations, are too damned important to be failed – and big enough, together, to do something about it?
That would be perceived as a threat to the nation.
I remember Kent State.
And the message was clear.
So?
Pitchforks probably are not the way to go.
In fact, definitely, not the way to go.
And, no doubt, the revised Patriot Act requires permits for torches …
DW
So sorry–just realized.
Don’t 48 out of the 50 States already have medical malpractice caps?
“Tort Reform” is the ultimate red herring.
“America’s most trusted name in news.” What bullshit.
CNN unbiased.
In Poker that’s called a stacked deck.