Weekly Pulse: Don't Snort Bath Salts, Kids

by: The Media Consortium

Wed Jan 26, 2011 at 12:27

by Lindsay Beyerstein, Media Consortium blogger

According to Robin Marty of  Care2.org, today's young whippersnappers are snorting bath salts and plant food to get their kicks. I knew I was getting old when I had to check the media to find out  about the latest youth drug menace.

But, before you go and blow your allowance at the Body Shop  or the garden center, keep in mind that "bath salt" and "plant food"  are just euphemisms that web-based head shops use to sell these amphetamine-like drugs , according to a 2010 report by the UK Council on the Misuse of  Drugs. The active ingredients of this legal high are mephedrone and methylenedioxypyrovalerone (MDPV).

Despite what the media would have you believe, these  designer drugs are not ingredients in common household  products. You cannot get high on actual bath salts or plant food.  Sorry. Gardeners, if you bought exotic imported "plant food" online, and  it arrived in an impossibly tiny packet, don't feed it to your plants.

Anti-choice black op linked to James O'Keefe

At least a dozen Planned Parenthood clinics across the country have recently been visited by a mysterious, self-proclaimed "sex trafficker" who was apparently part of a ruse to entrap clinic employees. Planned Parenthood reported these visits to the FBI.

In each case, the man reportedly asked to speak privately with a clinic worker, whereupon he asked for health advice regarding the underage, undocumented girls he was supposedly trying to traffic.

Jodi Jacobson reports at RH Reality Check:

[Prominent anti-choice blogger] Jill Stanek and  other anti-choice operatives, including Lila Rose of Live Action Films  are effectively claiming responsibility for sending  pseudo "sex  traffickers" into [Planned Parenthood] clinics, and also warn of "explosive evidence,"  of which they of course present.....none.  They appear to have no  credible response to exposure of their efforts to perpetrate a hoax on  Planned Parenthood.

As Jacobson points out, sex trafficking is a very real problem. And a sex trafficking hoax diverts time and resources that the authorities who could be hunting down real traffickers. She adds:

Victims of sex trafficking, after all, also need sexual health services because they are effectively being raped regularly and are more likely  to contract sexually transmitted infections and experience unintended  pregnancies. Does this help them get treatment?

Lila Rose of Live Action Films is a former associate of right wing hoaxster James O'Keefe, who orchestrated a sting operation against the social justice group ACORN. O'Keefe was sentenced last year to three years' probation for scamming his way into the offices of Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA) in January, 2010.

Sex, lies, and the classroom

To mark the anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the National Radio Project presents a discussion of sex ed in American schools, federal funding for sex ed, and advocacy by interest groups and parents. Guests include Phyllida Burlingame of the ACLU and Gabriela Valle of California Latinas for Reproductive Justice.

Hot coffee!

Remember the woman who sued McDonald's after she spilled a hot cup of coffee in her lap? Corporate interests made Stella Liebeck into a national joke, even though she won her suit. Hot Coffee is a new documentary that tells the story behind the one-liners. Amy Goodman of Democracy Now! interviews Ms. Liebeck's daughter and son-in-law.

McDonald's corporate manuals dictated that coffee be served at 187 degrees, in flimsy styrofoam cups. A home coffee maker usually keeps the brew between 142 to 162 degrees, and most people pour their Joe into something sturdier than a styrofoam cup. If you spill that coffee on yourself, you have 25 seconds to get it off before you suffer a 3rd degree burn. Whereas if you spill 187-degree coffee on yourself, you've got between 2 and 7 seconds.

Companies are expected to produce products that are safe for their intended use. McDonald's was serving coffee to go, through drive-through windows, with cream and sugar in the bag. By implication, it should be safe to add cream and sugar to hot coffee in a car. In the pre-cup-holder era, millions of Americans were probably steadying their coffees between their legs to add cream and sugar every day. A responsible restaurant would not dispense superheated liquids in flimsy to-go cups. Indeed, McDonalds' own records showed that 700 people had been scalded this way.

In 1992, the plaintiff was a passenger in a parked car, attempting to add cream and sugar to her coffee while steadying the cup between her knees. When she opened the lid, the cup collapsed inward, dousing her with scalding coffee. The 79-year-old woman sustained 3rd degree burns over 16% of her body. She needed skin grafts to repair the damage. Initially she only sued to recoup part of the cost of the skin grafts. But the judge who heard the case was so outraged by McDonald's disregard for customer safety that he urged the jury to award punitive damages.

