The Billionaires’ Tea Party 54 min Cut

TRANSCRIPT

[10:00:03.02]

 Barak Obama

This is our moment. This is our time. To reclaim the American dream and reaffirm that fundamental truth that where we are many we are one, that while we breath we hope, and where we are met with cynicism and doubt and those who tell us we cant we will respond with that timeless creed that sums up the spirit of a people, yes we can.

[10:00:34.11] Man On Stage

They’re listening to us. They are taking us seriously, and the message is its our county and they can have it when they pry it from our cold dead fingers. They work for me.

[10:00:53.03] NARRATOR

Where did it all go wrong for Barack Obama and the democrats? After sweeping to power with a promise of hope and change, a citizens uprising called the tea party movement emerged.

Their message was no to “big government” spending, no to healthcare and climate change legislation, and no to Obama himself.

[10:01:13.07] Blond Lady

Obama is a communist; he says that he doesn't believe in the constitution

[10:01:17.18] NARRATOR

Then, 2 years into Obama’s presidency, tea party endorsed candidates emerged to sweep the republicans to victory in the House of Representatives.

[10:01:17.22]ON SCREEN TEXT

Campaign 2010

[10:01:23.20]ON SCREEN TEXT

House Republican Net Gain 58

[10:01:27.04]  Male News Reader

32 percent of the candidates that were elected last night across this country are affiliated with the Tea Party movement.

[10:01:34.21]

Rand Paul

There's a Tea Party tidal wave and we're sending a message to 'em.

[10:01:40.09]

Female Reporter

And they see it as a repudiation of the President and his policies

[10:01:45.20]

Male Reporter

What does it feel like?

[10:01:47.03]

Barack Obama

Feel's Bad

[10:01:52.02] NARRATOR

I came to the United States to examine the Tea Party phenomenon, and in particular the accusations that the protestors were pawns in a covert power play by a small group of billionaires and corporate players.

[10:02:05.05] Kert Davies

They're recruiting them to do the bidding of corporate America.

[10:02:09.14] Chris Clemency

This is not some corporately sponsored thing.

[10:02:12.05] Mark Crispin Miller

These citizens groups are bogus.

[10:02:14.23] Julie Williams

The media portrays us as being backed by some billionaire person or people or group and its not, we're individual citizens who are just wanting to make a difference.

[10:02:26.07] TITLE

The Billionaires' Tea Party

[10:02:34.12] Singer

Oh say can you see, by the dawn's early light,

[10:02:32.09] CAPTION Louisville Kentucky September 2009

[10:02:46.01] NARRATOR

I’ve come to Kentucky, the heart of Tea Party country. It's more than a year before the movement will organise become a force at the 2010 elections. This diverse group of protestors seem united by a combination of anger and patriotism. There’s all American families and militia groups trawling for new members.

[10:03:05.22]ON SCREEN TEXT AK 47's Today's Pitchfork

[10:03:08.15]

There’s the so-called birthers who think Obama is really a Kenyan

[10:03:13.02] Man

Mr Obama, where’s the birth certificate?

[10:03:15.06]ON SCREEN TEXT where’s the birth certificate?

[10:03:15.17] NARRATOR

And a cast of historical figures, evoking the spirit of the American revolutionaries at the Boston Tea Party from which this movement takes its name.

[10:03:24.19]ON SCREEN TEXT Stop spending our grandkids money

Beginning less that a month after Obama took office, The protests reflected a mounting anger at both democrats and republicans legislating massive bailout packages in response to Americas economic crisis. While Tea party idea was first raised during this on-air rant by CNBC reporter Rick Santelli

[10:03:39.01] Title Rick Santelli, February 2009

[10:03:46.01] Rick Santelli

This is America. How many of you people wanna pay for your neighbours mortgage. We’re thinking of having a Chicago Tea Party in July. All you capitalists that wanna show up to Lake Michigan, I’m gonna start organising.

[10:03:59.12] NARRATOR

Testifying to the grassroots nature of the uprising, the vast majority of tea partiers are  middle-class Americans, with little or no experience in political organizing.

[10:04:10.04] Amy Kremer

I’m just a mom who was tired of seeing what was going on in my country and I decided to do something about it.

[10:04:19.23] Amy Kremer

The day after Rick Santelli had his rant, there were about 22 people who got together on a conference call and we decided to have a round of tea parties one week from that day and we had 50 tea parties with 30 thousand people in attendance. There was obviously something brewing and we had on April 15th we had 850 plus tea parties across this country with 1.2 million people in attendance.

[10:04:53.03] NARRATOR

But if the Tea Parties began as a bipartisan uprising against government waste, they quickly morphed  into an all out attack on president Obama and his entire policy agenda.

[10:05:03.24] Marion Parker

Because I do not want my children to grow up as indoctrinated slaves to an over reaching, over-intrusive corrupt socialist agenda. It's time for good people to stand up, speak out and take action.

[10:05:20.10] NARRATOR

While many factors were involved in this shift, I was particularly interested what role had been played by a group called Americans For Prosperity or AFP. Their mission is to engage citizens in the name of limited government and free markets. Essentially they are activists for a radical form of capitalism, where private enterprise, not government is the guiding force in society. Of particular interest was their chief benefactors, the brothers Charles and David Koch, who According to the Forbes list of the richest Americans, sit equal firth with personal fortunes estimated at more than 20 billion dollars.

[10:05:30.06]ON SCREEN TEXT Americans For Prosperity

[10:05:31.16]ON SCREEN TEXT Who engage citizens in the name of limited government and free markets

[10:05:47.09]ON SCREEN TEXT Americans For Prosperity

[10:05:53.09] The Richest People In America

 

[10:06:02.24] Caption: Arlington Virginia

[10:06:06.16] NARRATOR

To find out more, I’ve come to the annual convention of Americans For Prosperity.

While distancing himself publicly from tea party movement, David Koch is known to play a very hands on role with AFP. And sure enough as representative of the groups 800 thousand members reported on their activities, their leader was there to hear the news.

[10:06:31.24] David Koch

Its now great pleasure to begin my favourite part of he summit conference, and that is the reports by representatives of each of the 25 state chapters of AFP on their activities over the last year.

[10:06:31.24] Caption: David Koch Chairman, Americans For Prosperity Foundation

[10:06:49.16] Woman

  We helped organize huge Tea Parties all throughout the state.

