What is Digg?198 Comments
- mecharabbit, on 08/16/2008, -6/+93That's good. They're using some of their massive oil profits to sponsor something in the public interest. Or maybe they're doing it for the advertising or to use their sponsorship as leverage to demand that CNN spin the coverage of the energy policy debate in a way that favors the oil industry. Okay, maybe it's not good.
- piglet1350, on 08/16/2008, -4/+89This doesn't sound like a conflict of interest....
- sk11, on 08/16/2008, -4/+64Welcome to the United States of America, brought to you by ExxonMobil.
- CincyJeff, on 08/16/2008, -5/+48Sure, why would the most profitable industry over the last decade want to invest in media coverage of the next administration?
Follow the money... - inactive, on 08/16/2008, -4/+42This shouldn't be surprising to anyone? Almost all the debates were sponsored by Americans for Balanced Energy Choices (ABEC), a coal industry front group. Why don't you go back and count how many times the participants were asked about Global Warming, it was something close to...let's see, oh, zero.
- BXRWXR, on 08/16/2008, -1/+22"I have this feeling that whoever is elected president, no matter what you promise on the campaign trail - blah, blah, blah - when you win, you go into this smoke-filled room with the twelve industrialist capitalist scum-***** who got you in there. And you're in this smoky room, and this little film screen comes down ... and a big guy with a cigar goes, "Roll the film." And it's a shot of the Kennedy assassination from an angle you've never seen before ... that looks suspiciously like it's from the grassy knoll. And then the screen goes up and the lights come up, and they go to the new president, "Any questions?" "Er, just what my agenda is?"
-Bill Hicks - Ebonsteel, on 08/16/2008, -2/+23Actually, they pretty much own US, too. :(
- TheRhinoceros, on 08/16/2008, -0/+18well, so long as the conventions are covered by stations and outlets not sponsored by anyone. I'm not watching CNN or CBS or any other major network. Screw them.
You can be sure that I'll be watching C-Span. And turning it off when no one is actually speaking on the convention floor. Wellllll....TV On, Muted. Maybe some Old Metallica on in the background between convention events and/or speakers....then again, I might listen to the XM coverage. we'll see.
You can watch the other coverage....If you like commercials... and annoying pundits telling you what someone else just said, instead of listening for yourself and making up your mind about it.
that's my two cents. - alfreeland, on 08/16/2008, -0/+18United Corporations of America...
- schneid4323, on 08/16/2008, -3/+21Really it's the same people that own Exxonmobil own CNN.
- btschul, on 08/16/2008, -6/+23Can you say "bias"?
- muckemuck, on 08/16/2008, -4/+21If it were in the public interest then they wouldn't use over $120 MILLION of your taxpayer dollars (i.e. just add another $120,000,000 to our national debt) to pay for the conventions.
The Libertarian convention didn't take taxpayer funds. But the Republican and Democratic parties don't mind spending your tax dollars to gather and crown their nominees.. both of which have been known for months.
http://digg.com/political_opinion/McCain_Obama_Use ... - inactive, on 08/16/2008, -5/+21It's not for Exxon. They a VERY interested in making sure both candidates are in their pocket.
- irishjays, on 08/16/2008, -0/+14When are you puppets going to cut the strings. Sponsorship is nothing...NBC is actually OWNED by General Electric. The largest Lobbying group on the political scene, with a craptastic pollution record, and wicked high profit margins. Inform yourselves you might start making sense: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Electric
- MarkDTS, on 08/16/2008, -2/+15I'm sure that ExxonMobile is welcomed by both parties, since both parties are interested in the same thing...making money!
- esilverski, on 08/16/2008, -1/+14No, but I can say "the most trusted name in news"
- jlegato, on 08/16/2008, -7/+19We should all build our own electric cars because the worlds huge automotive and oil industries will not build them for us and our elected "leaders" have sat by holding the future just out of reach.
- pintomp3, on 08/16/2008, -2/+14of the lobbyist, buy the politician, for the corporation.
- twomeyw23334, on 08/16/2008, -3/+13We're "addicted" to oil because we rely on it heavily, but what does that have to do with "crack." Our current economic infrastructure is highly dependent on the Internet, if the whole Internet were to go down for a week there would be billions in lost revenue. Should we end our "crack addiction" to the Internet as well? Or should we just keep dumping money into the pockets of Google and like companies?