Another theme of Hot Coffee is how medical malpractice caps are forcing taxpayers to cover the medical costs of people who are injured by negligent health care providers.

This post features links to the best independent, progressive   reporting about health care by members of The Media Consortium.  It  is free to reprint. Visit the Pulse for  a complete list of articles on health care reform, or follow us on  Twitter. And for the best   progressive reporting on critical economy, environment, health care  and  immigration issues, check out The Audit,  The Mulch,   and The Diaspora. This is a project of The Media Consortium, a network of  leading independent media outlets.

Broadcasting Opportunity

by: The Opportunity Agenda

Wed Oct 14, 2009 at 13:24

An expatriated journalist—vetted during the 1990s, when the craft of communicating embarked on its greatest transition since the invention of the printing press—I consider myself a strong advocate for the freedom of information. what I do promote, however, is a restructuring of how American broadcast media operates, a medium of mass communication that has always been seen as public property and, therefore, subject to editorial guidelines. Yet, in the spirit of selling the airwaves to the highest bidders, the public's best interest has been compromised by advertising revenues.

After the Obama Speech- What Now?

by: Mike Lux

Thu Sep 10, 2009 at 17:15

You can also call-in to ask questions at (646) 652-2612.

Let's pick Clear Channel's bones.

by: Ben Masel

Sun Feb 15, 2009 at 10:22

While they may be able to avoid bankruptcy, the next step will be the sale of their less viable stations, at firesale prices.

There's talk of lefty millionaires buying up some properties, but this is not the winning model.

Local, community based ownership is more stable. In contrast to centrally produced syndicated shows, local on-air personalities can offer small business advertisers like restaurants something an operation like Air America can't, in person events at the place of business. This doesn't mean the new generation of progressive radio won't offer SOME national shows.

We learned the tools of community organizing in the campaign, let's put them to work to Buy Back the Media.

Why Maddow Matters

by: Living Liberally

Wed Aug 20, 2008 at 15:15

Why are we all so excited about Rachel Maddow?  News of her being tapped for own MSNBC program has excited the progressive grassroots/netroots, leading Living Liberally's blog to be "All Maddow, All the Time" today in her honor.

So what's the big deal?

Well, first of all, Maddow demonstrations that someone can graduate from the world of "progressive media" into a role in the "mainstream" media.  People across the country know Maddow -- if not from her stints on Air America, then from her confrontations with Pat Buchanan and take-down Joe Scarborough.  She has become a brand, a recognizable name and face, and -- according to that ultimate arbiter, the bottom-line of business-driven MSNBC -- a bankable commodity.

This is a great success for progressive media, and the components of it that had promoted Maddow at different parts in her career.  And it's a signal to other smart, funny, liberal personalities that there is an avenue to advance their careers and their ideas.

Second, Maddow is a team player.  She respects and engages the progressive movement.  We, at Living Liberally, experienced that friendship when she wrote a guest  post for Screening Liberally on her recommended weekend video rentals, and when she joined us for our 5th Anniversary party in May.

When we've asked her to participate, she's participated.  That's a great quality.

And finally, it a strong, left-leaning voice will reach the homes of many more Americans.  Yes, there are satiric news programs that do a great job challenging right-wing dominance, and some broadcasters like Keith Olbermann who challenge the administration, but we're still short on proud progressive personalities in the spotlight.  The right has them.  Now we have one more too.

Part of building a progressive movement is ensuring there are structures that recognize and promote talent:  whether candidates, organizers or commentators.  Maddow's next move shows that some of these structures are in place...we need to keep making them work.

And we need to tune in to MSNBC on Monday, September 8th at 9pm to help keep Maddow on the air.

Congratulations.

Wes Clark: Take Rush Limbaugh Off Armed Forces Radio

by: Matt Stoller

Tue Oct 02, 2007 at 15:14

Wes Clark has made precisely that ask.

We need to start matching our moments of outrage to policy solutions that reinforce our ideological vision for the country.  Part of that vision is for a government that no longer subsidizes right-wing hate speech but instead promotes a diversity of views over the media.  And that's what this ask is directed to do, in an environment suitable for such an ask.