The Progressive

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A project of Common Dreams

For Immediate Release
Contact:

Toby Chaudhuri, (p) 202-587-1653,chaudhuri@ourfuture.org
Jennifer Ettinger, (p) 202-587-1614,jettinger@ourfuture.org

Policy Experts Continue Call for Washington Post to Sever 'News' Deal with Peter G. Peterson-Funded 'Fiscal Times'

Growing Criticism of Post’s Outsourcing of News to Austerity Ideologue Peterson Reinforced by 15,000 Emails Calling for End to Fiscal Times Deal

WASHINGTON

Several policy experts will meet with Washington Post executive
editor Marcus Brauchli this afternoon to restate their demand that the
Post sever its relationship with The Fiscal Times, a "news service"
financed by wealthy conservative budget activist, Peter G. Peterson.
Many journalists and media watchdogs have criticized the relationship
as advocacy masquerading as news.

Adding fuel to the fire, more than 15,000 Washington Post readers
swamped editors' inboxes in the last week with emails calling on the
newspaper to end their controversial relationship with The Fiscal
Times. The emails were generated by action alerts from the Campaign for
America's Future, Media Matters and FAIR (Fairness and Accuracy in
Reporting.)

On the eve of a crucial Senate vote on whether to create a
controversial budget commission with extraordinary powers to slash
federal spending, the Washington Post published a "news" article
[https://is.gd/6zAY5] about the commission bylined by writers in the pay
of The Fiscal Times. The commission proposal, sponsored by Sen. Kent
Conrad, D-N.D., and Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H., is heavily supported by
Peterson, who testified in its favor before Sen. Conrad's Senate Budget
Committee and several front groups funded by him have fought for its
passage.

In a letter to the Washington Post [https://is.gd/6zvnu] demanding a
meeting, 21 public policy experts pointed out that the article quoted
several representatives of Peterson-funded groups and offered no
material from opponents like Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., chair of the
Senate Finance Committee, or more than 50 national organizations that
oppose Sens. Conrad and Gregg's commission.

The group meeting at 3 p.m. today with Brauchli at the Washington
Post offices will include the following representatives of the 21
experts who signed the original letter:

--Roger Hickey, co-director of the Campaign for America's Future;

--Nancy Altman, author of "The Battle for Social Security: From
FDR's Vision to Bush's Gamble," and former assistant to Alan Greenspan
in his position as chairman of the bipartisan commission that developed
the 1983 Social Security amendments;

--Lori Hansen, Senate Democratic member of the Advisory Board on
Social Security for the 1982-83 "Greenspan" Commission and a founding
member of the National Academy of Social Insurance;

--Eric Kingson, professor of social work and public administration at Syracuse University;

--Dr. Maya Rockeymoore, director of the Robert Wood Johnson
Foundation's Leadership for Healthy Communities and president and CEO
of Global Policy Solutions.

The Campaign for America's Future is the strategy center for the progressive movement. Our goal is to forge the enduring progressive majority needed to realize the America of shared prosperity and equal opportunity that our country was meant to be.