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On his show, Phil Donahue never shied away from questioning those in power, be they government officials or corporate CEOs. And there was no more frequent guest on his program than Ralph Nader. Along with guests Joan Claybrook, Michael Jacobson and Jeff Cohen, we pay tribute to a man Ralph calls \u201cthe greatest enabler and defender of the First\xa0Amendment\xa0right of free speech in American history.\u201d

Joan Claybrook is one of the public interest champions of the modern consumer movement, and she is president emeritus of Public Citizen. Prior to becoming president of Public Citizen, Ms. Claybrook was head of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in the Carter administration from 1977 to 1981. Before serving as NHTSA administrator, she founded and ran Public Citizen\u2019s Congress Watch division and worked for the Public Interest Research Group, the National Traffic Safety Bureau, the Social Security Administration, and the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare.

[Phil Donahue] had the deepest understanding of the First Amendment of anybody I've ever met. And the reason is that not only did he have these voiceless leaders and victims on a show that other media would avoid like the plague\u2014it would upset their advertisers, who would upset their corporate bosses\u2014he would have people on whose views he vehemently disagreed with.

Ralph Nader

Phil [Donahue] knew that it wasn't just important to reach people on his show\u2014that he had to have them accessible to materials that elaborated it in greater detail. And he did that for lots of people. But it all started with his sense of the purpose of the media and a public philosophy of justice for all.

Ralph Nader

Donahue was a great source of help to get information out to the public that they really wanted. And no one else would publicize it.

Joan Claybrook

Michael Jacobson holds a PhD. in microbiology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and he co-founded and then led the Center for Science in the Public Interest for four decades. Dr. Jacobson is the author of Salt Wars: The Battle Over the Biggest Killer in the American Diet. And he is the founder of the National Food Museum.

Phil really was one of a kind\u2014 where he studied up on the topic, he knew it thoroughly, he was smart, he was generous, kind, thoughtful, asked good questions. So it was just a wonderful, positive experience for various reasons to be on his terrific daytime TV show.

Dr. Michael Jacobson

Jeff Cohen is Co-Founder and Policy Director at RootsAction. He is a media critic, columnist, documentary filmmaker, and retired journalism professor who founded the media watch group FAIR\u2014Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting\u2014 in 1986. For years, he was a regular pundit on CNN, Fox News and MSNBC discussing issues of media and politics, and he is the author of Cable News Confidential: My Misadventures in Corporate Media. He was senior producer of MSNBC's Phil Donahue Show until it was terminated on the eve of the Iraq war.

Management wrecked the show, and then they terminated the show three weeks before the invasion of Iraq. And remember, they terminated us right after the biggest anti-war marches in global history up until that point. And obviously there was a huge audience\u2014 if they had allowed Phil Donahue to be Phil Donahue and put on the experts that we wanted to put on. And we would have gotten huge ratings\u2014but they ruined the show, they hurt our ratings. [And] when we were terminated\u2014in spite of all of management's interference\u2014we were still the most-watched program on MSNBC. Management doesn't usually cancel their most-watched television show, but they did it at MSNBC.

Jeff Cohen

In Case You Haven\u2019t Heard with Francesco DeSantis

News 8/21/24

1. Last week, the Kamala Harris campaign announced their first major policy proposal: \u201ca federal ban on corporate price gouging on groceries,\u201d per the New York Times. In a statement to reporters, the campaign said this policy would \u201c[set]\u2026rules of the road to make clear that big corporations can\u2019t unfairly exploit consumers to run up excessive corporate profits on food and groceries,\u201d according to the Washington Post. Reporter Jeff Stein further elaborates that this plan is expected to include \u201c[money] for small firms to compete [and will] Challenge [industry] mergers.\u201d This policy stems from the Federal Trade Commission report published by the New York Times in March, that found \u201cLarge Grocers Took Advantage of Pandemic Supply Chain Disruptions \u2026[and] used rising costs as an opportunity to further hike prices.\u201d

