{"id":5778,"date":"2011-11-14T12:19:06","date_gmt":"2011-11-14T20:19:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=5778"},"modified":"2011-11-14T12:19:06","modified_gmt":"2011-11-14T20:19:06","slug":"abc-news-lists-the-wealthy-1-influencing-politics-but-leaves-a-few-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=5778","title":{"rendered":"ABC News Lists The Wealthy 1% Influencing Politics &#8211; But Leaves A Few Out"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>ABC News has <a href=\"http:\/\/abcnews.go.com\/Politics\/top-powerful-businessmen-influencing-politics\/story?id=14932475#\" target=\"_blank\">published a list<\/a> of what they call the <em>&#8220;Top 8 Most Powerful Businessmen Influencing Politics.&#8221;<\/em> It is a testament to the success of the Occupy Wall Street movement that a mainstream news organization is even attempting to tackle this issue.<\/p>\n<p>Prior to OWS there was nary a peep about the appalling and dangerous wealth gap in America. The pundits and politicians had a single-minded focus on deficits and ignored the larger question of how they accumulated throughout the Bush administration via tax cuts for rich, off-the-books wars, and irresponsible deregulation.<\/p>\n<p>The Occupy movement has completely shifted the debate to the more relevant issue of economic equity and the abuse of power by corporations and their wealthy proponents. That shift is the reason that ABC News has, for the first time, published a list of One Percenters who influence politics. Unfortunately, the list is woefully incomplete:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Koch Brothers<\/li>\n<li>George Soros<\/li>\n<li>Warren Buffett<\/li>\n<li>Jeffrey Katzenberg<\/li>\n<li>A. Jerrold Perenchio<\/li>\n<li>George Kaiser<\/li>\n<li>Howard Schultz<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>ABC seems to be going out of their way to be non-partisan. The problem with that approach is that the ranks of the wealthy are not themselves non-partisan. Here are a few more Republican power brokers that ABC omitted &#8211; and every one a billionaire:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Rupert Murdoch<\/li>\n<li>Philip Anschutz<\/li>\n<li>Sumner Redstone<\/li>\n<li>Donald Trump<\/li>\n<li>Steve Wynn<\/li>\n<li>T. Boone Pickens<\/li>\n<li>Arthur Blank<\/li>\n<li>Meg Whitman<\/li>\n<li>Richard Scaife<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The noticeable leaning of wealthy businessmen to the conservative side ought to have been acknowledged by ABC. This is especially true given that so many of them are their colleagues in the media. It is particularly conspicuous that ABC left Rupert Murdoch off of their list given that he may be the world&#8217;s most prominent influencer of politics with both his blatantly biased news enterprises and his personal generosity toward conservative causes.<\/p>\n<p>Other than these egregious omissions, it is encouraging to see the mainstream press starting to recognize the imbalance in this nation&#8217;s economic and political systems. And for that we can thank the Occupiers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>ABC News has published a list of what they call the &#8220;Top 8 Most Powerful Businessmen Influencing Politics.&#8221; It is a testament to the success of the Occupy Wall Street movement that a mainstream news organization is even attempting to tackle this issue. Prior to OWS there was nary a peep about the appalling and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1,684],"tags":[270,934,30],"class_list":["post-5778","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","category-media-bias","tag-abc-news","tag-occupy-wall-street","tag-rupert-murdoch"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4Ijg-1vc","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":5832,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=5832","url_meta":{"origin":5778,"position":0},"title":"Sarah Palin&#8217;s Top 10 Reasons To Support Occupy Wall Street","author":"Mark NC","date":"11\/21\/2011","format":false,"excerpt":"The Occupy Wall Street movement is a bona fide phenomenon that, in two short months, has grown to levels no one could have predicted. And despite the inability of the media to discern the goals of the OWS protesters, their agenda could not be more apparent. The movement's core convictions\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Economy&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Economy","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=219"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5504,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=5504","url_meta":{"origin":5778,"position":1},"title":"#OccupyWallStreet: It&#8217;s Not About Giving Government More Power","author":"Mark NC","date":"10\/9\/2011","format":false,"excerpt":"The latest right-wing mis-read of the Occupy Wall Street phenomenon is that the protesters are advocating giving more power to a government that they don't trust. That sentiment was expressed by John Fund on Fox News as well as by George Will in this exchange with Jesse LaGreca on ABC's\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;General&quot;","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5914,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=5914","url_meta":{"origin":5778,"position":2},"title":"Time Magazine: #Occupy Wall Street #1 Story Of 2011","author":"Mark NC","date":"12\/8\/2011","format":false,"excerpt":"The editors of Time Magazine have selected the Occupy Wall Street movement as the top news story of 2011. This was a year that featured a contentious primary race for the Republican nomination for president, a bitter congressional battle over the debt ceiling, and a trial of staggering importance to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;General&quot;","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5661,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=5661","url_meta":{"origin":5778,"position":3},"title":"Fox News Raises ACORN From The Grave To Bash The #Occupy Movement","author":"Mark NC","date":"10\/28\/2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Another day, another Fox News attempt smear the Occupy Wall Street movement. This article also appears on Alternet.org.Fox News has been feverishly trying to dampen the viral growth of OWS ever since it sprouted in a park in Lower Manhattan about a month ago. Their overt hostility is in sharp\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;General&quot;","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5526,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=5526","url_meta":{"origin":5778,"position":4},"title":"Fox Nation Desperately Seeking An #OccupyWallStreet Bogeyman","author":"Mark NC","date":"10\/13\/2011","format":false,"excerpt":"With the ongoing success of the Occupy Movement, Fox News is exhibiting their desperation and fear. They know that the American people are waking up and recognizing the dishonesty and corruption of the conservative media, big corporations, and kept politicians. That's why they are resorting to tactics like this nonsense\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;General&quot;","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5652,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=5652","url_meta":{"origin":5778,"position":5},"title":"Glenn Beck, David Duke, And Occupy Wall Street","author":"Mark NC","date":"10\/25\/2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Glenn Beck spent a good chunk of his morning radio program today lambasting the Occupy Wall Street movement. It's a pastime that he has become obsessed with, and his obsession grows every day as OWS gets stronger and garners more support from the American people. Today's tirade centered on the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;General&quot;","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5778","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5778"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5778\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5784,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5778\/revisions\/5784"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5778"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5778"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5778"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}