Congress Could Fund Gun Violence Research for First Time in 20 Years
Coal Group Provided Secret Financing to Challenge Climate Lawsuits ; Thiel Pushes FB to OK False Ads ; and More Picks
Coal Group Provided Secret Financing to Challenge Climate Lawsuits ; Thiel Pushes FB to OK False Ads ; and More Picks 12/18
Under New Inspection Rules, Pork More Likely to Contain Feces, Toenails (Chris)
From The Hill: “Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) inspectors Anthony Vallone and Jill Mauer told NBC News that they filed whistleblower disclosure forms with the Office of Special Counsel about their concerns with the reduction of the required number of federal inspectors at plants. … Typically, seven federal inspectors check the meat for defects, but under the new rules, the required number would drop to two or three.”
Coal Group Provided Secret Financing to Group Challenging Climate Lawsuits (Judy)
The author writes, “Murray Energy showered donations to several think tanks focused on questioning the link between human activity and global warming, providing grants to groups such as the Heartland Institute, which once sponsored billboards comparing those who accept climate change to the Unabomber. “
Peter Thiel Pushes Facebook to OK False Political Ads (DonkeyHotey)
From Raw Story: “Trump-loving billionaire Peter Thiel has been pushing for Facebook to stay away from fact checking political ads before publishing them. ‘Some of Mr. Thiel’s views are shared by others within Facebook, including on political ads, with many current and former executives advising Mr. Zuckerberg that the company shouldn’t be in the position of deciding what claims are accurate,’ the Wall Street Journal reports.”
Reuters Shields OAS Over False Claims That Sparked Bolivia Coup (Gerry)
The author writes, “The [Organization of American States] had come under heavy fire from US-based economists and statisticians ever since it began impugning [Bolivia’s] election on October 21. It’s impossible to learn that fact in 114 Reuters articles about Bolivia since the October 20 election. None even mentions the extensive technical criticism the OAS has received.”
Talk Show Host Risked His Career to Interview Martin Luther King Jr. (Reader Steve)
The author writes, “Watching talk-show host David Susskind’s historic June 1963 sit-down with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., it’s easy to become nostalgic for a time when there was more substantive discourse on television. The one hour, 41-minute conversation, which took place two months after King was jailed for leading civil rights protests in Birmingham, Ala., makes its streaming debut Tuesday on Amazon Prime and on DVD through MVD Entertainment Group. The black-and-white video, restored by the Paley Center for Media, hasn’t been seen since it first aired on Susskind’s syndicated program, Open End.”
