UPDATE: HuffPo reports that Scott Brown has ended his relationship with Newsmax.
Brown told The Huffington Post via a personal email account that he would end the relationship with Newsmax immediately.
“Like other elected officials, you are aware that we often rent out our lists. I have done so with the guidance of counsel and am very selective on who we rent to,” he wrote. “With regard to this vendor, I was exploring entering into an occasional rental agreement with the vendor that send [sic] out the email this morning.”
“While the issues of Alzheimer’s is personal to me and an issue I have been working on for years, I did not approve or authorize the sending of this particular email,” he added. “Due to this and other issues, I am terminating my relationship with this vendor effective immediately.”
Classic Brown. Nothing is ever his fault.
OK, it’s one thing to send a basically political email (even if it is from Fox News) to a political email list, and include in the email a cheesy ad from Newsmax about how to boost your Social Security check. It’s quite another, though, to send an email that consists entirely of an ad from Newsmax. Even worse, this one is not about Social Security, but about brain diseases – a topic on which following bad advice can actually hurt you.
Here’s the top of the email. (“Dear Patriot”? Good grief.) Some more info about it on the flip.
If you click through and watch the “video” (which I did – it’s actually more of a PowerPoint presentation), you’ll find that it’s all about this guy. It’s a mix of sensible advice (eat more organic produce, eat less sugar and processed foods, get moderate exercise), classic anti-vaccine and anti-medical establishment paranoia (“immediately stop getting vaccines,” “especially flu shots”), potentially very bad advice (“Find a doctor practicing holistic or integrative medicine who can administer heavy metal detox through IV chelation therapy” – mainstream science says: “Chelation therapy is one of several effective treatments for lead poisoning. However, available scientific evidence does not support claims that it is effective for treating other conditions such as cancer. Chelation therapy can be toxic and has the potential to cause kidney damage, irregular heartbeat, and even death.”), and nonsense (it even tries to resuscitate the 1950s-era fears about fluoridated water), without any way for the lay viewer, understandably concerned about trying to ward off dreadful diseases like Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s, to tell them apart. And, unsurprisingly, the whole point is to get you to subscribe to a newsletter that will contain information about how you can buy awesome “supplements” developed by the guy who authors the newsletter. Of course, Newsmax places this hilariously non-grammatical disclaimer at the bottom of the page: “The content of this video should not substitute medical advice from a health professional.” Uh huh.
The material is especially concerned about flu shots because they “contain mercury.” This is a familiar and widely–debunked claim (as with many conspiracy theories, it contains a hint of truth that gets spun wildly out of proportion). Likely outcome if people listen to him: people who should get flu shots don’t get them, which means they have increased risk of getting the flu, which means that (a) they are more likely to get sick (and, if they are vulnerable, maybe really sick – flu is no joke), and (b) if they do, they expose other people to the flu. Thanks a lot.
Scott Brown should be ashamed of himself for peddling rubbish like this.
Are they raising ad revenue by this?
It’s coming from “our sponsor Newsmax,” which certainly suggests that Newsmax is paying them every time they send this crap out.
I could only think of this exchange when I say that post:
Secretary of State: “I’m the secretary of state. Brought to you by Carl’s Jr.”
Joe: “Why do you keep saying that?”
Secretary of State: “‘Cause they pay me every time I do. It’s a really good way of making money. You’re so smart, why don’t you know that?”
And truly indicative of the trajectory of our country if the bad guys win.
From his 2013 filings Brown received a total of $36950 for list rentals for the vendor. While his 2014 numbers are not posted and I don’t know for sure, checking the vendor’s website:
Kinda seems like it’s right up Newsmax’s alley. No other mailing list company was reported under received, nor was there much other activity.
I’m missing something here. I’m on plenty of lists for Dem candidates and elected officials. Yes, plenty of them solicit for their candidacies, or their PAC. Sometimes a former elected puts his or her name to an email (eg “This is Bill Clinton for the DCCC”.). That all makes sense, but I have never seen ads within emails for seemingly non-political third parties, or even for ideological non-candidate mouthpieces. Does the other side just do business differently than we do in this regard?
.
Commercial and political advertising just don’t mix well in my book.
Usually when someone sells their list they do just that: sell the contact info of their supporters to a third party. Selling your endorsement of someone else’s ads, seems to be taking things to a much higher level. In the first case a small number of supporters might realize that you sold their contact info and be, at worse, annoyed. In the second case, nearly everyone on your list will realize that you’re willing to sully your own image in order to make a buck.
have never really gone hand in hand.
running for office and make money. And get people to pay attention to them. Newt Gingrich, Sarah Palin, and I’m adding in there, Scott Brown. I have serious doubts about whether he’ll run for senate in New Hampshire.