2. This week of course Kamala Harris is in Chicago for the Democratic National Convention. Just before the convention, Mother Jones ran a profile of progressive Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, in which he said \u201cWhat\u2019s happening right now [in Palestine] is not only egregious, it is genocidal.\u201d Chicago is the largest local government in the United States to pass a resolution calling for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza. Further illustrating the success of pro-Palestine activism, Prem Thakker of the Intercept reports the DNC \u201cwill host [its] first ever panel on Palestinian human rights,\u201d featuring Layla Elabed, co-leader of the Uncommitted movement, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, former Congressman Andy Levin, and Jim Zogby, president of the Arab American Institute, among others. Ms. Elabed and her compatriot Abbas Alawieh said in a statement \u201cOur focus remains on policy change. Vice President Harris has an opportunity to unite the party against Trump\u2026by turning the page toward a human rights policy that saves lives\u2026We will keep pushing for our party\u2019s leadership to break away from its current financing of Israel\u2019s horrific assault on Gaza and military rule over Palestinians.\u201d

3. Yet another sign that pro-Palestine activism is shifting the center of gravity in the Democratic Party, last Friday dozens of congressional Democrats \u2013 including Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi \u2013 sent a letter to President Biden and Secretary of State Blinken \u201curging a halt to weapons transfers to Israel,\u201d per AP. This letter referred to the Israeli strike on American aid workers with the World Central Kitchen relief group, saying \u201cIn light of the recent strike against aid workers and the ever-worsening humanitarian crisis, we believe it is unjustifiable to approve these weapons transfers.\u201d Other signatories include Reps. Rashida Tlaib, Barbara Lee, and AOC. This letter comes on the heels of a series of state polls by IMEU and YouGov showing \u201cA significant share of Democrats and independent voters in pivotal swing states\u2026are more likely to vote for the Democratic presidential nominee\u2026if said nominee pledges support for an arms embargo to Israel,\u201d per Zeteo. In Pennsylvania, 34% said more likely and only 7% less likely; in Georgia 39% said more likely and only 5% less likely, with similar numbers in Arizona. Put simply, it is clear that an arms embargo is both good politics and good policy. Even Pelosi knows it.

4. A scandal is unfolding at the University of Florida, centering on a massive misuse of funds by the University president, former Senator Ben Sasse. The Alligator, the university newspaper, reports \u201cIn his 17-month stint as UF president, Ben Sasse more than tripled his office\u2019s spending, directing millions in university funds into secretive consulting contracts and high-paying positions for his GOP allies.\u201d This piece continues \u201cA majority of the spending surge was driven by lucrative contracts with big-name consulting firms and high-salaried, remote positions for Sasse\u2019s former U.S. Senate staff and Republican officials\u2026[these] contracts have been kept largely under wraps, leaving the public in the dark about what the contracted firms did to earn their fees.\u201d So much for the party of fiscal responsibility.

5. A new piece in St. Louis magazine recounts the ongoing miscarriage of justice against Yolanda Greene. Ms. Greene was \u201cfired from her job after being arrested\u2014even though the police report that provided the basis of the charges against her is clearly contradicted by bystander video.\u201d This piece continues \u201cThe police report says that Greene struck one of the officers \u2018several times in the back near his neck, head, and shoulders with what appeared to be a closed fist.\u2019 [and that she] \u2018actively assaulte[d]\u2019 a second officer.\u201d Yet the bystander video shows \u201cGreene on the ground and an officer [striking] her several times\u2026A different video, captured by an officer\u2019s body camera, records another officer exclaiming, \u2018Don\u2019t throw a strike\u2019\u2014even as the officer atop Greene does just that.\u201d Mark Pedroli, Greene\u2019s lawyer, is quoted saying \u201cI sent the tape over to [Wesley] Bell\u2019s office and said, \u2018You\u2019re prosecuting the wrong people. You should be prosecuting the police for lying in these reports,\u2019\u201d yet Bell \u2013 who is nearly guaranteed a spot in the next congress after his successful AIPAC-backed primary against Cori Bush \u2013 is pressing ahead with these charges.

