In testimony before a congressional committee in 2008, John Boyd introduced himself and said “I am Dr. John Boyd. I am President and founder of the National Black Farmers Association, which has more than 94,000 members in 46 states.” In
“I think this is a group of people who don’t want to see black people receive a dime” — John W. Boyd, Jr., leader of the National Black Farmers Association. I’ve been a blogger at The Huffington Post for several
John Boyd is the president of the National Black Farmers Association and has been the main media face of the Pigford settlement for over a decade. He’s been featured on numerous TV shows and in print. He’s been lauded by
Conor Friedersdorf, subbing for Andrew Sullivan at The Atlantic, is trying to tell you how to talk about Pigford. In a couple of pieces recently, Friedersdorf focuses on the gap between the number of Pigford claimants and census records of
I’ve become fascinated by the methods that Media Matters for America uses, especially since I’ve seen work that I’ve done on Pigford fall victim to them. This is part one of an occasional series I’ll do pointing out the weird
You probably already accept the premise that there is such a thing as media bias. There’s a point, however, where bias becomes actual fiction – presenting a story in such a way that it leads the audience to blatantly false
When I say that Media Matters For America is posting some very dishonest stuff about the Pigford press conference that I was part of yesterday, it probably won’t shock most of the readers here one bit. That’s okay, because it
Tom Vilsack and the USDA have made the point over and over again that there have been only three convictions for fraud in the 18,000 or so paid Pigford settlements — a very small amount, it would seem. In this
If you know anything about my background at all, you know I’m a liberal. I’ve been posting stories about the Pigford scandal here on BigGov and my usual haunt, the Huffington Post. I’ve worked for MoveOn.org and Brave New Films.
If you know anything about my background at all, you know I’m a liberal. I’ve been posting stories about the Pigford scandal here on BigGov and my usual haunt, the Huffington Post. I’ve worked for MoveOn.org and Brave New Films.
Nearly two weeks ago, I did two interviews with farmers in Georgia who both made a serious accusation against Congressman Sanford Bishop related to the Pigford v. Glickman black farmers settlement — that when they brought up excessive lawyer fees
A quick Google search will tell you that Congressman Sanford Bishop (D-GA) knows all about Pigford fraud, confirming what black farmers have said on video. And today I spoke to a third farmer who was also at the same meeting
In this video clip, Willie Head discusses his dealing with Rep. Sanford Bishop (D-GA) including the meeting that Eddie Slaughter describes in an earlier post.
The hours of interviews I’ve done with the key people involved in the Pigford settlement are a treasure trove of information about what really happened in this multi-billion dollar debacle. Because of the holidays and then the tragic shooting in
The Congressional Black Caucus played completely one-sided partisan politics against the black farmers of America and shot down a Republican proposal that would have aided the real farmers. Listen to farmers Eddie Slaughter and Willie Head explain the betrayal of
Pigford v. Glickman was supposed to help black farmers discriminated against by the USDA. Instead, it’s diverted hundreds of millions of dollars to people who never farmed and diverted attention away from the plight of real farmers. The people helping
Yesterday, Pigford report co-author Peter Schweizer spoke to a specific USDA inside job wherein a federal employee was getting paid by Pigford lawyers to illegally sign up fraudulent claimants. Today, former Secretary of the Department of Agriculture Mike Espy, who
The Pigford debacle combines billions of dollars, easy, repeatable methods to commit fraud, and no internal oversight, so it really comes as no surprise that some of the people inside the USDA would try to get their own slice of
The Pigford scandal is big enough that there’s no reason to overstate the case or get the facts wrong. Understanding what actually happened should be sufficient to make anyone deeply troubled. One common misconception is that Pigford is about people
The mainstream media has treated accusations of large-scale fraud in the Pigford settlement with overt skepticism and a distinct lack of journalistic curiosity. The press has blindly repeated the Obama Administration’s claim that there are only a handful of fraud
The mainstream media has treated accusations of large-scale fraud in the Pigford settlement with overt skepticism and a distinct lack of journalistic curiosity. The press has blindly repeated the Obama Administration’s claim that there are only a handful of fraud
Section 1: The Pigford Report Section 2: The Whistle-Blowers Section 3: PigiLeaks The Big Government Feed Featuring All Stories Related to Pigford The Pigford Report The Pigford Shakedown: How the Black Farmers’ Cause Was Hijacked by Politicians, Trial Lawyers &
