Greg Palast Investigative Fund Dead Broke
August 7th, 2007UPDATE: See Comments
— End Update —
I sent a bit, maybe you can too.
Via: Greg Palast:
Friday was also the day I was informed that the Palast Investigative Fund was dead broke, technically bankrupt, with way less than zero in the account.
Bluntly: if we don’t get some help, and fast, we’re sunk. We are throwing staff overboard and halting some operations while we seek funds to keep afloat.
Research Credit: Karin
Posted in Resistance | Top Of Page
Sorry Kevin, I just don’t trust Gregg Palast anymore. I was at the anti war rally in DC and he spoke on stage afterward and I have to admit, I for one got a distinct dis-info-agent feeling about the possitive spin he put on the illegals flooding our borders, wording his remarks as if the anti-war crowd should support illegal amnesty, (which I don’t, I feel that there are all of these people who are doing it the legal way, and we shouldn’t reward this bad behavior on the part of the illegals themselves and the companies that hire them.) I found his last book to be a bizzaro mess as well, and…can anyone justify his “conspiracy nut jobs” remarks about people who want to reinvestigate 9/11? What is his deal?
What Rob said. The guy says Peak Oil is a big oil conspiracy and that there’s oodles of oil in Venezuela. Then he goes and spews this crap about those “crazy 9/11 conspiracy theorists!!!”
Richard Heinberg completely debunked his crapola here:
http://www.richardheinberg.com/museletter/171
Sorry, but he won’t be seeing any money from me. And who is he “throwing overboard.” That always bugged me about Palast: he has a staff who bust their asses for peanuts for him but we don’t know who they are. What type of egomaniacal glory hog would not even put his staff bios up on his site?
I didn’t know about Greg Palast’s views on Steven Jones and 9/11. I was going off my memories on Palast’s work on vote fraud and the Bush crime family, which I thought was good. Honestly, once Palast went mainstream, if you will, I stopped following his stuff too closely. I didn’t need to hear the same stuff over and over again. I thought he was good for introducing newbies to these topics.
Maybe it’s the old:
“If you give a man the correct information for seven years, he may believe the incorrect information on the first day of the eighth year when it is necessary, from your point of view, that he should do so. Your first job is to build the credibility and the authenticity of your propaganda, and persuade the enemy to trust you although you are his enemy.â€
— http://www.google.com/search?q=%22A+Psychological+Warfare+Casebook%22
I feel bad for not updating my assessment of Greg Palast recently. It’s not easy keeping track of all of the people I once respected who are now distributing rat poison, or cherry picked information that avoids the bigger picture. This is the grim and insidious reality of disinformation.
I for one am sending a hundred bucks to Greg Palast. Its alright with me if he doesn’t agree with what I think about 9/11 or Peak Oil. He has contributed much to uncovering the stolen elections in not only the U.S., but in Mexico as well.
I am also an investigator of sorts for the U.S. government, and I don’t get to put my name or authorship of my work on my 2 year projects. That’s just how it goes. I don’t lose any sleep over it. I’ve been thinking lately that I am glad my name has not been associated with ANY of my work products.
Greg Palast is the front man for his investigative organization- and I’m sure the people who work for him “get it.” I also think its awfully rude to assume that his staff is paid peanuts. What Michael Ruppert, everyone’s great hero, made his staff into millionaire’s? Sometimes the “joy of cooking”- or another way of saying – telling the truth has its own rewards.
Greg Palast is too crazy for modern corporate media and too sane for alternative web media. In other words, he tends to be objective and realistic — and he’s a real reporter of the kind that hardly exists today, so his conclusions can’t be counted upon to reach the conclusions of people who already made up their minds.
It’s sad and stupid that people like Greg Palast, Daniel Hopsicker & Al Giordano have to be begging donations for real reporting work. I don’t agree with everything they report and every conclusion they make — I don’t agree with everything anybody else says, either — but I learn a lot from those guys and their actual research and on-site reporting.