6. Continuing its series on civil asset forfeiture, libertarian magazine Reason reports \u201cA new class action lawsuit accuses Indiana law enforcement of seizing millions of dollars a year in cash from FedEx packages without ever informing owners of what crime they're suspected of violating.\u201d This piece cites Sam Gedge a senior attorney at the \u201clibertarian public interest law firm,\u201d Institute for Justice, which claims \u201cthe Marion County Prosecutor's Office has sued to forfeit $2.5 million in currency from at least 130 FedEx parcels in transit from one non-Indiana state to another over the past two years. This scheme is one of the most predatory we have seen\u2026It's illegal and unconstitutional for Indiana to forfeit in-transit money whose only connection to Indiana is the happenstance of FedEx's shipping practices.\u201d

7. According ProPublica, Arizona\u2019s experiment with school vouchers has failed spectacularly. As the publication explains \u201cIn 2022, Arizona pioneered the largest school voucher program in the history of education\u2026any parent in the state\u2026could get a taxpayer-funded voucher worth up to tens of thousands of dollars to spend on private school tuition, extracurricular programs or homeschooling supplies\u2026Yet in a lesson for\u2026other states, Arizona\u2019s\u2026experiment has since precipitated a budget meltdown. The state this year faced a $1.4 billion budget shortfall, much of which was a result of the new voucher spending\u2026Last fiscal year alone, the price tag of universal vouchers in Arizona skyrocketed from an original official estimate of just under $65 million to roughly $332 million\u2026[and] another $429 million in costs is expected this year.\u201d We hope this catastrophic budget implosion gives pause to the prominent Republicans and Democrats boosting the canard of \u201cschool choice.\u201d

8. The Federal Trade Commission has announced a new rule that will \u201ccombat fake reviews and testimonials by prohibiting their sale or purchase and allow the [FTC] to seek civil penalties against knowing violators.\u201d FTC Chair Lina Khan adds \u201cFake reviews not only waste people\u2019s time and money, but also pollute the marketplace and divert business away from honest competitors\u2026By strengthening the FTC\u2019s toolkit to fight deceptive advertising, the final rule will protect Americans from getting cheated, put businesses that unlawfully game the system on notice, and promote markets that are fair, honest, and competitive.\u201d These types of much-needed, commonsense consumer protection rules are exactly why billionaires and corporate America are terrified of Lina Khan and have been mounting a shadowy campaign for her ouster.

9. More Perfect Union reports \u201cRide share drivers in Massachusetts are now guaranteed a minimum wage of $32.50/hr, plus benefits.\u201d According to the Verge, \u201cThe two companies also agreed to pay a combined $175 million, the bulk of which will be paid out to \u2018current and former drivers who were underpaid by the companies,\u2019 [Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea] Campbell\u2019s office announced.\u201d Despite these victories, Uber and Lyft drivers will still be classified as independent contractors instead of employees.

10. Finally, per Huffington Post labor reporter Dave Jamieson, \u201cThe Culinary Union has reached a tentative agreement on its first contract with longtime Vegas Strip holdouts the Venetian and Palazzo [closing] a long chapter in which previous owner Sheldon Adelson successfully resisted organizing efforts.\u201d In addition to the Culinary Union, the deal with the Venetian and Palazzo\u2019s new owners \u2013 private equity firm Apollo Global Management \u2013 also includes Bartenders Local 165, Operating Engineers Local 501 and Teamsters Local 986. As the Nevada Independent notes, \u201cCombined, the Venetian and Palazzo have some 8,000 gaming and nongaming workers covering 7,100 hotel rooms, 225,000 square feet of casino space and 2.3 million square feet of convention space. It\u2019s unclear how many members of the workforce could be covered by the union agreements.\u201d

This has been Francesco DeSantis, with In Case You Haven\u2019t Heard.