Follow the money and it leads you to Supreme Court decision

Post-Star alumni list filled with great talent, but few stayed in business

By Ken Tingley

I took a seat in the waiting room while waiting to get my leaky tire fixed.

There was a man at the counter getting new tires. When the clerk went into the garage, the man turned his attention toward the television.

There was a story about Sen. Diane Feinstein being released from the hospital.

The man seemed interested, even though she is a U.S. senator from California.

The next segment was about the immigration crisis at the southern border. The man being interviewed said it was an epic catastrophe unmatched in our lifetime.

That’s when I noticed it was Fox News.

I looked over and the man at the counter had his arms crossed and was facing the television directly.

He seemed annoyed.

The man being interviewed on television said he had never seen things at the border worse.

The man with the folded arms was scowling now, then he shook his head.

I wanted to tell him that Fox News was recently fined $735 million for misleading its viewers about the 2020 presidential election. I wanted to explain that when there is breaking news about another Trump indictment, Fox instead focuses on the broken immigration system.

I wanted to tell him I had been in the news business for 40 years and Fox News is a disgrace. There are others with no ethics, but Fox leads the way.

I wanted to tell him that cable news is entertainment and not to be trusted.

Instead, I walked out of the store.

The past week had been filled with escalating legal problems for Donald Trump and reports that Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas accepted 38 luxury vacations from rich benefactors over the years without reporting any of them.

Raise your hand if you have even been on 38 vacations in your lifetime.

Thomas’s defense seems to be that he is above being bribed; that there were no specific cases before the court benefitting any of his billionaire buddies.

But that is not true.

Thirteen years ago, the Supreme Court ruled in Citizens United that money is free speech and limiting political spending by corporations and other groups violated the First Amendment.

I’m not a lawyer, but what it seemed to be saying is that rich corporations and billionaires are allowed more free speech than regular folks.

Clarence Thomas voted with the majority in a 5-4 decision that allowed the rich and super rich - the people giving Thomas free luxury vacations - to influence politics and government like never before.

It flooded politics with money like never before.

That money continues to impact the political system profoundly.

Over the past 13 years we have seen PACs and then Super PACs - political action committees - flourish while flooding politics with money as never before.

A Brennan Center for Justice Report by Daniel I. Weiner concluded small groups of Americans now have “more power than at any time since Watergate.”

“This is perhaps the most troubling result of Citizens United,” Weiner wrote. “In a time of historic wealth inequality, the decision has helped reinforce the growing sense that our democracy primarily serves the interests of the wealthy few, and that democratic participation for the vast majority of citizens is of relatively little value.”

We’ve seen that increasing in our own communities where Rep. Elise Stefanik boasts of her ability to revises millions of dollars from all around the country to influence the decisions she makes here in the North Country.

The Brennan Center argues the Supreme Court believes unlimited spending by wealthy donors and corporations would not distort the political process because the public would see who was paying for the ads.

But disclosure loopholes and the use of non-profits to donate to candidates - nonprofits do not have to reveal the source of donors - has made campaign donations secretive.

Rich benefactors, like those paying for Thomas’s vacations, have been particularly active in supporting judges who believe the status quo established by Citizens United should remain in place while attacking those who support more transparency.

Polls show most Americans are uncomfortable with the spending they see in politics. In a 2019 article by Tim Lau, he cited a poll that showed 94 percent of Americans blamed wealthy political donors for political dysfunction.

Count me among that group as well.

Another 77 percent of registered voters said “reducing the influence of special interests and corruptions in Washington” was either the “single most” or a “very important” factor in deciding their vote for Congress.

With each vacation funded by rich benefactors, it affirms to Justice Thomas he made the right decision.

If you want to go to the heart of political dysfunction and the divisions in the country you need only follow the money.

Justice Thomas was groomed to make the decisions he did in Citizens United and he Why isn’t Fox News covering that story?

Post-Star alumni

One of Greg Brownell’s last tasks before retiring as sports editor at The Post-Star Sunday was to provide a where-are-they-now list of past sports department employees.

Greg has always closely followed Post-Star alumni and tried to stay in contact when ever possible.

So may have gone on to have successful careers.

Some have written books.

Others went on to bigger and better things in journalism.

But I was sad to see so few continued there newspaper careers.

Honestly, it was not surprising.

For years, I had to tell talented and hard-working folks there was little money in the budget for anything more than a 2 or 3 percent raise.

It was embarrassing. And discouraging.

More than one person told me over the years, they could not afford to live on the money they made at newspapers, even larger newspapers.

That is coming back to haunt newspapers now.

Those veteran journalists who were present in almost every newsroom are now gone.

That is sad. But what is worst, it has diminished the ability of newspapers to cover their newspapers effectively.