Center for American Progress a think tank that's supposedly on the left
obviously very much connected to the democratic party
now there are many many I blogs and web sites and groups that are
actually progresses and not necessarily connected Democratic Party but Center
for American Progress runs
Think Progress which is a block that
purports to be progressive and oftentimes is certainly so
is great information on there enders good people that work there
whether they're the writers that people get the research center
but there's always been concerned that they are connected to the democratic
party
well turns out that concern was warranted said Jelani was a blogger
for Think Progress and he said that he
did not want to support a
Obama's policies on Afghanistan well what happened next throughout the course
of several years is a very interesting story and he finally came out with it
now
because over all the things that were in the news about RT
ices look yes there are Russian own and yes they have certain weiss's
but I understand but a lot of our media has certain by six so he's begins the
explanation in or not he says well the controversial topics that was very
constraining are writing a thing progress in 2009
was Afghanistan Center for American Progress has decided not to protest
Obama's surge
somos are running on the topic was simply neutral we weren't supposed to
take a strong stand alright
already that's a huge problem and if you gonna do that
you at least say to the public yes the
you know we are not stake in a San on
certain issues because we're connecting the White House and I don't believe that
they make their transparent
I mean a lot of people in the know might know that a lot of people on the right
and the left my cell you know
Center for American Progress john podesta runs it he's now in the Obama
administration
a if course he left cap to do that he was are
chief of staff for bill clinton he was Obama's transition head et cetera
and he's actually won the more progressive ones at Cap but it's not
enough to say I people in the industry roughly knowing okay
but it actually got worse after owner it before
it they'd things went poorly there was actually a ed
a tidal movement within the democratic party in for a brief moment it looks
like things are getting better is that explains
flash for a couple years and democratic party's lawmakers in Congress were in
open revolt over a that gets them policy are writing at Think Progress had open
up a lot on this issue
and I was running really critical stuff they talk about a piece that hero the
crap that was called on MSNBC some other places
so what happened next but then
phone calls from the white house started pouring in Brady my bosses for being
critical
over bomb on this policy and how they react to that
call soon afterwards all of us
Think Progress national security bloggers were called into a meeting with
CAP senior staff
and basically berated for opposing Afghan
war in creating daylight between us no bomb
oh oh boy that's terrible
they weren't even that obvious that MSNBC
so that is not a good sign when senior staff says stop writing what you think
I don't want any daylight between you guys and President Obama
that makes a really good point tell me again how bad our tears for being
Russian run
okay and by the way on RT as we now know Abby Martin was allowed to make a
statement that was against the Russian government's you know I'm not defending
RT stance on russia
I'm talking about the overall trends in all the media zealous
MK then that explains but what the meeting with CAP senior staff showed me
was a debut being closer to Obama and aligning with this policy is more
important
and demonstrating progress a principal hard are you with that seems clear
then he went on to say essentially we're doing the same thing as
up RT America is telling its American producers to do now
align with your boss who's the president above the country
well again hard are you its
literally what they were doing great he goes on to say I wanna work at a more
independent now lead
but every place I work for since has a scone editorial constraints
and complex a Pinterest that's what is a very thoughtful piece i think is right
knee
its like me things lot of people are weird thing prices mostly people who
work there
are great a lot of people that work asks Center for American Progress smart
progressive care about the issues wanna be on the right side
but they get corporate sponsors they get mmm
donations for people like you small donations large donations
and their obviously connected to the democratic party
that would allow them to criticize the Afghan war in the first place cuz
allowed democrats
in congress had reported and obviously incredibly aligned with President Obama
when right-wing sites did this during the bush administration
we criticize them and we said they were thoughtlessly cheerleading for bush
you gotta do likewise when it's your own side in this case
it clearly looks like I came as a faultless in this case
they thought about it and they made a decision we're going with Obama
and is gonna be no light between us on a bomb
and finally said ends on this which brings me to why we're all
a little like RT America the people who were good thing progress today continue
to do awesome
independent reporting but they have a lot of constraints on them
and I'm sure they wish they didn't but it's an unfortunate reality in many the
journalistic environments we exist today
we can criticize certain people already in a certain stories
or follow our noses on the trail of corruption if it means upsetting are
publishers
sponsors and donors
that's why independent media is so monumentally important
why the project the green one ski hill this cetera or starting now if so
important we hope that begins to change
the dynamic in this country but the Guardian salon et cetera
all those independent sources are very important
because the less independent you are the more you're beholden
to whether it's the government corporations
parent companies that own your smaller company
sponsors et cetera all these things affect what goes on here we wish they
didn't
but a lot of it does not yet maybe you're never gonna get a perfect
journalistic enterprise
maybe the guys that are lookin to you know start
the project with pero me dr. are going to keep in mind
the eBay founders ideology we hope not
and they certainly have a track record of being wonderfully independent and
that's why he went with them
is a something as a reader as a viewer you gotta keep an eye on
including all a outlets in this particular case
with in progress internal news is not good
and it is certainly disappointing for those a bus
who want it to be more progressive moral I'm
with principal rather simply partisan politics