[00:07:53.10] Man

We have led the largest Tea Party in the state

[00:07:56.13] Man

The largest tax day Tea Party in the nation on April 15th

[00:08:02.21] Man

Hey folks we've held 29 Tea Parties

[00:08:05.07] Man

Organized dozens of Tea Parties

[00:08:05.07] Man

Mr Chairman our grassroots efforts are engaged. They're energized and they're ready to fight for their freedoms.

[00:08:14.22] Man

And if try to raise our taxes and trample on our liberties. We're either going to beat you, or make your life miserable.

[00:08:27.24] NARRATOR

The members flatly deny the charge that they are astroturf. the name give to fake grassroots organisations that are essentially corporate fronts.

[00:08:38.14] John Jarratt

It’s nonsense. There is no such thin among our people as astroturfing. I'm here with 450 other people from North Carolina and we're all individuals.

[00:08:49.14] NARRATOR

They see themselves not as tools of Koch but rather a sharing his vision for America 

[00:08:55.23] David Koch

5 years ago my brother Charles and I proved funds to start the Americans For Prosperity. And it's beyond my wildest dreams how AFP grown into this enormous organisation. Of hundreds of thousands of American citizens from all walk of life, standing up and fighting for the economic freedoms that have made our nation the most prosperous society in history.

[00:08:55.23] Caption: David Koch Chairman Of Americans For Prosperity

 

[00:09:27.20] NARRATOR

To find out more about these notoriously publicity shy brothers and their company Koch Industries I turned to a man who has been investigating them for a number for years, Kert Davies from the environmental group Greenpeace.

[00:09:32.21]ON SCREEN TEXT Koch Industries

 

[00:09:41.15] Kert Davies

Koch industries is the company nobody's every heard of. It's the second or first largest private company in this country, we don’t even know how much money they make. They're primarily a refining company and pipeline company, they now have expanded into paper, and chemicals, acquiring other companies in recent years. They’re world-wide, based here in the United States in Witchita Kansas.

[00:09:41.15] Caption Kert Davies Research Director, Greenpeace USA

 

[00:10:05.06] NARRATOR

Davies and Greenpeace assert that Americans For Prosperity are essentially just a lobbying tool for Koch Industries.

 

[00:10:13.16] Kert Davies

David Koch deliberately founded these groups to ah to intervene in government. To reduce taxes on corporations. To reduce the impact of environmental laws. That intersected with what became the tea party movement, an uprising against the govt and against  governments writ large. Against taxes and against healthcare regulations. So they basically use this public sentiment to forward their corporate agenda

[00:10:44.18] NARRATOR

This charge of profiteering was especially evident in AFP’s opposition a proposed climate change bill that would have harmed profits of oil industry players like Koch Industries.

[10:09:57.05] Kert Davies

In 2009 after the Obama administration came on there was massive momentum towards climate legislation, suddenly there was a real possibility of getting new good law passed, started attacking Obama from day 1, even started before the Obama administration attacking any climate legislation, they’ve run for years these summer hot air tours where they run what looks like a grassroots activist campaign around the country with a bus and t-shirts and handouts and little events in small towns, in fact its a corporate funded propaganda tour

[10:10:34.08] NARRATOR

As I arrived at a Hot Air Tour event in Philadelphia, an AFP staffer railed against the climate change bill known as Cap and Trade. 

[10:10:45.12] Steve Lonergan

That legislation that will cap American prosperity and trade our jobs. This country is heading in the wrong direction. And that direction is more big government, more government programs, taking control of our healthcare, taking control of our businesses, taking control of our lives.

[10:11:11.04] Kert Davies

Attack attack attack, they reframed it as cap and tax, as opposed to the term cap and trade, the term for carbon trading. And went on the attack and declared this part of the Obama agenda to impose new govt regulation and grown the govt. Global warming legislation equivalent to socialism, attacking green jobs and renewable energy as some  imposition on people's freedom.

[10:11:38.01] Steve Lonergan

This is the last leg of what we call our Hot Air Tour where we're  exposing the fraud of what is basically a trillion dollar tax on American energy users. The phoniness of green jobs and government subsidised alternative fuels and what we're doing at Americans For Prosperity is educating Americans to understand the threat, to our future.

[10:11:38.01] Caption: Americans For Prosperity staff member

 

[10:12:02.16] Taki Oldham

What's motivating the government to try and bring in the cap and trade bill?

[10:12:05.12] Caption Mark Hutchinson Americans For Prosperity member

[10:12:06.22] Mark Hutcheson

It’s a Marxist regime basically. The Obama administration the Democratic Party has gone totally to the left so extreme now. It’s about seizing control over our lives. It's a total government scam and going to destroy lives and industry in this country.

[10:12:20.19] NARRATOR

A local Tea Party Group was also on hand to lend their support

[10:12:25.20] Chris Clemency

What brings me out here today is to support Americans for Prosperity. I’m with a group called the Independence Hall Tea Party association and basically what we do is just set everything up all the, we inform people of when an event's happening. We have a large group, a very large group, we've thrown two tea parties. But the one thing I really wanted to get through to people is that this not some corporately sponsored thing. We are dirt poor, I know I am, I live in an apartment, I have two kids and a wife, I'm struggling, but this isn’t a feel sorry for me thing. I'm just telling you, we're not corporate sponsored period. And everything's grassroots. Our organization itself is from the group up and no budget. Not low budget, no budget We've done everything for free. I built the website for free. We've gone to great lengths to make this happen and its all in the name of liberty and justice and what our founding fathers had proposed this country to be. A Republic.

[10:12:25.20] Caption Chris Clemency Tea Party member

[10:13:29.20] NARRATOR

  But AFP are far more than just a tool for the Koch oil interests, as evidenced by their leading role in the opposing another of Obama’s assaults on liberty, healthcare reform. 

That would have seen the government stepping in to expand coverage for uninsured Americans and breaking the private health insurance monopoly.

[10:13:40.17]ON SCREEN TEXT Hands Off My Healthcare

[10:13:49.08] Tim Phillips

Hands Off Our Healthcare!