This anti-Exxon and such is purely emotionally spewed garbage. If you want to break your "crack addiction" to oil then don't use it for God sakes. But....... let me guess, you're a victim who has to use oil because the oilneoconmilitaryindustrialauto complex gives you no other choice, and God forbid you live a downgraded lifestyle equivalent to much the rest of the world who has a minuscule CO2 footprint compared to you. Let me break out my violin. Keep bashing the oil companies, it might make up for the blatant hypocrisy. - ad33lshahid, on 08/16/2008, -1/+11have you been living under a rock? they're two sides of the same coin
- wwwonka, on 08/16/2008, -7/+14We are a nation of oil "crack addicts" and until we have a hardcore intervention crack dealers like the Bush Administration, and yes even the flip flop Pelosi's of our world, will keep putting big oil company money in their pockets and dealing us the the black crack for as long as they can.
- sk8oride, on 08/16/2008, -5/+12In addition to electric cards, you'll also need to... stop flying, stop buying things made of plastic, stop painting your house or anything else or buying anything that's been painted,stop buying anything made from nylon or polyester, stop washing your clothes with laundry detergent, stop buying insulated electrical wires, stop buying and using styrofoam, stop driving on and repairing roads (it takes a lot of oil to make those roads), stop brushing your teeth (everything in a toothbrush is made from oil), stop using toothpaste (it has glycerin in it, which is made from oil).... the list goes on.
I don't understand why everyone hates one "big oil" so much. They make a profit because they provide a good that everyone wants. They should make a profit. That's how capitalism works. Why is okay to target one single industry and regulate them differently than everyone else? Why don't we tax Google's extra profits they made over last year? Oil companies also made tremendous investments and can get hit very hard when disasters occur. When hurricanes hit the gulf coast they often have millions of dollars in damage to repair, and spend millions (and billions) of dollars a year in long term exploration projects. Do you want the oil companies to need a bail out every time a natural disaster hits because we taxed away all their profits during the good years?
I for one am sick and tired of the government spending billions of tax dollars every year on a problem that doesn't even exist. I bet you usually don't hear that only half of scientists agree that man is the main cause of the current warming trend. One third agree that our current climate models can accurately predict what will happen in the future. It doesn't sound like anyone really knows what's going on. It's just as likely that higher CO2 levels will produce more efficient clouds (clouds cool the earth better when they are made of smaller water droplets), which will have a larger cooling effect than the warming effect the additional 1 CO2 molecule we add to every 100,000 molecules of air every 5 years.
To Eric: If you think the republicans are the big nasty pro-oil companies while the democrats are zipping around in their electric cars, you are sorely mistaken. I wonder how they get from campaign stop to campaign stop? I assure you it's not by bike. In fact, Al Gore used 7+ times more electricity than the average person last year. To make up for it, he bought carbon credits from himself.
I could go one for a lot longer, but I'm tired of typing. - algaeturd, on 08/16/2008, -0/+7When will people understand that the media is 100% controlled by the same people who control things like oil and defense and special interests? The powers that be DEPEND on the ignorance, apathy and stupidity of the American people. They never fail to disappoint.
- macslut, on 08/16/2008, -0/+7Thank God smoking is now illegal in federal buildings. So we're good, right?
- katorga, on 08/16/2008, -4/+11The dirty secret is that the democrats. being the majority, are taking more $$$ from "Big Oil" than the republicans are. You never lobby only one party; you play both sides of the aisle equally.
- i4mt3hwin, on 08/16/2008, -4/+10*tin foil hat on*
Seriously, who cares? If a solar energy company sponsored it, would we all be like "omg the cnn is going to spin the coverage pro-solar". - Rixar13, on 08/16/2008, -6/+12I am glad to see "Big Oil Company Tax Breaks" are spent for something, thanks Bush.
- alfreeland, on 08/16/2008, -1/+6I love that. I'm going to have to remember that. It will remind me who owns the United Corporations of America.
- thelastcivilian, on 08/16/2008, -3/+8Yeah, I'm not sure what the big fuss is about. It's not as if selling ads and sponsorships is somehow new. The networks sold out long ago. If it wasn't big oil, it'd be an automaker or a bank (bastions of the public good). This is much ado about nothing.
