Lesley Stahl’s Giant Conflict of Interest–And A Lesson About Ethical Corruption [View all]

[marmar]

from the Working Life blog:


Lesley Stahl’s Giant Conflict of Interest–And A Lesson About Ethical Corruption
Posted on 02 May 2013.


Why is Lesley Stahl sitting on the Advisory Board of an organization deeply involved in a contentious political debate? And is her service on that Advisory Board blessed by “60 Minutes”? Or were Stahl’s superiors even aware of her service? In any case, if “60 Minutes” has any inclination to adhere to CBS’ ethical guidelines, Stahl must be forced to resign from the board.

Here is the straightforward story. Stahl is a member of the Advisory Board of the Peter G. Peterson Foundation. As I wrote extensively in my book, “It’s Not Raining, We’re Getting Peed On: The Scam of the Deficit Crisis,” no person is more responsible for the hysteria around the phony debt crisis than Pete Peterson. He has bankrolled the campaign to the tune of tens of millions of dollars — a campaign that has been partly responsible for the attack against the social safety net and Social Security.

I would argue that, in as much as one person can be tagged with creating public policy reality, Pete Peterson has been singularly responsible for the continued misery of millions of Americans who can’t get work — because his maniacal promotion of the phony crisis has led to a failure on the part of the government to inject billions of dollars into an economy where the lack of jobs is the greatest threat to economic vitality. Not that Peterson gives a shit about the average worker — most of his wealth, as I wrote, was made by loading on huge debt to companies, which often resulted in the laying off of workers and the cutting of pay and benefits.

The point here is: Stahl is essentially giving her stamp of approval on an organization that has a very clear agenda. It is a hyper- partisan organization — partisan as defined as biased towards a particular cause. It is no different than the National Rifle Association or the AARP or Amnesty International. Whatever your views are on the agendas promoted by these organizations, either on the left or the right, there is a standard journalistic view that journalists do not serve on organizational boards, advisory or daily management, in order to preserve their “objectivity”. ....................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.workinglife.org/2013/05/02/leslie-stahls-giant-conflict-of-interest-and-a-lesson-about-ethical-corruption/