[10:13:53.21] NARRATOR

For veteran political operative and AFP president Tim Phillips, the groups success lies in its ability to tap into the American spirit of individualism

[10:14:08.02] Tim Phillips

[10:14:08.02] Caption Tim Phillips Americans For Prosperity President

Americans have a long tradition and of good healthy scepticism toward their government, about worst thing you can say to an American is I’m from Washington and I’m here to help. instantly Americans go wait a minute I don’t trust that for a second. So our coalition at Americans for prosperity, we go out and we educate Americans on hey here’s they threat , here's what the healthcare bill's gonna do, the takeover,  here's what cap and trade's gonna do to your job, and to your utility rates and we just say if you wanna get active, here are ways to get active. Come to rally's, email you legislators, call them, email these communications on to your friends and family, and Americans are pretty grassroots oriented, they do that. And really its participation at the most broad level, in our country . And that’s what we do at Americans for prosperity

 [10:14:58.03] NARRATOR

This goes to the heart of how the Koch’s might be manipulating tea party protestors and a fair proportion of AFP’s own supporters. On a much deeper level than personal financial gain. Because while Americans may have a healthy scepticism about government, I wonder how many of them really share the Koch’s extreme vision of a free market economy. 

[10:15:21.03] David Koch

[10:15:21.03] Caption David Koch Americans For Prosperity Chairman

You and I know that free market principles make sense for American families, American jobs and our long term prosperity and that is essential at a time when the very foundations of our nation are being challenged.

[10:15:31.04]ON SCREEN TEXT A MONSTER IS LOOSE UPON THE LAND

VO (CSE intro) Government has become a monster, crippling the economy and devouring personal liberties. This poster is from the 1980 Libertarian Party campaign, in which David Koch ran for vice president. The party’s policy platform is an insight into just how radical his views, and those of the free market movement are. [libertarian poster]

They sought the abolition of the Department of energy, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Food and Drug Administration and a host of other public health and safety bodies. Not to mention Social security, the public school system, welfare and of course huge tax cuts across the board. But after spending over 2 million dollars of their own money on the campaign and receiving just 1 percent of the vote, the Koch brothers changed course. Deciding that if people would come to their philosophy, they’d take their philosophy to the people.

[10:15:37.17] NARRATOR

Government has become a monster, crippling the economy and devouring personal liberties.

This poster is from the 1980 Libertarian Party campaign, in which David Koch ran for vice president. The party’s policy platform is an insight into just how radical his views, and those of the free market movement are.

[10:15:57.16]ON SCREEN TEXT 1980 Libertarian Party Campaign....To Be Abolished

[10:15:59 ] NARRATOR CONT

They sought the abolition of the Department of energy, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Food and Drug Administration and a host of other public health and safety bodies.

Not to mention Social security, the public school system, welfare and of course huge tax cuts across the board. But after spending over 2 million dollars of their own money on the campaign and receiving just 1 percent of the vote, the Koch brothers changed course.

Deciding that if people would come to their philosophy, they’d take their philosophy to the people.

[10:16:31.02] ON SCREEN TEXT CSE Citizens For A Sound Economy

[10:16:34 ] NARRATOR CONT

They created and invested in a network of free market groups. Including the establishment, in 1984, of a grassroots group called Citizens For A Sound Economy that was the forerunner to Americans For Prosperity. A number of documents have emerged from the Citizens for a sound economy days which give a candid insight into how these groups work to disguise both their corporate donors and radical ideological goals.  Under tax law, these non-profit groups are allowed to keep their donors identities confidential. As is the case with many groups, including Greenpeace.  But this leaked 1998 budget reveals the just how much money Citizens For A Sound Economy received from a wide variety of donors. More troubling though, was an investigation by the watchdog group Public Citizen confirming that Citizens For A Sound Economy took money to run astroturf campaigns directly on behalf of these hidden donors.

[10:17:31.14] ON SCREEN TEXT Top Contributors to CSE by Industry Sector, 1998

[10:17:34 ] NARRATOR CONT

Then there was their work for the tobacco industry. Thanks to a major legal settlement in the late 1990’s millions of internal tobacco industry documents have been made public.

[10:17:51.00]ON SCREEN TEXT CITIZENS FOR A SOUND ECONOMY $2,000,000

[10:17:51 ] NARRATOR CONT

The documents show how Citizens For A Sound economy and other free market groups were secretly paid millions of dollars to fight tobacco taxes and regulations.

[10:17:57.11]ON SCREEN TEXT RETAIL SALES EFFORT

[10:18:01.19]ON SCREEN TEXT INDIVIDUAL FREEDOM

[10:18:04.17]ON SCREEN TEXT BIG GOVERNMENT

[10:18:10.13]ON SCREEN TEXT EXPSENSE OF OUR FREEDOMS

 

[10:17:56 ] NARRATOR CONT

Using what they called a “retail sales effort”, they pitched this to their own members as attacks on individual freedoms by big government. The idea being that while people might be moved to fight on behalf of big tobacco, they’ll do almost anything to protect their own freedoms.

 [10:18:15 ] NARRATOR CONT

One campaign of particular relevance was the leading role Citizens For A Sound Economy played in killing the last major attempt to reform the healthcare system.

[10:18:18.22]  ON SCREEN TEXT: How citizens for a sound economy fought government run healthcare

[10:18:18 ] NARRATOR CONT

With the Clinton Administration proposing a new tobacco tax to help pay for their plan, tobacco company Phillip Morris funded a major grassroots effort by the group.

[10:18:31.24] ON SCREEN TEXT: We are funding a major (400K) grassroots initiative

[10:18:38.02]ON SCREEN TEXT Socialized medicine makes me sick

[10:18:38 ] NARRATOR CONT

Citizens for a sound economy also worked hand in hand with the health insurance industry to defeat the reforms by running a fear campaign that the Clinton plan was soviet style socialised medicine that would lead to a denial of vital healthcare treatments. They sent their supporters out to hound democrats, including first lady Hillary Clinton, as they attempted to explain the reforms.

[10:19:00.18] CAPTION: Hillary Clinton 1994

[10:19:00.18] Hillary Clinton

You know there's an old saying that I always liked, when you don’t have fact on your side, yell. And lot of yelling going on in America. And the yelling is trying to drown out the desires of a majority of Americans, we need healthcare reform to make sure every American is insured.

[10:19:28.12] NARRATOR

One person who has worked on coalitions with citizens for a sound economy is Wendell Potter, a former health insurance industry spin doctor turned whistle blower about these deceptive practices. 

