For some people, it seems hard to believe that the government would actually give $50,000 checks in what is supposed to be a “farmers settlement” to people who never farmed a day in their life. It sounds outrageous to believe
I’m not here to defend Sally Kern, the Republican state representative from Oklahoma or to get into a discussion of affirmative action or even racism. I’m here to talk about basic journalistic malpractice. Kern has been hammered in national media
As I was transcribing the undercover audio we have of Tom Burrell, President of the Black Farmers Agricultural Association, Inc. speaking to an all-black audience in Monroe Louisiana this past January , something suddenly jumped out at me. I knew
There are number of factors that could lead to the Pigford scandal becoming a political issue in Iowa, of all places. The state’s demographics – about 95% Caucasian – might make this seem unlikely but it’s very interesting how many
Here’s another ‘rough cut’ segment from Pigford Blues — this time, what probably will end up being the film’s intro. Please feel free to email this video to someone who might be interested or embed it on your own website.
Ed. Note: Please welcome Lee Stranahan to Big Hollywood. This is actually his second piece for us, but things were a little hectic last time and things got away from me. It’s an honor to have him as part of
I’ve often said that the Pigford scandal isn’t a partisan issue. This is about fraud and corruption and while there are many Democrats involved, one of the biggest promoters of Pigford has been Republican Senator Chuck Grassley. Grassley was the
We’re been posting clips for months but this is the first ‘rough cut’ look at a real sequence from the documentary tentatively titled “Pigford Blues”. I’ll say it again; it’s a rough cut. But this glimpse does answer some questions
Welcome to another installment of my series exposing the techniques of “watchdog group” Media Matters for America. If you are new, please take a second to watch this video I made discussing why I think debunking Media Matters is important.
When looking at the possibility of fraud in the Pigford settlement, one of the big red flags that goes up for many people is a disparity between the number of claims and the number of black farmers. Between the first
(Note: this is the first in a series of weekly film reviews I’ll be doing. Every review will be about a documentary that’s available on Netflix streaming, so if you’re interested you can just watch it right away. Just one
Eric Boehlert from Media Matters somehow manages to combine factually inaccuracy with a double fact twist in his latest attack on black farmers. Boehlert’s piece is a riff from the article I wrote this morning about the lack of a
Obviously, the team here at the The Bigs has spent a lot of time covering the Pigford scandal and we plan to give you a lot more coverage in the coming weeks. But I’ve noticed something that’s come up a
The AOL/Huffington Post is certainly doing a spectacular job of keeping their readers completely in the dark about the entire story of their caving to pressure from the group Color of Change and banning Andrew Breitbart from their front page.
I’m really starting to get the Media Matters strategy – create a ton of SEO-friendly content that piles on lie after lie then count on your loyal fan base to unquestionably link and comment. It’s amazing. And it works! But
Yesterday, I did a piece showing how Media Matters used deceptive editing techniques on the Fox / Bill Sammon story. I’m still waiting to hear back from Sammon before I do part two but I wanted to show you a
Media Matters for America is doing a victory lap over their story about Fox News exec Bill Sammon supposedly lying repeatedly on air during the 2008 election after audio they have released shows Sammon saying he found the idea of
It’s back to business on our investigation of the Pigford story – the ongoing fraud that needs your help and attention to make it stop. The mainstream – with a few exceptions like John Stossel – are ignoring the story
John Stossel did a special on Freeloaders that included a six minute segment on the Pigford case that I’ve been working on the past few months. It’s worth watching and sharing with people who don’t understand Pigford. I think there
Oh, how the serious liberal journalism sites have fallen. For years, the award-winning Talking Points Memo has been one of the most respected sites in the liberal blogosphere for their well researched investigative journalism. I subscribed to their email newsletter
I’m in favor of a social safety net. My position on this is liberal, not libertarian. I’ve never personally taken a dime in unemployment benefits but I don’t judge people who lose their job and have to get public assistance.
Someone on Twitter asked me last night if I’d heard about what was happening in Minnesota with the poor. I didn’t, so they sent me a link to Crooks & Liars that talked about a law proposed there that would
Human beings are amazingly adaptive. We live all over the globe, in every climate and environment from parched deserts to tropical forests to frozen tundra to wide open plains. We have thousands of different speech dialects, a huge variety of
Three questions for you. Do you think of Republicans and the Tea Party as dangerous, violent extremists? Do you think the Wisconsin protests over GOP Governor Scott Walker’s move to strip public sector employees of collective bargaining were peaceful? Do