There’s no way on earth he just hands his email list over and allows anyone to email anything in his name.
Not happening.
This was vetted and allowed. Maybe not by Scott himself, but by a top assistant of his. Scott’s just angry now that he got himself in trouble over it and doesn’t want to take responsibility.
Sorry BMG, the election in NH will be decided on 41% approval rating Obama and his avid supporter, Jeanne Shaheen. And may I add, at least Scott Brown held Newsmax accountable and terminated their relationship.
It’s not a surprise that Scott Brown sells his email list to spammers. That man has absolutely no morals. He will do anything for money, including taking his clothes off.
As for taking responsibility, at least he’s starting to learn his seasons. When he was caught plagiarizing two years ago in February, he actually blamed it on a summer intern. Now that he’s caught again in February, he has learned that blaming summer interns doesn’t work in the winter. So, he blames his “counsel”.
Scotto’s mailing list is a gold mine.
They say there’s one born every minute; the Senator just organizes them.
Possibly related to the spam issue, but also related to the RNCC’s deceptive websites (http://vps28478.inmotionhosting.com/~bluema24/2014/02/nrcc-launches-deceptive-fund-raising-websites/). Google Chrome is siting these sites for phishing, and warning users who navigate to them:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/02/05/1275366/-Google-slaps-phishing-warning-on-misleading-GOP-website
These deceptions epitomize the fundamental dishonesty upon which the entire GOP house of cards is built. This is a matter of culture, and very difficult to change, as opposed to issues and stances. “Values” are the priorities that shape our choices — and honesty, integrity, truth, and accuracy do not make the list of values that drive today’s GOP.
No amount of “messaging”, or spin, or similar marketing efforts will change this — such things are “lipstick on a pig”. Until the GOP embraces a genuine and fundamental passion for truth, facts, reason, and rationality, they will continue to lie, distort, cheat, and steal.
Scott Brown has no shame. The GOP Senators and Representatives who are currently LYING about the CBO report on the two and a half million workers who will be freed the chains that bound them to jobs they hate.
The GOP ethical standard is “if I can get away with it, it’s good”. These people also OWN most of our mainstream media. Yesterday’s front-page above-the-fold Boston Globe piece demonstrates the LIES that result.
The headline (“Health law projected to put dent in workforce: GOP calls analysis proof of act’s failings”) is a HUGE distortion, and openly repeats a flagrant GOP lie as if it were true. The lede is similarly distorted (emphasis mine):
If you read only the headline and the lede, you might think (and tell all your friends) that the CBO confirms that the ACA will cause businesses to lay off workers. That’s been the claim, repeated here numerous times. Right?
Here’s what the CBO actually said (Appendix C, emphasis mine):
So the truth is that the ACA allows workers who have, until now, been chained by health insurance to jobs they hate, to leave the workforce (most commonly by retiring) — creating opportunities for younger and therefore less expensive replacements.
In short, the GOP (and the Boston Globe) is just lying.
These people have NO SHAME.
The workers who are being effected by ACA to work less b/c of the subsidies are low and lower middle income. By reducing or eliminating the subsidies as income rises, Obamacare creates a disincentive to work, just like higher and higher taxes on income can do.
As Paul Ryan pointed out Tom, are we better off disincentivizing low income people not to work, not to get on the ladder of life, getting the dignity of work and skills so that one can pethaps have more income and join the middle class. Obamacare jest tells more and more people that Uncle Sugar wants them to remain in the low income, rely on other people to pay subsidize their needs. We should reward work, Tom, not deincentivize it, as CBO says Obamacare is doing.
But you really took your stupid pills this morning. I work part time, under the cut off for insurance, and still have other bills and rent to pay. In this economy, after my layoff, I am very happy to be working. Nobody wants to eat government cheese or be on Medicaid, it’s there for people that need it. I’d love to get hired full time and get on an employer plan, until that day, thank God and the President I am insured.
…I’ve tried the whole sitting idle thing. It is not fun, in fact incredibly boring. Even if I were a trust fund baby with no need to work I’d find myself a steady volunteer gig. Otherwise the cabin fever would drive me nuts. Besides, OK so you have healthcare without being chained to your job, but even with both that and unemployment insurance there is still plenty of incentive to work so as to make more money.
What does that refer to?