[10:19:42.22] CAPTION: Wendell Potter, Former Health Insurance Industry Executive

[10:19:42.22]  Wendell Potter

The health insurance industry is very much like the tobacco industry, its held in very low regard by the public and they know that they have very little credibility themselves. So they have to establish these front groups to  carry their messages for them. They do this so that a third party is telling the stories that they want to be told and getting the word out that they want to get out. 

[10:20:05.16] NARRATOR

According to Wendell Potter a key benefit of using front groups is that they can say things the company couldn’t actually get away with saying themselves.

[10:20:15.04] Wendell Potter

They’re hired guns and they do what they are told to do ah and ah it doesn’t matter what the tactics are sometimes it if it involves bending ethics or violating ethical standards they will do that.

Terms like govt takeover of the healthcare system is one that has been used many times to scare people away from reform, and its misleading, no plan before Congress  would have come anywhere close to a govt takeover but nonetheless its a term that the industry knew would be ah would be effective. Slippery slope toward socialism in the U S socialism still has this connotation something that is akin …to communism if not even worse. The people who put those sentences together do it for a purpose and they know that will, that will evoke a certain emotion.

[10:20:31.24]ON SCREEN TEXT Government-run health Care makes me sick

[10:20:43.08]ON SCREEN TEXT No Gov't Run Health Care

[10:20:49.04]ON SCREEN TEXT Socialized Medicine Makes Me Sick

[10:21:01.21] NARRATOR

Over 25 years, these campaigns tapping into people's distrust of government and sense of individualism attracted a sizeable following. So much so that within hours Rick Santelli of making his famous tea party rant, an AFP staffer was able to offer him on national television half a million names to get the movement started. 

[10:21:11.11] CAPTION RICK SANTELLI, FEBRUARY 19, 2009

[10:21:24.21] AFP Staff Member

Rick, I've got 500 thousand people who signed our petition against the stimulus bill, I'm willing to email all of them and tell them to come out to your event.

[10:21:32.20] NARRATOR

And they weren't the only ones. In 2004, an internal rift actually caused Citizens For a sound economy to split into two groups, the second calling themselves Freedomworks. While no longer financially connected to the Koch’s, Freedomworks run a similar model of corporate funded free market activism. From day one they worked on the ground to help small groups organise tea party events. And when, after a couple of months, the movement was running out steam,

Freedomworks helped direct their anger to an emerging threat -  socialised medicine. While over at AFP some anonymous great Americans with very deep pockets pitched in to fund a multi million dollar campaign by the group.

[10:21:51.16]ON SCREEN TEXT: HOW TO HOST YOUR OWN TEA PARTY PROTEST

[10:21:57.24]ON SCREEN TEXT: WHAT’S NEXT?

[10:21:58.12]ON SCREEN TEXT: WE OPPOSE SOCIALIZED MEDICINE IN AMERICA

 [10:22:16.02] Tim Phillips

Some good folks, some great Americans come to us and say they were this health care issue and could see this train coming down the pipe and they wanted to do something about it. Our board met and said you know what, Americans For Prosperity wants to be a part of that

[10:22:32.03] NARRATOR

As AFP sent two busses out to hold events around the country, their campaign was to be an almost carbon copy of their 1994 effort.

[10:22:41.10] Tim Phillips

Sometime on the next 60 or 90 days this senate and this house that meet right back at the capital behind us, are going to vote on whether or not your healthcare run by the government. And we wanna make sure they hear from you. And that’s why you're here. That is why you're here.

[10:22:59.16] SIGN: SOCIALISM ISN'T COOL

[10:23:01.10] NARRATOR

They also funded ad an campaign scaring senior citizens.

[10:23:05.02] TV announcer

Treatments and potentially life saving drugs could be withheld and seniors could even lose their own doctors.

[10:23:11.21] NARRATOR

And when Democrat politicians were sent out to hold town hall meetings in August 2009, little did they know all hell was about to break loose.

[10:23:21.08] Americans For Prosperity speaker

We hit the button and we started doing the twittering and the Facebook and the  phone calls and the emails and you turned out in huge ways a 1000 showed up at that hall and set tone for what was the worst August in Democrats history

[10:23:39.14] Announcer 1

1500 people tried to cram into an event

[10:23:44.07] Announcer 2

People are turning up in record numbers to these town hall events, and the temperature is rising

[10:23:47.14] Announcer 3

Opponents of change shouting at members so loud at times police are called in

[10:23:53.15] Announcer 4

Is this live? This is Live. Things are getting physical

[10:23:59.03] Tim Phillips

If you're a senior citizen, this new takeover is a disaster for you. And the American people know that. Cos' truth is on our side.

[10:24:07.12] Woman at town hall 1

We do not want the government in charge of health care programs.

 

[10:24:15.21] Woman at town hall 2

We're telling you we don’t want this

[10:24:28.00] NARRATOR

While congress eventually passed a watered down healthcare bill in late 2009. Opponents had helped make it so unpopular, especially with senior citizens, that healthcare became a major factor in the Democrats defeat in 2010.

[10:24:41.05] TV presenter

Older voters in the last mid term split evenly, this time they were overwhelmingly voting Republican and why did they vote? Six out of ten said they wanted to repeal healthcare.

[10:24:41.05] CAPTION: November, 2010

[10:24:52.14] NARRATOR

But to properly understand the Koch’s influence on the rising anti Obama movement there's a much bigger picture to be seen.

[10:25:02.09] Kert Davies

The Koch's exert influence in a number of ways. We know that they fund front groups like Americans For Prosperity this sort of astroturf effort, they also throw money straight into the political machine, so they funded millions of dollars towards political candidates, specific candidates, they also have of course lobbying money coming into Washington, so they’re sending lobbyists up to forward their agenda. The more insidious stuff is starting in the 1970s a number of free market think tanks were born, the Cato institute, the Heritage foundation, Heartland Institute, these groups were purpose built by right wing philanthropists like the Koch’s to forward a corporate agenda and a anti regulatory agenda.

[10:25:43.16] NARRATOR

There is no better example of how this small but highly coordinated network of groups have fought regulation than their almost single handed effort to manufacture debate over global warming.

A 2008 a study of 141 books, sceptical of global warming found over 90% of them were written and or published by free market think tanks. At the heart of what opponents have called the denial machine are the resident policy experts, such as Myron Ebel of the competitive enterprise institute, seen here talking to a group of AFP members

[10:26:25.04] Myron Ebell

I want to talk about cap and trade, or as I call it cap and tax as I think probably most of you do as well. But first want to talk about global warming for a minute. Here’s the last 30yrs, you'll see for last 10 yrs we haven't had any warming. I think that shows the models are, phoney

[10:26:45.07] NARRATOR

They portray global warming as just another excuse for more big government intervention by leftist ideologues.