Eileen,
Mike Ruppert ended up broke and (temporarily) institutionlized. So he wasn’t exactly in a position to turn people into multi-millionaires.
But he did list their bios and give them credit for their work, unlike Palast.
Just saying that not listing his staff or ever giving them any credit, that’s a sign of an egomaniac.
And misleading people on PO is pretty unforgiveable given the implications it will have for his readers. People trust him so when he so gets the most basic simplistic facts about PO wrong as he did in Armed Madhouse, it’s pretty hard to look the other way. It was so off base I was really confused as to what to make of his analysis. It was like he had no idea what he was talking about, as though he hadn’t even bothered done a google search on the topic or pick up even a single book.
Every time I see Palast (and he’s here in the UK quite a lot) I feel he’s morphing into a fictionalised parody of an ‘investigative reporter’ with trench coat, trilby hat and classified documents which keep “falling” into his lap. He’s like something off Who Framed Roger Rabbit.
It all feels too scripted to me, like he’s got a brand agency behind him tageting the well-intentioned, doe-eyed liberal demographic.
His book has done well and he never stops name dropping the fact that he ‘works for the BBC.’
How short of cash can he be?
@Eileen:
Regarding him paying his staff “peanuts”, he admitted that once before in an interivew leading up to a previous fundraiser.
You guys are too suspicious. Nearly everyone has a limit to how far out from the mainstream they are prepared to go. People are only human and they will still want to feel respected by those they work with. Greg is probably considered nearly too radical by those in the BBC, it’s bound to effect him. Maybe he should totally have nothing to do with them, maybe he should sell his house and work until the money runs out. Maybe he has, who knows?
Ultimately though I couldn’t give a shit about who he works for or what his position on particular issues is. I’m not going to judge his reporting by his image but by the power of the facts he serves up, otherwise I (and all you guys) are no better then the morons in the mainstream who’ve based their decision to ‘trust’a a particular talking head based on the PR they put out.
I stayed up way too late last night reading Cryptogon etc, and real-eyzed I was going to get flack from Matt re my comment re Michael Rupert. Sorry that its taken me so long to reply Matt.
I wish Greg Palast (GP) had the same perspective I (and many who read and post to this site have on Peak Oil and 9/11), but he doesn’t. So be it.
Anymore, whether or not you believe in Peak Oil or “what really happened on 9/11” seems to me an argument similar to the kinds of arguments I heard as a child about a person’s religion. Why don’t you believe in “my” god (s)?
Of course I would love GP to agree with me on the destruction of the WTC by nuke charges. A controlled demolition with Darth Cheney at the helm of the entire operation. I would also LOVE to read what GP would have to say about Peak Oil, or climate change, or any of the other topics I so glom onto. But there’s only so much a person can do with their energy. GP is doing alot. Maybe not agreeing with all issues we hold dear – but I think he rocks – in his area of expertise.
Anyways, I also realized that my donation of $100 that I said I was going to give to GP is already committed to Cryptogon and Farmlet. Totally off topic, I am being socked left and right with taxes.
It’s not a matter of him not believing in my “god”. His understanding of the basic facts was so off base I have no choice but to think he is purposely misleading people as I know (from his previous work) he’s stupid enough to botch the basic facts as bas as he did.
should raed “he’s NOT stupid enough”
Okay Matt- I understand your view. I’m thinking that as a person who has a considerable amount of clout in the Peak Oil community I propose the following: I suggest that you write an open letter to Greg Palast, pose your questions to him, and ask for a reply. I think that would be an interesting and bold venture on your part – and the rest of us could learn from you, to get some answers re his viewpoint re peak oil( at the least – sure would like if you asked him about his views re 9/11 too!)
You and I and the rest of us posting on this Cryptogon post re GP can go round and round til the next calf at Farmlet is born and it will get us nowhere.
Matt, i don’t know how else to respond to you. You write like I feel – ready to blow. I mean no harm to you. Ever.
I’m sure Kevin Loves this (snark).
But Matt, when I wrote that you are ready to blow, I mean – YOU SOUND ANGRY!