Signed,
A Liberal (shocking, I know). - mmilton, on 08/16/2008, -0/+5jlegatojlegato -
Really? You waiting for some sort of assemble your own kit car? Who is going to make the parts? Auto companies. And, who do you think will make and the deliver the electricity for your electric car? Oil companies because they aren't "oil" companies. They're energy companies that will adapt when the market allows them to make money using other sources energy besides oil. It's already happening thanks to higher oil prices. - sk11, on 08/16/2008, -0/+5United we shop.
- RogueGenius, on 08/16/2008, -1/+6Why shouldn't they? They own all Republicans and most Democrats anyway. The whole engine of the US government has just become a mechanism for redistributing the wealth upwards.
I actually got an email from John McCain wanting a donation before some arbitrary deadline. Ignoring the irony of that for a moment, my actual thoughts were: 'let me get this straight. You are going to eliminate my class to further line the pockets of the rich, you are asking for my help in the voting booth to do it AND you want ME to pay for the lies and propaganda that will motivate me to do it? ***** off John McCain. Call ExxonMobile."
Apparently, he did. - jaymzdean, on 08/16/2008, -2/+7Haliburtexxonbrownroot.
The official sponsor of Orwell's 1984, 2008.
Is there a camera on you right now? - Dhalsim007, on 08/16/2008, -4/+9You do know that Exxon employees tens of thousands of American workers, and is paying thousands of dollars in US taxes per minute, right?
- vexingmodstwo, on 08/16/2008, -5/+9And if the current ExxonMobil ads are any indicator, they will be advertising their investments into Alternative Fuels.
But OH NO!!! advertising is bad. Corporations are bad!
***** ignorant communists are the worst kind of communists. - OC73, on 08/16/2008, -6/+10Not nearly as much as thinkprogress owns digg.
- i4mt3hwin, on 08/16/2008, -2/+6Who is John Galt?
- rexblade, on 08/16/2008, -0/+4Stay tuned for the new eco friendly cluster bombs coming soon to an Arab country near you.
- Jlaugh, on 08/16/2008, -6/+10Ah the smell of fascism in the morning.
- justinx0r, on 08/16/2008, -5/+9Exxon is sponsoring CNN's coverage of both conventions. They don't own the media's convention coverage.
- stuntiliator, on 08/16/2008, -1/+5Excellent post twomeyw23334. I'm tired of hearing this ideological ***** from liberals pushing their pipe dream of exclusively "alternative energy" to free us from the evil clutches of "big oil." I'm all for alternative sources of energy. I think we should invest and develop as many as are feasible , but as you said, our economy depends on oil, a fact that isn't going to change for the foreseeable future. I don't have a solar or wind powered car, and I don't see an abundant supply of hydrogen fuel cells to power my house.
Like or not people, oil is here to stay for the foreseeable future. Alternative technologies that free us from dependence on foreign oil should be developed, but it's foolish to think that we can just suddenly get of oil. It's going to be a slow transition.
Going out to run errands, let me go power up my warp core. - Rahodeb, on 08/16/2008, -1/+5Finally, the voice of reason.
Twomey is right, if you want to live without it, then take a look at how some of the non-industrialized world lives. That will be you.
There is no magical technology that would save the world were it not for the evil oil corporations supressing it. there is plenty of financial motivation to create it, but It just doesn't exist yet. - regeya, on 08/16/2008, -12/+16Because yeah, wow, it's never happened before in the history of television.
Any other year, and people would have gone ape about the headline.
"ExxonMobil Owns the Media’s Convention Coverage"
but really...
"ExxonMobil is sponsoring CNN’s coverage of both the Democratic and Republican National Conventions."
I expect to be rated down for pointing out that CNN is not "the media" but rather a media outlet, and I expect it will be because I'm not going with the herd in blindly being angry at America.
Ever spoken to anyone who works in mass media outside of the United States? I got to speak to someone from Die Welt in college, and what he said is that at that time, in Germany they thought our laws governing gifts in mass media were crazy. What he had said is that, well, let's say it's a hypothetical situation would be that you're doing a scathing piece on ExxonMobil's environmental impact in Alaskan wilderness. In the United States, if your piece wasn't totally scathing and it was found out that an Exxon rep paid for one of your meals, that's illegal. In Germany, Exxon could pay for your plane ticket to Alaska, put you up in a room, buy your meals, get you hookers, whatever, and that's all good. But the culture is different as well: It's also considered unlikely that Exxon has bought a fluff piece, and as he had said, it's largely okay to write scathing pieces about advertisers and sponsors.