You seem to assume that people want enough handouts to not need to work, ie eat government cheese. JConway and I assume that basics such as health care should be a right, but that getting the basics covered isn’t going to make people decide that no job is worth having, maybe just the job they kept solely for the sake of coverage. There’s a saying that if you do what you love you’ll never work a day in your life. Everyone should have that opportunity.
my guess would be, that since jconway mentioned
This, I believe, was a slam on Scotty Brown, but DFW saw this as relating to the insane belief that only people scamming the system are asking for public assistance, and since Scotty, a true breed Republican, would abide by the principle of being responsible for himself, it is impossible that Scotty would scam the system, only Democrats and their so-called, ME, ME, ME positions would scam the system through EBT fraud (for example). Old Scotty is simply too “pure” (like Ivory Soap) for this type of behaviour.
I did not intend it as a slam at Brown, but only to point out in general the absurdity of the view of some that people actually like the idea of loafing about with nothing to do and getting everything handed to them.
These sorts of objections to the Affordable Care Act expose the fundamental ideological differences between today’s GOP (the libertarian wing) and today’s Democratic Party (the progressive wing).
We Democrats – for the most part – see little potential harm and lots of potential good in marginal federal income tax rates, the earned income tax credit, Social Security, Medicare, food stamps and/or subsidized health care insurance (including Medicaid).
Contrastingly, you in the GOP continue to loudly promote the fundamentally selfish view that government should tax everyone at the same rate (“fairly!”) and should provide most government services without any means-testing (i.e., in this case, without “reducing or eliminating the subsidies as income rises”).
This is all well and good. It’s a fundamental reason why I’m a Democrat and why I oppose trying to drown government in the bathtub. And I can respect, even as I disagree with, my libertarian friends who honestly argue that everyone would be better of on average (since “the economy” would slightly improve and productivity would undoubtedly be somewhat higher) without the social safety net.
What I can’t respect are dishonest characterizations of the ACA (Obamacare costs jobs!; Obamacare increases the deficit!) shouted out to the public without qualification or a genuine attempt to engage in dialogue around the complicated facts involved. And, most importantly in the case, without any acknowledgement that there is an underlying ideological dispute at work here.
Almost any tax and almost every government program provides a marginal disincentive to work. After all, if not for Social Security and Medicare, we’d have millions of elderly folks who would certainly have more incentive to stay at work. But that doesn’t make them “bad” ideas anymore than a small projected impact on the amount of hours workerd “proves” Obamacare is “bad.”
Don’t retire. Don’t raise your kids. Don’t cut back from 50 hours a week to 40. Everyone should work. Really hard. Long hours. Even if they’re sick. Even if they’ve been working for 45 years. Even if they get paid practically nothing.
Even, no especially, if there are no jobs for them.
At least when Steve Lynch was around you pretended a little. Now it’s just cut and paste from the right-wing bullshit machine.
DFW still occasionally says he supports single payer like Lynch supposedly did-but that would seem like an even larger disincentive to work according to this rubric. Pretty much cut and pasted the ‘47% of morons on the goody train’ logic Romney so effectively and unintentionally used to neuter himself.
As I have said many times here, the point of the ACA is not to give everyone in America an Insurance Bill, it is to provide everyone in America Health Care Coverage, so I don’t give a fly cusp about people whose payments went up as a result of them not getting “Predatory” (read rip-off) coverage from some scum-bag insurance company and having to now having to pay for “Real” Basic coverage. Boo Fricken Hoo! They can’t bankrupt Emergency Rooms anymore.
Interesting piece on the issue you raise.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-02-06/republicans-discover-evidence-of-jobs-crisis.html
Here is a link to the CBO Report, thanks to an excellent and far more accurate (than the Globe) Washington Post piece (emphasis mine):
testified before Congress that the ACA is expected to reduce unemployment. By freeing people who DON’T WANT to stay in a job, it opens those jobs for other people who can’t find work. Even Paul Ryan conceded the Republican spin on this is bullshit.
An aside: on what planet does the CBO expect to see “overall economic output near[] its maximum sustainable level” soon after 2016? Do they know of some secret plan to stop the austerity trainwreck or boost wages for the bottom 2/3 so we actually have consumer demand?
and continues to beat this dead horse.
…of $7.1 million additional expense due to Obamacare – is it true? Of course not – he’s blaming the increase in health care premiums on two moms who gave birth to babies with health conditions:
Source: http://thinkprogress.org/health/2014/02/06/3262101/aol-chairman-benefits-baby/
If they really needed to save $7.1 million, they could do it pretty easily out of the jerk’s $12.3 million salary.
I can not remember the last time I got an AOL CD in the mail. Like Totally.
It is my homepage and family members still have aol.com email addresses. I don’t know about as a browser or ISP though it has been a long time since I’ve heard the once ubiquitous dial-up sound.
Maybe when Fred Thompson croaks, Brown can take up the reverse mortgage shilling business from him as well. He’d also have an easy time playing a prick of a prosecutor on an L&O revival.
for a good-lookin’ slots-barn spokesdriod.