[10:26:51.20]  John Tamborini

Its just another way of govt controlling our lives and I’m dead set against that, and certainly human beings are not bad for the planet.

[10:27:03.09] Julie Williams

I believe its a hoax, I believe that this is, liberals want more control

[10:27:07.24] John Jarrat

I think mother nature is the one who affects the environment. I don’t believe we can. I think cap and trade is nothing but a power play.

[10:27:17.04] NARRATOR

While that would be great it it were true, unfortunately the scientific community doesn't agree, as I found out when I spoke to Brenda Ekwurzel of the union of concerned scientists.

[10:27:28.23] Brenda Ekwurzel

Overwhelming vast majority. Absolutely. Most of the scientific bodies around the world, national academies of sciences, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. All the leading experts of the world that get to get together and make scientific statements about climate change. They all agree that climate change is real, its unequivocal, and they’re very worried about the lack of action on the parts of weaning ourselves off of fossil fuel.

[10:27:30.09] CAPTION Brenda Ekwurzel Union of Concerned Scientists

[10:27:59.01] James Hoggan

These guys have been able to delay action on climate change for two decades, all along making billions and billions of dollars in dirty energy.

[10:27:59.01] CAPTION James Hoggan Author of "Climate Cover Up"

[10:28:10.08] NARRATOR

According to PR man and author Jim Hoggan, the success of this echo chamber has nothing to do with science and everything to do with spin.

[10:28:19.01] James Hoggan

It was a media campaign, they wanted to create doubt in the minds of journalists, they wanted to create doubt in the minds of the public and your average person never know. They just see some articulate guy, may even be a scientist, basically being shills for industry. People like Fred Singer, he was a guy who worked for tobacco now works on climate change. But because they have a lab coat and a PHD people believe them.

[10:28:45.03] NARRATOR

I tracked down Singer in Washington DC where he was briefing senate staffers on the scientific reasons why they shouldn’t support the cap and trade bill.

[10:28:47.21] CAPTION Washington DC

[10:28:54.08] Fred Singer

This suggests that after 1998 there's further warming. That's not correct. There's been cooling since 1998 everyone agrees.

[10:29:03.21] NARRATOR

The function of this denial machine is to then disseminate the quasi science of people like Dr Singer.

[10:29:10.12] Steve Lonergan

The science is not finished, the debate is not over as the left who support this legislation would tell you.

[10:29:10.12] CAPTION Americans For Prosperity staff member

[10:29:18.03] Mark Hutchinson

I think global warming’s a complete hoax, actually getting cooler for the past 10 years.

[10:29:18.03] Caption Mark Hutcheson Americans For Prosperity member

[10:29:23.03] TV presenter

Some suggest that the research has been manipulated and that those questioning the effects of climate change have been silenced. Myron Ebell is director of energy and global warming policy for the Competitive Enterprise Institute

[10:29:36.03] NARRATOR

Then there is the role of the conservative media establishment, epitomised by the nation’s most watched news network Fox News. 24 hour hours a day they pump out pro-business, pro Republican talking points. Take these two emails sent to fox staff in late 2009.The first directed all reporters to say that global warming “theories are based upon data that critics have called into question”. While another instructed them to echo the insurance industry language by using the words "government-run health insurance"  to describe the proposed heath care reforms.

[10:29:57.14]ON SCREEN TEXT “theories are based upon data that critics have called into question”

[10:30:04.03]ON SCREEN TEXT "government-run health insurance"

[10:30:13.19]Neil Cavuto

Government healthcare may include some rationing

[10:30:16.18] Sean Hannity

A government health care takeover could drastically change the way you and you family could receive health care.

[10:30:21.22] NARRATOR

The rise of the tea party movement too owes a lot to Fox urging its legion of loyal fans to get involved.

[10:30:27.20] Fox voice 1

It’s a movement that is sweeping the nation, all across the country

[10:30:31.00] Fox voice 2

Hundreds of these protests all across the country and may involve millions of people

[10:30:35.03] Fox voice 3

Bam fox news is out in front of this

[10:30:37.05] Fox voice 4

Well you can join the tea party action from your home if you go to the fox nation dot com

[10:30:42.08] Fox voice 5

The Tea Party revolution

[10:30:42.22]  Fox voice 6

There’s probably one right by you

[10:30:42.22]  Fox voice 7

We have a map to show just how widespread these are.

[10:30:48.02] Fox voice 8

These are people who demand to be heard

[10:30:50.14]Fox voice 9

Americans are making their voices heard, as they fight for their future. Total fair and balanced network coverage.

[10:30:57.12] Fox supporter 1 - woman

Fox news, they report, we decide.

[10:31:01.00] Taki Oldham

So Fox News is a…?

[10:31:01.00] Fox supporter 1 - woman

Unbiased, they give you both sides, they don’t manufacture news,

[10:31:08.24] Fox supporter 2 - man

I could point everyone one these organisations and give you specific examples of where they’ve either lied to me, or disingenuous or call me names. They don’t tell the whole story. They tell one side of the story we see that now and we’re speaking out.

[10:31:24.06] NARRATOR

But if there’s one person at Fox who has become the darling of the tea party movement, it’s Glenn Beck

[10:31:30.11] Arvid Mosnes

Glenn has been the one that has more than anybody nailed the problems on TV and radio. And I’ve followed him. He’s my hero. I’m not too old to have heroes.

[10:31:42]  NARRATOR

Watching Beck’s paranoid populism and race baiting goes a long way to explaining some of the more extreme views in the tea party movement

[10:31:50]  Glenn Beck

The media either can't see it, or they're complicit or just wildly out of touch, I don’t know which it is. But let me show you the big picture. The roots of the tree of radicalism and revolution.

[10:31:42.01]  CAPTION Glenn Beck Fox News commentator

[10:32:06.08] Glenn Beck

This president has I think has exposed himself as a guy over and over and over again who has a deep seated hatred for white people, or the white culture I dont know what it is. This guy is, I believe, a racist.

[10:32:20.06] Angry woman

I say not just impeach that asshole, put him in prison. He is communist, he is a racist, he is worse than Hitler. He says he wants to destroy the world, everyone that is white. That means Pilipino’s, that min Chicanos, that means Irish, that Italian, that means everyone that is not black even though his stupid ass isn't even half black.