And as a barely on-topic aside, let's ignore that the somewhat recent documentary "Bush's War" was on Frontline, which is as close to being a state-run media agency as you'll get in the U.S., or that NPR is probably home to some of the harshest critics of the current government. Damned oppressive government allowing tax dollars to be used to fund dissenters! (To be fair, most public media got their funding cut this year. No idea if it was related. Considering how broke the country is, I don't think it matters.)
But hey, let's keep pretending the United States is the worst, most corrupt country on Earth, if it's in aid of your wanting to bomb the ***** out of my wife and kids. Just remember all the screaming about hypocracy when your country invades the U.S., and do us a favor and start YOUR revolution in YOUR country. - algaeturd, on 08/16/2008, -0/+3Organizing and being active WILL change things. It's apathy like this that has gotten us where we are now. Until Americans wake up, they will always be owned and in debt. Always.
- moomoohey, on 08/16/2008, -0/+3Hmm something sounds wrong here...
P.S. Has everyone seen there commercials during the Olympics to try and humanize them and make it look like they aren't a bunch of a**holes taking our money? - twomeyw23334, on 08/16/2008, -1/+4yetAnotherCroc, we don't have to fight wars to safeguard oil, nor are we going to run out soon. We have more oil than most the rest of the world in oil shale alone, which is profitably extracted under $50 a barrel (yes, I know leftist politicians love to site studies from the 80's saying it's "too expensive" but, amazingly, technology and extraction methods have improved over the last couple decades). We have large coal resources which is profitably converted to oil for under $40 a barrel. Of course, corporations are prevented from doing this, but the idea that we are running out of oil or can't supply our own needs is purely imaginary. We have enough resources for a good century of oil, and cheap oil.
The only valid arguement against oil is CO2 "pollution." But oddly, the majority of leftist seem opposed to using the only arguement that makes any sense. Continued use of oil will cause increased levels of CO2. Global warming is another arguement, but the idea that we are running out of oil, or that oil will be expensive no matter what we do,or that we must rely on foreign resources for oil is again, purely imaginary. - TheCamino, on 08/16/2008, -0/+3
So what you're saying is this....
Chill out and let Exxon buy you dinner and some hookers?
As a daily paid member of the media, I like the idea that I won't take anything more than "a glass of water, a plastic pen, or a piece of paper," from any of my contacts. No coupons. No discounts. NOTHING but the essentials to do my job. If there is even a tennis ball imprinted with something on it handed to me... I'll take it, and then it sits on the chair when I get up, acting like I forgot it, so I don't have to be rude when I hand it back. If they say, "You forgot your tennis ball." My response is, I'm sorry, I was going to act forgetful to so that I didn't have to tell you this, but here goes: I can't take anything, including food."
That's the limit my team decided on together, and that's what we hold to.
Some don't even touch a glass of water.
If someone gets me lunch, I better be in a war zone.
You act like some of these people are too uptight about this. You're damned right I'm uptight about it.
We didn't come up with these rules because they were convenient, or we like turning down free things and perks.
My perk is that I get to work and see things most people don't get to see. And I get an occasional glass of water, and a plastic pen when my pen runs out.
Trust me, when you get to do what I get to do, see what I get to see, that perk is pretty incredible. - GRANDPAMUNSTER, on 06/11/2009, -1/+4This is what we get when our media and our government is owned by corporations.
- sodade, on 08/16/2008, -3/+6liquidmetalband didn't say 100 years of war and neither did McCain. The point is that I don't want my country sticking it's ***** dirty dick into other nations any more. US hegemony is only hurting the american people.
- twomeyw23334, on 08/16/2008, -2/+5I was being sarcastic.
"Bush's" tax breaks to oil companies provides tax credits for "domestic manufacturing" (to help keep money in the U.S as other countries subsidize oil and make it more profitable for U.S companies to leave) and for new oil exploration. They aren't getting any tax credits for advertising. Again, the "something" they are getting tax breaks for is domestic manufacturing and exploration.
And before you cry about these horrible tax credits, can you name a single product, other than cigarettes, that is taxed more than oil? Can we please stop living in this fantasy world where Big Oil somehow is providing less tax revenue then the rest of the corporate world, or that by taxing them more oil will be less. -
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