[10:32:46.01] Arvid Mosnes

We not gonna march to the camps, we’re not going to go into the gas chambers like the Jews did back then. We’re going to stand up and fight before it gets to that point.

[10:32:55.09] Man on stage

Barack Obama and the left wing of the Democratic party, reek of fascism, socialism, whatever you wanna call it, its totalitarianism indoctrination. And we can't allow it to happen. If it wasn't for Fox News, and the Wall St Journal and people like me on a local level, you wouldn't get the truth.

[10:32:55.09]  SUBTITLES Barack Obama and the left wing of the Democratic party, reek of fascism, socialism, whatever you wanna call it, its totalitarianism indoctrination. And we can't allow it to happen. If it wasn't for Fox News, and the Wall St Journal and people like me on a local level, you wouldn't get the truth.

[10:33:19.06] NARRATOR

With 9 million people tuning into his TV and radio shows each day, beck's obsession with communism also makes him a powerful ally to oppose things like the climate bill.

[10:33:30.14] Glenn Beck

Lets bring in Phil Kerpen, he is the Director for Policy for Americans For Prosperity. You like watermelon? I think this is a watermelon bill

 [10:33:38.22] Phil Kerpen

I think you're exactly right. This bill is green on the outside. The thinnest green on the outside and inside its deep communist red.

[10:33:47.12] NARRATOR

This was especially evident when AFP’s Phil Kerpen fed beck a story that Obama’s green jobs advisor was a commie.

[10:33:55.22] Glenn Beck

This is the beginning. This is the port hole into all of this. This is the biggest story in history. Self avowed communist activity. There are communist, Marxist, revolutionaries all around the president. These guys are Marxists in the Whitehouse.

[10:34:14.00] Fred Koch

I have listed here potential methods of communist takeover in the United States by internal subversion, one is the infiltration of high offices of government and political parties until the president of the United States is communist, unknown to rest of us of course.

[10:34:14.00] SUBTITLES I have listed here potential methods of communist takeover in the United States by internal subversion, one is the infiltration of high offices of government and political parties until the president of the United States is communist, unknown to rest of us of course.

[10:34:14.22]ON SCREEN TEXT A Business Man Looks A Communism

[10:34:30.24] NARRATOR

That voice from the past is Fred Koch, author, oil millionaire, member of the radical anti-communist John Birch Society and father of Charles and David.  While threat of communism has long since past, its striking how effective it still remains to instantly demonise opponents, as evidenced in the descriptions of the climate and healthcare policies and right throughout the tea parties. Why had the anti Obama spin doctors resorted to the language of the cold-war propaganda days?  And why has it been so effective in causing hysteria among the tea party goers? Curious, I went to see Mark Crispin Miller, NYU professor and corporate propaganda expert.

[10:35:11.18] Caption Mark Crispin Miller, Professor, New York University

[10:35:16.15] Mark Crispin Miller

There's certain ah ah techniques that propagandists really need to use and and they're so basic that, you know, ah they will either seem inarguable to us or we've never even noticed them. But one thing that one must do of course is cloak ones message in a kind of moral righteousness, we believe in liberty, we believe in peace we believe in free enterprise, we hear that all the time. Well that basically means crony capitalism. But it implies ah something that most Americans will you know feel a surge of positive emotion about, right? Now there is a tacit opposition there, between free enterprise and Communism, and that’s the other techniques that has to be used. You’ve also gotta have enemies, demons, ah that serve as scapegoats and against which you can vent all the angry feelings that the propaganda will also incite, for them Socialism conjures up a sort of weird melange of boogie men. Obama’s associated with that by the right wing for example, he's also associated with Muslims you know, there’s this myth that he's this Muslim and so on, he’s also black.

[??:??:??] Mark Crispin Miller Cont

So all these things serve for a highly volatile and irrational ah minority of the American population, in a way that’s just kind of classic, propaganda. and its no accident, that this serves the interests of the health insurance companies, the big pharmaceutical cartel, you know, the petrochemical interests, I mean we could go on and on. It suits them fine this is why we basically encouraged this, and this is why they like people like Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh who are the tribunes of this movement.

[10:37:13.04] NARRATOR

Understanding a bit more about how propaganda works, I went to examine its use  as  Freedomworks hosted the first ever national tea party in Washington DC

[10:37:17.13] Caption Washington DC

[10:37:25.15] Donna Lovelace

We just fear the govt takeover of all the businesses. We fear the govt takeover of our liberty. We feel like we're losing the constitution, and we we have sat at home and not said anything, but not believed in what was going on and finally we have gotten up off the couch and come to do something and we're not gonna stop now.

[10:37:26.16] Caption Donna Lovelace

[10:37:52.01] man selling flags

American made. American made. Two dollars. Two dollars. Two dollars. Two dollars.

[10:37:59.11] man in old costume

We've certainly got the feathers we just need the tar.

[10:38:29.13] Man

Socialism has just taken over, its got its grips on it, it always leads to communism

[10:38:36.00] Taki Oldham

Tell us about your sign

[10:38:36.22] Woman

Well, we're against socialism in America, we want, we stand for the constitution, the bill of rights we want our freedom

[10:38:44.21] Woman

Freedom

[10:38:46.22] Man

Yeah we came out here today for Freedom that is exactly right. This is Christine she can talk too.

 

[10:38:52.14] Woman

Well, he said it all, they’re trying to push socialism in this country and take our freedoms away, we're not standing for it.

[10:39:01.09] Woman

We want our country back. Get rid of all this trash they’re bringing in.

[10:39:19.00] Man

Mr President, Here We Are!

[10:39:21.08]ON SCREEN TEXT We the people are here!

[10:39:30.24] Crowd

Here we are! Here we are!

[10:39:37.20] Woman

Lets hear it! Lets hear it! LETS LET THEM HEAR FREEDOM RING IN THIS COUNTRY

[10:39:46.14] Man

We do not want government run healthcare. Americans want government out of our lives!

[10:40:02.08] NARRATOR

While the line up of passionate tea party organisers get the hundred thousand patriots going. Eventually the sponsors from libertarian groups take to the stage, to preach the gospel of free markets.

[10:40:15.02] Man

Let me hear an amen

[10:40:16.12] Crowd

Amen

[10:40:17.17] Man

Now that sound is proof hell hath no fury like taxpayer ignored.

[10:40:25.17] Man

I am the grassroots director for Freedomworks, we are an organization that believes in less government, lower taxes and more freedom

[10:40:32.23] Man

You cant be for freedom if you are for more power for the government. Government power is the enemy of freedom

[10:40:41.22] Man

We fight against tyrannies of government, and that’s why we here today, because something radically changed last few months

[10:40:49.23] Man

This is nothing less than an intellectual battle for the heart and soul of America

[10:40:56.21] NARRATOR

It was just like those old campaigns against tobacco regulation, the groups weren’t selling free markets, they were selling freedom itself, and Tea Party Americans were buying it.

[10:41:07.23] Man

Yeah we came out here today for Freedom

 [10:41:10.04] Woman

Freedom

[10:41:10.15] Man

Freedom works. Freedom works.

[10:41:13.00] Tim Phillips

We go out at get Americans from all walks of life to defend their economic freedoms.

[10:41:17.12] Tim Phillips

More importantly than the cost. Our freedoms.

[10:41:21.12] NARRATOR

Having successfully steered protestors to revolt against the entire Obama agenda in the name of freedom, phase two was to succeed where the Koch’s had failed in 1980. To build a free market movement capable of staging of a revolution at the ballot box. To find out more I went undercover as a budding fiscal conservative. My first stop was a training session for tea party goers held by the competitive enterprise institute.

 

[10:41:52.07] John David Lewis

What is the theme to the tea party? What is the tea party about? Is it about just opposing this and opposing that, or is there an integrated theme? And that idea I submit to you and the idea I want to sell you on is the rights of man. The basic issue at stake is the destruction of the rights of those who produce in the United States

[10:42:13.05] Fred Smith

And the Tea Parties of course are the battle grounds we're in today. We are today’s peasant army. We are the thin line between freedom and the status, dystopia they want to create. Freedom is a wonderful thing to fight for. Its time for us to join that army and that’s something I hope we all are dedicated to.

[10:42:41.03] NARRATOR

In Nashville I met up with a collection of libertarian groups crossing the country teaching guerrilla internet tactics for free market ideals

[10:42:41.03] Caption Nashville Tennessee

[10:42:49.24] Austin James

Over 200 years ago guys. A group of people just like you did something extraordinary. Ordinary people doing extraordinary things. They were activists, just like you, I truly believe that. They were activists then, we are activists now. Make no distinction about it. So what do we do? We become digital activists, we identify the medium, we learn the medium, we manipulate the medium. it was printing presses then it’s the internet now.  That’s where we influence the hearts and minds of our fellow citizens. The tea parties got us running up the hills. American Majority’s trying to give you the tools, the muskets right? So, here’s what I do, I get on Amazon and I type in liberal books. I go through and I say, 1 star, 1 star, 1 star. The flip side is you need to go to a conservative, libertarian whatever, go to their products and give them 5 stars. OK? So literally 80% of the books I put a star on, I don’t read, so that's how it works. OK. This is where your kids, I promise, this is where you kids are getting their information. Rotten Tomatoes, Flickster, those are places where you can rate movies, so when you type in movies on healthcare, documentaries on health care, I don’t want Sicko to come up, I don’t want Michael Moore’s to come up, so I always give it bad ratings, I spend about 30 mins a day. So that’s guerrilla tactics, if there’s a place to comment, a place to rate, right? A place to share information, you have to do it. That’s how you control the online dialogue. Give our ideals a fighting chance.

[10:42:49.24] Caption Austin James

[10:44:13.15] Ned Ryun

The principles that I believe strongly in, that the founders believed strongly in , were the idea of individual liberty. Rule of law. Limited government. The free market system. There are correlations. Free market, religious and personal freedom, we lose the free market, we will lose personal and religious freedom, that’s why we fight for it.

[10:44:31.22] NARRATOR

It’s the end of the session and suddenly we're all asked to introduce ourselves to the group. I’ve thrust my camera phone into the hand of the lady sitting next to me and I’m just preying I don’t blow my cover.

[10:44:49.06]  Taki Oldham

I’ve been to grassroots movements, events, and just to say you guys are amazing and bring on the second revolution

[10:45:16.14] Man

Are you ready to join the second to join the second American revolution?

[10:45:27.02] NARRATOR

The radical capitalist revolution was underway. The Tea Party establishment officially adopted the mantra of free markets. It was a stunning comeback for an ideology that seemingly lay in ruins after the mortgage crisis barely one year earlier. The symbol of which was Federal Reserve Chairman and champion of free markets Alan Greenspan all but admitting that deregulation doesn’t work.

[10:45:34.17] Caption Free markets

[10:45:39.24] Caption Free markets

[10:45:44.21] Caption Alan Greenspan Federal Reserve Chairman 1987-2006

[10:45:53.07] Henry Waxman

You had an ideology that free competitive markets are by far the unrivalled way to organize economies. You found in the reality

[10:46:04.22] Greenspan

A flaw in the model that I perceived is the critical functioning structure that defines how the world works so to speak.

[10:46:12.00] Waxman

In other words, you found that your view of the world, your ideology was no right, it was not working

[10:46:19.02] Greenspan

Precisely

[10:46:20.11] NARRATOR

Tea Party backed Republican candidates emerged all over the country to contest the 2010 elections,promising to stop the energy tax, repeal healthcare and reduce the size of government. While the Koch’s chipped to support some 2 dozen tea party candidates. As usual their real contribution behind the scenes. In June at this resort in Aspen Colorado they hosted a secret strategy session with a network of ultra wealthy donors and powerful allies, including Glenn Beck. According to this letter from Charles Koch, at the June meeting “participants committed to an unprecedented level of support”.

[10:46:59.10]ON SCREEN TEXT “ unprecedented level of support”

Soon after, Americans For Prosperity announced plans to spend a staggering $45 million dollars on the election, they ran ads attacking politicians for supporting the Obama agenda. Obama tried to hit back, accusing AFP of being a corporate front in more than a dozen speeches

[10:47:22.13] Barack Obama

But if your in a battleground state right now you are being bombarded with negative ads every single day and nobody knows whose paying for these ads. They've got names like Americans For Prosperity.

[10:47:36.07] NARRATOR

Meanwhile in a test case known as “Citizens United"  the Supreme Court, including including two judges who had attended the secret Koch meetings, ruled that corporations were free to anonymously invest as much as they wanted in front groups like AFP. Republican operatives seized upon the decision, creating new groups and flooding the airwaves with tens of millions of dollars in ads for unknown donors. On the grassroots side, AFP dusted off their busses, launching their November Is Coming campaign.

[10:48:04.12]ON SCREEN TEXT November Is Coming

AFP and Freedomworks also used their considerable budgets to train and mobilise the Tea Party army.

[10:48:16.20] Man

Identify you voters. Get 'em registered to vote. Bring 'em out to vote. That's it.

[10:48:21.14] NARRATOR

The tea party was ready to strike.

[10:48:24.04] Woman on TV

Because this is our last stand,  this is our last stand to let the president know. We're out here on the corner, in north Philadelphia, we're down also in the city of Philadelphia, we have a fully operational phone bank. That's been open since nine this morning through Americans For Prosperity. We've been running that all day. We have our people out there door knocking. And we're standing here now, and here's what we're gonna say. We dont like way you view us. We don't like your view of America, we don't like your policies and we're taking it back on November second.

[10:48:51.22] Caption Vote 2010

[10:48:55.16] Female newsreader

Well this morning it's being called a GOP sweep and a Tea Party tidal wave.

[10:48:59.24] female reporter

In the biggest wipe out for either party since 1948

[10:49:04.21] Woman

The new one hundred and twelfth congress with feature forty tea party members.

[10:49:08.06] Sarah Palin

A lot of libertarian leaning individuals within the Tea Party movement. Especially when it comes to taxes and over-regulation.

[10:49:16.06] Marco Rubio

Stand up to this agenda that is taking us in the wrong direction

[10:49:19.05] Rand Paul

It’s a message of limited limited government

[10:49:23.15] Pat Toomey

End the threats of the excessive government regulation and the huge  out of control role that Washington has begun to play

[10:49:34.00] Kert Davies

There a new day now, the Republicans took control of the house in November 2010, very anti govt agenda in fact in the congress. One of their agenda items is to take out full agencies like the department of education, the department of energy, the EPA, when you have politicians elected who want to shut down the govt it setts a pretty interesting tone  for the debate

[10:49:34.14] Caption Kert Davies Research Director, Greenpeace

[10:49:56.04] NARRATOR

For me the new found zeal for the Koch's radical free market agency is the real revolution of the tea party movement. It has nothing to do with people in yea old costumes, or waving flags or holding protest events. But it is a revolution that has everything to do with hidden corporate agendas, complicit media players, seasoned propagandists, a highly coordinated network of free market groups, and most of all a pair of brothers with an dream create a privatised America.

[10:50:29.12] David Koch

The American Dream of free-enterprise capitalism is alive and well.

[10:50:36.11] Taki Oldham

And so what does the American dream mean to you?

[10:50:40.19] John Jarratt

American Dream to me is one word, freedom.

[10:50:44.14] Julie Williams

Defending the American dream means defending our rights and freedoms and our liberties that have made this country great

[10:50:53.14] Jane Burgess

To me the American dream is to live in peace and prosperity and freedom, and ah govt under socialism is not a govt of freedom.

[10:51:03.13] NARRATOR

What about the freedom of individuals to make up their own mind through reason and rational debate?  What about the freedom to trust that that grassroots groups are just that and not a marketing tool used by powerful interests like the energy industry and health insurers to protect profits and maintain the status quo? And what does the fact that this is happening on such a large scale say about the state of our democracy?

[10:51:24.06] Wendell Potter

I think it's a serious threat to our Democracy, and I think people are mostly unaware of it if not completely unaware of threat. They're very much unaware of the front groups, unaware of how their thoughts are being manipulated and their actions are actually being manipulated in many cases. I think they're unaware that we to large extent plutocracy in this country, or at least an emerging one, rather than a democracy, and that’s because of the rise in power and influence of corporations and way they have been able to use PR and PR tactics and propaganda to get what they want.

[10:51:30] CAPTION Wendell Potter Former Health Insurance Industry Executive

[10:52:06.23] Mark Crispin Miller

We are drowning in propaganda, drowning in it. And I'm not just speaking figuratively, I think it's threatening our lives. It's cutting off our air. It's making real democracy all but impossible, it has brought the planet to point of ecological destruction because, its had no positive consequences whatsoever because it doesn’t serve the people, it serves other interests.

[10:52:07]CAPTION Mark Crispin Miller Professor New York University

[10:52:44.00] James Hoggan

I've come to believe more and more as I’ve been studying this, this problem, that the real currency in democracy is honest information. That if you are on a mass scale able to pump out false information then the whole democratic system kind of breaks up and yet these people have a perfect right to do it and hide their involvement in it.

[10:52:45] CAPTION James Hoggan Author of "Climate Cover Up"

[10:53:24.10] Kert Davies

And now you have very motivated people, out across the country who are activists, who are willing to fight for what they think is rights for themselves, but in fact it's forwarding a corporate agenda, that is to stop regulations, to stop taxes, and they’re not gonna stop in 2010, they will continue to the 2012 elections.

[10:53:47.08] NARRATOR

As the tea parties march on toward 2012 and their goal of taking out president Obama, and installing politicians realise a free market future. My only message to them is be careful what you wish for because you just might get it.

[10:54:15] ENDING CREDITS

Camera/Director/Editor/Producer

Taki Oldham

Voiceover Recording Engineer

Davide Carbone

Additional Editing

Bergen O’Brian

Additional Graphics

Daniel Nicholas

Music

Universal Publishing Production Music

Extreme Music

Thank You

To Mark Crispin-Miller, Kert Davies. James Hoggan, Wendell Potter and everybody who generously gave their time to participate in the film.

To all of the tireless journalists and researchers who have contributed to many websites, articles and reports that were invaluable in putting this film together.

To Kevin Grandia and the DeSmog Blog Team

for your great support.

Deanna Oberdan

Douglas Gibson

Eu Hua Chua

Eva Orner

James Oldham

Joel Eigen

Josh Abrahams

Kym Schreiber

Lanny Bochsler

Mark Fradkin

Mike Salzberg

Mitchell Block

Natasha Gadd

Nick Feik

Rhys Graham

Rosa Salzberg

Susan Lefroy

Susan Paterno

Susanna Rennie

Tricia Phelan

 

[10:54:33]   © Larrikin Films 2010